NMart began his training at guard. He is particularly suited to guard as he has the mauler's attitude and the competitor's "never quit." He was originally put into the center slot because we didn't have another healthy high-quality lineman. He struggled with the techniques to begin with but, thankfully, was a fast learner.
Matt Hegarty wasn't ready then due to his seemingly serious head injury troubles [which also thankfully went away]. By the time that NMart got dinged last year, Matt had regained his full strength, and with better mobility [though not quite equal power] put in a good job as NMart's replacement.
Still, to begin camp, Hiestand and Kelly wanted NMart's experience there to anchor the young line. It is not NMart's "failure" [in my opinion] that is causing this rethinking process, but the relative inefficiency of Matt and Connor to consistently stone the opposition DTs, which causes pocket shrinkage, which in turn gives Everett happy feet.
Whether these shifts happen or not, the theory behind them seems to be that if we get the DTs stoned at the line-of-scrimmage, with the nimble Hegarty picking up the trash, the thing which bothers Everett most will generally be solved. Because, if the RB does his job of picking up the correct blitzer, then Everett can handle the speedrush DE by himself, as he enjoys doing anyway, and as the opposing DCs hate seeing him do.
The placement of the OLine power at the guards therefore would/might in theory defeat Everett's pocket-presence weaknesses and play to his strengths. Even if this happens, and works, it will still be a priority for Bryant to actually block the proper blitzer, and Folston to not only make contact but stay with it until the play's over. For all the Cam haters out there, who can't see for some reason why Coach, running a pass-emphasized offense, wants an RB he can count on to block the correct person effectively ... well, meditate a bit more. {and quit underrating what McDaniel is doing for us each week.}
