Here is a letter from Darron Lee on his struggles as a rookie, how his sophmore season went, and how he views the future for this team. Nice read http://www.newyorkjets.com/news/art...rron-Lee/7369becd-799d-4f77-93cf-71370220d4d6
IMO, Lee improved in his sophmore year but I still saw him get burned far too often by running backs and tight ends. I don't remember who stiff armed him later on in this season, but that's the kinda stuff you don't want to see as a fan. Line backers are supposed to be dominant on the field, but Lee has always been undersized and a tweener who's main purpose on the football field is to track RB's and TE's. Unfortunately, thus far I don't think he's done a great job with that. In his 3rd season, this will be the key to watch for. Lee needs to become an all around LB that has the speed and technique to man up against TE's and Rb's. It would be a huge boost for this defense
My 2017 Season: Darron Lee Posted 2 hours ago Ethan Greenberg NYJets.com Contributor a a Jets LB Provides an Inside Look at His Second Season in Green & White If you told me to grade myself at the end of my rookie year on an A-D scale, I’d give a D-minus. I hold myself to very high standards, which is what made it difficult when my position coach, Mike Caldwell, gave me an offseason checklist. It was hard not because I couldn’t do it, but because I already knew what was on it — study, master my footwork, improve my coverage skills. Simply put, I knew I had to step up in my second year. Once Dave [Harris] left, I took it as a signal that I needed to speed up my learning curve regardless of who takes over the Mike. I was brought here to make splash plays. I know I’m a young guy at 23 years old, but you have to act older than your age in this league and I feel like my maturity is one of the reasons I’m here. I felt good going into training camp as I knew what to expect. Playbook — check. Calls — check. This year it was time to just go out and compete. Deep breath. 3…2…1… I didn’t exhale until we lost in Oakland. I kept inhaling and I didn’t relax. We just allowed 370 rushing yards in two games and that was going to be the end of that story. It was a huge reality check. I was trying to control everything instead of focusing on my assignments and that’s not how this game goes. You can only control your job. Now it’s nice and smooth on the field. I inhale and exhale. When I settled in, that’s when the fun began. I was comfortable, hungry. I diagnosed plays quicker, I was bringing down the ball carrier behind the line and covering a lot better. Demario [Davis] and I played off each other, making sure we had each other’s backs. He set us up, I honed in on offensive checks and alerted the guys what’s coming. My personal favorite is when you call their play out and you’re right. When everybody on offense looks at you after you call the play, that’s how you know you hit the nail on the head. It’s so much fun. That’s why we were able to play fast. We started doing that in Week 3. Even though I’m better than my rookie season, don’t get me wrong, there’s still a lot of splash plays I can make to help change the outcome of the game. We’re right there. Look at all the close games we played in. That’s the best part. Moving forward, my main focus is turning our hard work into wins. I want to better myself, but I always want to do so in a position where our team is expected to win games instead of everybody counting us out. That’s the next step and that’s a huge hill to climb, but it’s possible. Let me tell you this, Jets Nation — greatness is forming inside these walls. Everybody is confident and no one is worried. We’re all sticking together and going out to get better every single day. That’s the beauty of this. We know we’re a young team, we know we’re a hungry team. If you quit, you’re never going to know how good you could be, so that’s why we’re going to keep pushing each other. I’m really looking forward to the growth. We know if we keep chipping away, we’re eventually going to get to the pot of gold.
He has a LONG way to go. He became an OK run defender for a while, but then just as suddenly as he showed up he started getting manhandled all over again. His last 5 games were downright horrible. He still cannot defend the pass to save his life. His first two games this season were worse than any game in his rookie season. Honestly, if we're talking about him and reevaluating where he would've gone in the draft? By any normal standards of play, Darron Lee would be a 4th or 5th round draft choice. It was a bad selection by Mac. he may have been the BPA but he was NOT the BPA for the NYJ..
We don't even know who the starting QB is gonna be on opening day 2018 yet. Greatness. *rolls eyes* Hey I wish/hope he's right. The Jets like blowing smoke up people's butts telling us how good they're gonna be or using some catchy phrase. Talk is cheap. Less talking more doing. Beat the Patriots win the AFC East THEN talk.
Agreed. It is always sunshine and blue skies over there. It's a tough job selling New York Jets season tickets. They will have to go hog wild this off-season. Spend on free agents, make trades, and be hustlers on day one of the NFL Draft. Gotta have a great Jets team going on 50 years since the Jets last won a championship.
sick and tired of all the talking from Lee. He's lucky to have a starting job. This will be year 3 and the final year with this coaching staff, its a key year for him to step up or he'll be just another wasted 1st round pick
Frankly he already IS a wasted 1st round pick. Look who we could've had instead of him. Sounds like a nice guy and tries hard, but that doesn't actually mean anything...it's not what you SAY, its what you DO. He hasn't done much, if anything.
If he didn't get help writing that, I'm very impressed. And encouraged. Love to see young players a) acknowledge weakness and b) grasp the importance of communication and role-playing. Unfortunately, getting better in pass coverage is hard to learn. It's so instinctive. I'm not convinced he'll ever be good in this area. ("Homed in," everyone. Not "honed in." We hone skills, but we HOME IN on areas of focus. Sincerey, the resident language usage dick. )
Thanks for posting this. It was a very honest assessment by Lee. I hope he can improve himself this off season.
Ahahahahah Lee let Mainjet do some ghostwriting Way to go kid..there's hope for you yet...maybe we get Toilet Bowles ,Kacy and Macdoodling to fess up too
What did the Jets see in this guy? He get's beat up in the offseason and can't handle his alcohol. Those are his highlights in 2 seasons. Or lowlights.
Now watch him go and try to beat the shit out of his girlfriend again? Maybe Leonard Williams won't be around this time to prevent him from making a big mistake that he should know better than to do. I'm tired of this little twerp constantly running his mouth and looking like ME on a football field...........
This. The only thing Lee has proven that he is continually good at is running his mouth and tweeting, then deleting his tweets. It's time to put up or shut up.
Fuck this turd, he doesn't have the talent to be great. Greatness will never be associated with this team till they can get stability under center and a run game they can rely on. Keeping an OC for more than one year at time might help too.
