So many Jet fans wanted Paxton Lynch and immediately hated the selection of Darron Lee because we passed on their favorite "Paxton Lynch". Well for all of the Paxton Lynch fans who then turned Darron Lee sceptic's... Your favorite 2016 1st round option in Paxton Lynch has been cut/released and now an available Free Agent. I wonder if Mike Maccagnan makes the call?!? lol
I can't stand Ray Lewis and his gibberish, but it may be worth a watch just to see Jim Nantz eat a dick. His biased Cheats love/partiality/favoritism is insufferable.
Lee needs to be in an attacking 4-3 D as the WLB with freedom to run around without taking on blockers. He is grossly miscast as a 3-4 WILB because he doesn't like contact. If the coaching staff is too obtuse to change the D to suit him then Macc should trade him for pennies on the dollar and roll with Hewitt or KPL as his replacement.
He doesn't like contact? Did you ever watch him play while @ Ohio State?!? Nonetheless 94 tackles along with 3 sacks and 2 forced fumbles (as only a 2nd year player) completely says otherwise.
Ohio State does not matter anymore. It hasn’t for 3 years. It’s like bringing up Hack’s HS prowess and freshman year at Penn State.
There's a lot to like about Darron Lee, but my patience is running very thin. He has a lot to prove this year. So far his showing in the preseason was far from impressive. Wishing him luck but wouldn't be surprised if he's gone next year
Have you ever watched him play for the Jets? He tries to avoid blockers rather than take them on so pleae don't confuse good play with good statistics. Revis in his prime was one of the greatest CBs in history but his individual stats sucked because QBs didn't want to throw at him. Everyone wants to run at Darron Lee because he will take himself out of the play if he has to take on a blocker. When Lee is able to quickly diagnose a play and avoid a block he can fly around and make a play. That's the position description of a 4-3 WLB.
Yup, and one could easily say that if Darron Lee played behind a much better 3-4 NT such as an All-Pro Damon Snacks Harrison, instead of being stuck behind a now 32 year old "Steve McLendon" that Lee himself would look 10x better. Don't blame a kid only heading into his 3rd year in Darron Lee for Linebacking @ IMLB behind a D-Line that's fell off a damn cliff over the years (while attempting to use Lee as the scapegoat). The Pittsburgh Steelers could not WAIT to get rid of Steve McLendon and after only 3 years they kicked him to the curb. McLendon failed miserably trying to replace Casey Hampton @ 3-4 NT after Pittsburgh featured Casey Hampton for 12 years, but yet this overrated and never talked about "32 year old Steve McLendon" was ran out of Pittsburgh after only 3 years of play. The Steelers after kicking McLendon to the curb immediately went and drafted a NT during the 3rd round and why? Because Pittsburgh understands the value and importance of a 3-4 NT. Darron Lee will become an excellent IMLB/MLB and coming off a 94 tackle, 3 passes defended, 3.0 sacks and a 2 forced fumbles 2nd year campaign despite being extremely raw coming out of college and only a couple years removed of H.S QB.
to be fair in a 3-4 Defense it's a LBers job to shoot the gaps and cover ground outside. not really their forte to take on blockers and shed them. very few 260lb Lbers can do that to a 300+lb lineman blocking them. someone like lee who is only like 230lbs isn't what he's built for. in the 3-4 it's the d-lines job to eat up double teams to allow the LBers to make plays. in 2017 lee had 9 tackles for a loss. the same as fowler jr, vic beasley, suh, and myles garrett.
BOOM! HEADSHOT! But yet Jet fans will use a 2nd year IMLB as a scapegoat for a D-Line that's fell off a cliff over the years. It's laughable. These guys have no idea the importance of a 3-4 NT. And just go ask Pittsburgh what they thought of McLendon after kicking him the curb after failing to replace Casey Hampton @ 3-4 NT. But yea not only did Darron Lee record 94 tackles, 3 passes defended, 3.0 sacks and 2 forced fumbles as only a 2nd year player but as you mentioned he began to shoot the gap and started to emerge while making plays behind the line of scrimmage.
Lee gets way too much undeserved BS here. people seem to think if we draft a player in the 1st round and he isn't an all pro right away he's a bust. there is no middle ground. I'd also argue that many 3-4 teams run an "enforcer" LBer as well. like the ravens did with ray lewis. Scott was the enforcer, it was his job to take on blocks that the d-line could eat up so lewis was able to roam freely and make plays. Even ray lewis wasn't good at shedding blockers and he is one of the best 3-4 ILBs all time. also IDK if you remember him but derick johnson as well in his hayday although now he's old and with the raiders and has fallen off the past few years. DJ is a 4-5 time pro bowler and his bets season was 131 tackles 2 sacks and 1 FF and that was in year 7 of his career. Lee is posting very similar numbers and is only in year 2 and has improved from year 1. his main issue in year 1 was identifying plays and overruning the ball carrier. he looked much better in year 2. his only issue is yeah he sucks in pass coverage, as does 99% of NFL LBers and why RBs are getting more receptions then ever as a whole in the NFL and guys like sproles and woodhead made a career out of it
Great post and the Ravens also featured a whale of a 4-3 DT in Tony Siragusa followed by an absolute animal of a 3-4 NT in Haloti Ngata; which made it so much easier for Baltimore LB's to make impact plays. Unfortunately for Darron Lee he can not say the same due to being stuck playing and inside Linebacking behind a mediocre and average to at best an above average 3-4 NT in 32 year old Steve McLendon. Unfortunately for our D-Line and Darron Lee we lost an All-Pro 3-4 NT in Damon Harrison the year before Darron Lee even arrived as a 2016 Rookie. And it's a damn shame too but nonetheless he still recorded 94 tackles, 3 passes defended, 3.0 sacks, 2.0 forced fumbles and 9 tackles for loss behind the line of scrimmage and as only a (raw) Second-year player; despite being stuck behind a non impactful NT such as a Kris Jenkins/Casey Hampton/Haloti Ngata and/or a Damo Harrison type in "Steve McLendon". Only a Darron Lee critic would attempt to make those numbers "look bad" from only a 2nd year player, but I guess they're still sour, pissed off and butthurt over the passing of Paxton Lynch in favor of D.Lee.... If only they knew how all the other 2016 MLB's drafted have performed thus far .
yup lewis albeit an older lewis had the benefit of ngata who was a beast at NT and scott at LBer keeping him clean. they built around him on defense when they made the switch to a 3-4 to make him successful. in a 4-3 you have 2 DTs keeping the MLB clean to run sideline to sideline. I agree lee is more suited to be a 4-3 MLB then a 3-4 ILB (like when we switched and traded vilma, he's very similar to vilma) but having a good NT and now williamson should help him out alot
Biggest weakness on the defense. Lions this week, Theo Riddick is probably gonna have big game. Patricia saw how bad Sharon Lee is first hand, not good for us, considering he is a matchup oriented coach
you know we have williamson for coverage as well and adams played 1/3rd his snaps at LBer last season. the NFL isn't madden put down the controller and watch
Adams played all those snaps at linebacker because Sharon Lee was getting beat so much. I don’t play video games
no LBer in the NFL is good at coverage lol. it's why catching backs have been making a career out of it the past 5-10 years where before that wasn't the case. adams also played 1/3rd at CB so guess claiborne wasn't cutting it either lol hell in todays NFL most CBs can barely cover someone with the offensive minded rules and you expect a 230lb LBers to cover a 200lb speedy 5-7 RB out of the outfield all the way across the field? Maybe you should play madden seems you may learn something lol
