It's laughable that Leo consulted with Michael Strahan ( who I'll never forgive for conspiring with Favre to dishonestly steal Gastineau's season sacks record) on how to become an all-time great. Right now, Big Cat wouldn't be named All AFC East with the way he's playing.
Yep. In the beginning of the season a reporter asked Bowles about Leo, and Bowles said he was okay but he needed to use his hands better. It bothered me a little, and I started to wonder if Leo had the instincts and smarts. It's starting to play out somewhat. Mo's prolly hurt and Leo's getting double teamed and that's not helping. Another glaring need is a rush off the edge. Jenkins isn't getting there. Either is anyone else When Leo came out one of the comparisons was Richard Seymour. Leo has not shown the instincts and gamesmanship yet.
Leonard Williams has more quarterback hits than I thought with six. A couple of those were against Tyrod Taylor breaking the pocket though. But he has ZERO tackles for a loss. Only 18 total tackles through six games which gives him a grand total of three per game. He's been lined up in multiple spots on the field. When he's towards the edge in passing situations he's not getting much penetration. And he's not using his hands to disengage blockers to make tackles in the run game, nor is he penetrating very well. I want this guy to be great, as we all do. It's not like I want to see him fail. But I don't see greatness in his play over the past year and a half. He had a great start to last season and that's about it.
He had a tackle for loss right at the start today, but never really kept it going. I think the thing that's killing it more than anything is Mo not doing anything except standing up his opponent, and nobody else making a difference either.
First and foremost, I would blame the coaching responsible for the DL performance before I would blame the players themselves. The entire D-line is playing like sh&t - so what is the more viable solution, replace all the players or the coaching? If Mo and Leo and front 7 are not doing job there's a common denominator.
We don't have a Sheldon Richardson on the team anymore, one less person applying pressure and one less player to not double. Paired with the fact that Wilkerson is not what he used to be, L. Williams is seeing a ton of double teams. Now, even then that's not excuse to be as unproductive as he has been, but he has to learn to adjust to double teams quickly.
Not sure what anyone is complaining about. The defense played about as well as you can against the Pats. Had it not been for the McCown INT they would have held to 17 pts and under 400 yds.
The issue also is that the guys on the outside aren't winning their matchups outside of Ealy on some plays. Williams and Mo take on double teams all of the time. Bowles needs to move these pieces around, but I don't see enough of it. These guys are too talented to not get QB hits and sacks.
Yea, what we should all be pissed about is after drafting defense every year, you would think our defense would be #1 in the league
This is why the Jets are the Jets. No defensive player is worth a good QB's slot in the salary cap. Defensive linemen who have gotten paid huge contracts recently have been much more likely to decline than to over-achieve and injuries have played a role in making some of the contracts bad in the end as well. The Revis re-signing was just a desperation move that was very likely to backfire on the Jets in the end. It wound up being a catastrophe but it was going to be painful no matter what.
Agree. I'm now a convert and absolutely convinced that to be the case. I want to put a premium on QBs, OLBs and OL. I'm so upset that the perceived very strength of this team last year is now tanking while the rest of the D is starting to click into action. Call me crazy, but I think we are missing Richardsons impact more than we recognize. Williams and the DL has been far less effective at any kind of penetration since his departure. Mo is a far cry from performing to his huge salary. He is a journeyman. We can do better in free agency or later draft rounds.
Wilkerson has been awful but Williams is not a bust yet. He's still very young. Had a solid rookie year and a very promising sophomore campaign where people were saying he was going to be a stud. He's been very disappointing this year for sure, but I think he will come around.
I was in no way calling him a bust. He's still a good player. He just hasn't shown to be the great player we thought he would/could be. He's still young enough to be that player though. I agree for the most part. There are very few defensive players worth that amount of money. But there are a couple. Von Miller comes to mind. He basically willed them to the Super Bowl with his domination of Tom Brady and then Cam Newton and their offensive lines. JJ Watt was that player, but injuries have killed that statement. Justin Houston might be in that class as well. Outside of that, I would never pay a defender what Revis or Wilkerson got. $60 million over 4-5 years would probably be my top dollar moving forward. History shows us that unless you have a generational talent, the big defensive contracts are just going to handcuff your franchise. Luckily we have a relatively harmless out with Wilkerson. I hope the front office pulls the trigger. The dude isn't doing anything Leger Douzable couldn't have given us.
What's really frustrating about this is that while so many called drafting Williams a "no brainer", and dismissing the idea of drafting a potential FQB as "too risky", how are the Jets better off? Could their defense really be worse without Williams? Meanwhile they might already have their QB of the future, but worst case, even if they didn't get a FQB, it's hard to believe that whoever they got would be producing less than Williams. In short, there are no guarantees, regardless of position, so this whole,idea of saying that drafting "D" is "safer" than drafting a QB is ridiculous. And given the massive impact the QB has on the overall team, whatever risk is involved is well worth the gamble. Assuming I still care at all by the time the next draft happens, if they draft a "D" guy before the 3rd round I'll shoot myself.
Man I'll tell ya. Vic Beasley would've been a nice selection for this team. He had 15.5 sacks off the edge for the Falcons last year. He's been hurt this season, but had two sacks in his first two games. Definitely needed that third 3-4 defensive end at the time. Further proof we can throw out the BPA bullshit. I'm not ready to give up on Leo though. He's still a good player. He's just not Reggie White he was hyped to be in the mold of.
He's a fine player. Not a HOF stud but a very fine player in the 2nd or 3rd round. I do like him a lot. Catch my drift?
