Content available exclusively for subscribers
They think they can increase the total. Can they?
New Jets DE Carl Lawson has 20 sacks in four NFL seasons, which aren’t gaudy sack totals, but Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich thinks those numbers can go up in the Robert Saleh scheme.
“Within this system, he’s going to be able to be a little bit more aggressive, jump out of his shoes a little more than he has in the past, along with the interior guys we have,” Ulbrich said to newyorkjets.com.
So what he’s saying is that with Quinnen Williams and Sheldon Rankins at defensive tackle, both former first-round picks with freakish athleticism for men their size, quarterbacks often won’t be able to step up in the pocket, a common way to avoid edge pressure, and this will help increase Lawson’s sack totals.
“The times where they might have had an out on him (in the past), and be able to step up into the pocket, with the type of interior rushers than we have, there will be no pocket to step up in,” Ulbrich said.
Over the last three season, Lawson had 11.5 sacks in 35 games, missing 13 games due to injuries.
In reviewing tape of free agent pass rushers this off-season, the Jets weren’t obsessed with sack totals.
“We weren’t necessarily looking for the guys with the obvious stats,” Ulbrich said. “It wasn’t necessarily just sacks were were looking for. We were looking for guys who really, consistently won the one-on-ones and affected the quarterback. Carl Lawson was exactly that.”
So in other words, even though he didn’t have a ton of sacks, he had a lot of QB pressures, which many coaches will tell you are just as important.
But Ulbrich made a pretty bold statement, almost guaranteeing that Lawson’s sack totals will go up with the Jets, due to the scheme and defensive tackles.
“I think the general public is going to find out who he is now – the stat numbers will go where they belong, they’ll be more consistent with his talent,” Ulbrich said.
Will be interesting to see if Ulbrich’s prediction will come to pass.
One of the issues for Lawson is some hip stiffness, which isn’t his fault, but how he’s built.
“Hips are tight and restrictive in lower half,” wrote NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zeirlein before the 2017 draft, where Lawson was picked in the fourth round by Cincinnati.
Hip stiffness can hurt a pass rusher because it sometime inhibits the player’s ability to bend the edge.
“Face-up rusher who struggles to get hip flip or shoulder turn at the top of his rush,” wrote Zeirlein.
So that is the challenge, but he’s got the strength, motor, work ethic and pass rush moves you are looking for.
“He has a arsenel of pass rush moves,” Ulbrich said. “He’s a guy who does a six-month study on himself and then all of a sudden he changes his stance by 2 1/2 inches. He’s trying to find the inches within his game.”
Look, this player is going to help the Jets. He plays so hard, and is consistently disrupts the QB’s pocket, even if he doesn’t amass gaudy sack totals.
If the Jets can get 8.5 sacks, like Lawson compiled as a rookie with Cincinnati, to go along with a ton of QB pressures, they would certainly sign up for that.
July 13, 2021
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Wednesday.
