To impress upon this even further, Lee's weight of 232lbs is his Combine weight not his "draft" weight. It's undoubtedly not his playing weight either since 99% of all players arrive at the Combine several pounds under their normal weight depending on size. This is a common practice to inflate agility drills and shave down 40 times. Jadeveon Clowney has a posted Combine weight of 266lbs, yet plays at around 285. If I had to guess I would say Lee probably plays right around 238 +/- Ryan Shazier plays at 233 and is one of the best LBs in football. He's also the poster-boy future of the position. Speed, agility, the ability to cover in space or close in at a distance is more valuable than the 260+ LB that lays the wood. Be able to tackle in run stop but more importantly cover the pass.
Ian Rapoport @RapSheet Patriots LB Dont’a Hightower visited #Jets this weekend and he’s spent time with #Titans, as well. Both left convinced he re-signs in NE. Dunno, why we are wasting our time, wasted 1.5 day from free agency for nothing.
Seriously, why would any player choose to sign with a dysfunctional organization over the smooth running machine that the Pats represent? The only two answers that come to mind are a personality conflict with Belichik or lots of money. Both are bad reasons to sign a guy when you are in the state the Jets are in. The only way to get back on track is to start aceing the draft and find a QB. We're that far behind. If we start drafting ok for the next few seasons we won't catch up because the Pats draft ok also and they always have more picks. We're in a situation where if we don't straighten out and fly right we're just going to keep crashing the Jets.
I think everyone and their mothers saw that coming. Oh well. On to the next one... as long as it's not Cutler.
That is a brand new phenomon this off-season. I'm hoping it means Belichik recognizes that retirement is right over the next hill and he wants one last ring before he lets go.
The Jets need Lee to become this guy, not to overpay to take the guy from another team. I think every player should be required to wear their cap number on their uniform so that it would become more obvious where a team is failing on the field.
Ian Rappaport reported that Hightower met with both the Jets and Titans but both teams came away convinced from their meetings with Hightower that he will be staying with the pats. Money talks though so we will see what happens
I think it's pretty obvious where the team is failing and it's just about everywhere. Lee has the speed to play outside and lacks the size to play inside (right now). Hightower is already a stud inside. Why not bring in the all pro and mold the players around him?
actually its the opposite. Lee lacks the size to play outside and set the edge. He has the speed to play ILB but he has been taking bad angles and getting burned in coverage. The issues on the inside could be fixable but he will never be an OLB in the NFL
Who is playing corner?If Hightower leaves without a contract then we know he is just using us to leverage Pats.
lol why would this guy want to come here? He gets front row seats to our dysfunction twice a year he knows we aint shit. Probably going to call NE like "Well the Jets offered me ___ can u beat that?" NE is gonna laugh at him then Hightower is gonna join them in the laughter ... then he's gonna say "fuck the jets" and re-sign to NE anyway. Cool Story Bro. But on the flipside if he does sign here I'd stop the signing at him. We got our big player out of this weak free agency now lets save this cap space for more guys next year and fill the rest of our needs via draft. Gotta start somewhere. EDIT: Literally seconds after I posted this I get a notification from TheScore saying "Jets convinced Hightower will re-sign with Patriots" LMFAO never fails
You're right BN, I was only thinking that if they were going to be dropping FA bucks that they'd be going after more immediate positional needs like CB, S, LT (which they sort of did with Beachum), etc. while at the same time not blowing FA-$ on any so-so FA QB either. Hightower by himself isn't moving the W-L needle and the Jets would be better off saving that cap money. Me, I can wait: I'm sort of in 'Sam Darnold-in-2018 hibernation' as it is. . : )
can you imagine how good our line would be if Macc had kept the best NT in the history of the NFL? Kept the player with more tackles than anyone else last year? Kept the 2nd best player in the league last year (tied Arron Rogers)? /end snacks rant