We have him penciled in as our starting SAM linebacker, so linebacker wasn⁈⁚t a pressing need for us,⁈  Reese said. ⁈Å"We have two very good defensive ends (in Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora) and this guy is a very good football player. We expect that he can make the transition very easily. We want our best players on the field. We penciled him in a long time ago.

⁈Å"There is no question he can make the transition to outside linebacker. There is no question he can play SAM linebacker for us. He⁈⁚s athletic, he⁈⁚s long, he⁈⁚s tall ⁈“ you want your SAMs to have some height to play on the end of the line. He can do all that stuff. He zone dropped and had a couple of interceptions last year.⁈ 

Coughlin said that he, new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and linebackers coach Bill Sheridan will spend the spring working with Kiwanuka on the switch.

⁈Å"He is definitely an option that we are going to look at very strongly,⁈  Coughlin said. ⁈Å"Mathias from the defensive end position has been up and dropped a year ago. We think that our idea there is to try to get as many quality players on the field at the same time as best we can. I think he can play well in that position and as we move into the spring here we get an opportunity to spend more time on the field and in meetings where we will continue with that experiment.⁈  [/quote]