I KNOW he's done it before. And recently. I can't remember the exact game, but Earl was definitely playing up on the line covering the slot reciever. I think he defended a pass too. He looked good IIRC (from what all you can see on TV). We don't ever want to make that our base nickel look or anything, but I think it'd be good gamesmanship to throw that look at them periodically to keep them on their toes. Or START in a normal look, then shift into it. With the noise at CLink, I can see Drew burning a time out or two to figure out what the hell is going on.
You couldn't do the single high safety look that Earl makes possible because nobody on this team can duplicate what Earl does, but if you do it with a 2 man deep zone with Kam and Maragos (or Jeron Johnson or any other combo therein) and press man underneath, it could cause problems...
I actually wouldn't be at all surprised to see it actually. I don't think Maxwell or Lane requires any greater degree of babysitting from Earl than Browner does, so if we pulled it off with BB in there, we can pull it off with the other guys.