Depends on how you use the guy you have playing on the nose... is he gonna 2-gap in an Oakie?? play under??
What Capers has done far too much of in the past few years, is play the 2-4 with Raji and Pickett taking on 5 offensive linemen. They were put in an impossible situation down after down.
We weren't going to get any pass rush out of either one of them b/c they were geared up to deal with eating up blocks, and Pickett didn't have any pass rush to his game anyway. So if it was a pass, we literally on had a 2 man rush; and if it was a run, we were undermanned in the box b/c we only had 6 guys in there, and 2 of them were Brad Jones and AJ Hawk - two very pedestrian players.
Raji on the nose is fine, but you're going to have to 1 gap him, slant the line, and have 3 DL on the field. You can go to a 2-4 in passing situations, but they must be actual passing situations - not run/pass situations of 1st and 10, 2nd and 6, 3rd and 3 that Capers has been using it in.
My preference would still be to use a 3-3 and 4-2 over the 2-4, but Capers is married to it, so we're stuck with it.
I have no faith in Capers. In 2010, he had more talent available, and he made it work to some extent... it was still problematic even back then, but we had Woodson, Collins, Bishop, and Jenkins on the field - so the alignment was more workable; but given the personnel we have on the roster today, there's no way the 2-4 can be justified. We simply have too much invested in the defensive line to leave those guys standing on the sideline, while slugs like AJ Hawk and Brad Jones never come off the field.