So, I've been giving this supposedly desperate need for OLB a lock and I'm not sure I get it. - With Pace we have the "Suggs" of the D...the guy who can get pressure, get sacks, make players in the backfield, but also play OLB. Suggs hasn't had a double digit sack since '04 (Rex became Baltimore DC in '05, no?). - After Pace we have Thomas...basically the equivalent of Jarrett Johnson on the Ravens D. Solid player, does his job, won't blow you away with sack totals but can get pressure when he wants. Then there's the depth guys we've been developing...Gholston and Westerman. I know I'm talking crazy here, but does anyone here actually believe that if Gholston got more snaps behind this D he'd be a 0 sack guy? Would Westerman be a one sack guy then? So there's depth at OLB, and since Gholston was the 6 pick that depth is somewhat expensive. - Then there's this whole...Rex Ryan's D. Rex's D generates pressure just in it's design. You saw what I mean this year, where our sack totals were spread throughout. The Ravens sack totals are like that under Rex too. The nature of the D is that the pressure generated from the front 7 and the "exotic" blitzes will disguise the coverages so that the QB doesn't know what he's looking at the whole time. Having a guy designated as "pass rusher" kind of blows that whole element of surprise. - NOW, since we can't have a guy who is simply "Pass rusher"....we can get that guy later and not even develop him to be a starter like the Ravens do with Antwan Barnes...we'd have to make any early draftee a true OLB in Rex's D. That would take time, time to Jets fans almost guarantees the guy being labeled a bust. Finally, what would improve our pass rush in a way that would allow Rex to free up the other 8 guys on the field to blitz, cover, contain...whatever...is a starting quality 3-4 DE. Douglas is a solid player, but he's older and not much of a pass rusher. If we had someone to go with Jenkins and Ellis that could help collapse the pocket without any extra rushers, then our LBers sack numbers would go up and so would the success of our blitzes. If I had to rank our needs right now look like this: CB 3-4 DE And, as Kurt pointed out on the main forum...Tanny rarely lets us go into the draft with any obvious needs, and if he does it's because he knows he can get what he wants anyway. I expect to be able to go BPA on draft day, but AT BEST I expect to use a pick on a DE/OLB late (Witten, Willie Young, Worilds, Schofield, etc)...if we go early it's because someone we absolutely cannot resist is there. We'd bring in a DE/OLB to develop him within the D, because it's highly doubtful some rookie will just come in and save our supposedly dead pass rush.
I'm pretty sure you created this thread already? I agree that we need to get younger on the defensive line. Both of our lines are aging, but the defensive line is going to fall apart faster. At least our offensive line has two very good young starters and young depth. The only players under 30 on our defensive line are DeVito and Pitoitua.
Thanks, I didn't know. I'm a huge DeVito fan...I think he can be that Chris Hoke/Mike Wright on our DL...Pito makes a good rotation DE like Hatcher/Coleman... My favorite player to replace Ellis long term is Corey Wooton...but my favorite 3-4 DE in this class is Oghobaase...
Oh, I see now. You weren't getting enough attention with this thread, so you made it again in the more popular forum? ...makes sense.
Use your mod powers and delete it. OOOOOH wait that's right...you're not a mod. You're just that regular old poster who thinks he's higher up than everyone. If a mod would like to delete it because two is OD...and it probably is...then go right ahead. I just thought this is as much a draft issue as it is a regular ol' Jets issue.
