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We continue our look at the Jets’ defense as if we are under the influence of sodium pentothal.
Q)Do you want improved production from the outside linebackers?
Kacy Rodgers – When we look at it we want more production from everybody. I don’t know as far as to single those guys out. You know, we sit there and you know we want more production from the D-Line and we want more production from the inside linebackers, more production from the outside. Overall more production from everyone. You know, when you sit down and look at those guys and you go back and look at the cutups, those guys really made some plays. They did a good job for us.
Leberfeld: Kacy, you won’t single those guys out, but I will. The Jets need more production from their outside linebackers. There is no doubt about that.
What on earth is wrong with challenging the group? Is it sacrilege to say – “We need to get a little more pressure on the quarterback coming off the edge?”
Look-it, you can’t have a successful 3-4 defense without outside linebackers wreaking havoc coming off the edge. This isn’t debatable.
And the Jets just haven’t had that in recent years.
Now, before I continue, I want to make it clear, there was no lack of effort from the Jets’ outside linebackers last year. Well maybe the effort wasn’t always great from a guy who isn’t here anymore.
But all the returning guys seem to give it all they could last year.
But if you are going to be a dominant edge-rusher, you generally need certain athletic traits to go along with obviously having a great motor.
You need excellent first step quickness, you need a great closing burst, you need the athletic flexibility to bend to take the edge and obviously you need an arsenal of moves.
Do the Jets have a guy like that? Probably not, and they didn’t do much to address the position in the off-season, aside from signing former Detroit Lion Brandon Copeland. Hey, maybe it’s a sleeper. We shall see.
The best athlete in the room is clearly Obum Gwacham. He had a good spring. He has the athleticism and feet of a basketball small forward.
Jordan Jenkins is a better football player than athlete. He’s tough as nails, but he’s not a twitchy athlete, and isn’t very flexible, so it’s going to be hard for him to be more than a 3-5 sack guy per year.
It will be interesting to see what the Jet can get from Lorenzo Mauldin who missed last year with a back injury. He’s a better athlete than Jenkins and probably has 6-8 sack potential.
Josh Martin looks the part (built like a Greek God) and runs 4.6, so maybe he can help.
Dylan Donahue has major issues getting off blocks due to short arms and limited body mass (has a lean build).
I will say one thing in defense of the OLB room. Some of these guys didn’t get enough of a chance to rush the passer on third down last year because of the Jets decision-makers obsession with playing Kony Ealy, who finished the season with one sack. He’s now in Dallas, his fourth team in the last year. Some of these other guys should have gotten some of his reps. Ealy isn’t a 3-4 OLB. He’s a tweener (between DE and OLB), and really wasn’t a good fit for the Jets’ defense. But like I said before, the Jets’ current brass tends to roll with people too long. They need to knock this off. It’s counterproductive to winning.
Kacy, you guys can look at cut-ups and talk about how the outside linebacker “made some plays.”
But they clearly need to make a lot more.
June 28, 2018
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