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The Jets need to add more pass rushers this off-season, so the Senior Bowl MVP of the South Team has to pique their interest.
As I mentioned last week, Baylor defensive end Shawn Oakman, didn’t look good at the Senior Bowl practices. His technique wasn’t great, and he was on the ground too much.
I was watching one practice with a college coach, and he was commenting to me how what a bad sign it is when a defensive lineman is on the ground all the time. He said he didn’t like to recruit guys like that.
But clearly Oakman is a gamer. He was outstanding in the game. He had two sacks in the first half and a forced fumble, and was named the South’s Most Valuable Player.
“They (NFL teams) saw me play,” Oakman said. “They were able to see me play really full-tilt, and I think I gave them what they wanted to see.”
There is no question he needs some technique work. He suffers from a common problem for tall defensive linemen. He rises too high out of his stance and plays too upright. This allows him to be blocked too easily from a leverage standpoint. This tends to get worse when a player gets tired. As they say, “low man wins.”
Surely a good NFL defensive line coach can help him improve in this regard.
The guy is a stud. Built like a Greek God.
As a junior, he had 19.5 tackles for loss to go with 11 sacks, three pass breakups, three passes defensed, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries.
His senior season the stats weren’t as good. He started in 11 of 12 games, and had 43 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks and two forced fumbles.
It’s a shame because he was thinking of coming out after his junior year, but wanted to improve his draft stock, but it might have gone down a little.
But to his credit, he got his degree.
Three years ago he was tossed off the team at Penn State for trying to steal a hoagie from a convenience store. He also had some academic issues.
Bill O’Brien did him a favor. It was a wake-up call. He’s grown up and graduated. Talking to him at the Senior Bowl, he seems to have his act together.
He could make a good 2-3rd round pick for the Jets. I saw Mike Maccagnan watching him closely in drills in Mobile.
It will be interesting to see how he runs at the combine.
He’s the kind of guy you could either play at 260-270 at outside linebacker, or perhaps bulk him up to 290 and play 3-4 end. He’s athletic enough to cover curl routes in the flat.
The Jets need more cats that can get to the quarterback. And he showed as a junior, and at the Senior Bowl, he knows how to do that . . .
Jets have hired Brant Boyer as their special team’s coach. ESPN’s Adam Caplan announced it. Caplan is very close with Joe Linta, Boyer’s agent. He generally gets everything first regarding Linta clients.
I will have more on this hire tomorrow.
February 2, 2016
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