Vilma played the good soldier during his two years with Eric Mangini's Jets, who run a 3-4 defense. But now that he's in New Orleans' 4-3 alignment, Vilma admits the obvious: He's much more comfortable.
"It wasn't that I didn't fit into the system," Vilma told the Biloxi Sun-Herald. "It was one of those adjustment-type things where it's you are right-handed and someone is telling you to write left-handed. It was a really big adjustment, not just learning the defense but when you go out there and play and you have to consciously think about fitting and your assignment and footwork.
"That takes time just like anything," he said. "Two years and it was still a learning process. Now that I'm back to something that I'm used to playing with through most of my career, the learning process isn't there. It's just learning Xs and Os."
Vilma was drafted by the Jets to be a 4-3 middle linebacker, and he simply didn't have the kind of juice Mangini was looking for in the 3-4. The hope was that Vilma would replicate the contributions of Patriots inside linebacker Tedy Bruschi. Never happened.
Vilma, meanwhile, continues to rehab a knee problem that eventually forced him onto injured reserve last season. He is now walking without a limp, and the Saints believe he'll be ready to start the season.