Obviously Ellis had a lot of success lining up at linebacker last week. He had some great pressures and did very well in coverage. He made a superb open-field stick on Willie Parker off a screen pass. Is his success due exclusively to the surprise formations the Jets lined up in on Sunday, or has Ellis found a second calling as a 3-4 outside linebacker?
Our DLine needs to much work for us to take our best Defensive lineman off of the defensive line and line him up as a OLB... Once in a while... I guess it's ok. But at the same time... Ellis is a little to slow to be an OLB in my eyes.
Have a 290 Ib. + OLB definately makes them a more effective team against the run... And apparently the pass too. If plays OLB as effective this week, maybe they should consider a move to that spot. I think he'd be a liability in coverage too...
lol... If a team lined up 4 WR's and Ellis had to guard one of them as an OLB for this Jets defense... A simple Out route to the sidelines would beat him 99 out of 100 times... Not to mention the lack of pressure this Jets D-Line would have in terms of rushing the passer when he drops back in the pocket.
He couldn't be much more of a liability in pass coverage than Thomas is, or any of our LBs except for Barton, for that matter... That's one thing we lost out on big time with Vilma being on IR, and I believe it'll plague us today, as we don't have a LB that can cover Witten, which means Kerry Rhodes won't be able to concentrate on Owens
he did have a beast tackle on willie parker though...open field and somehow willie got tackled between the numbers as far as permanent...i wouldnt go that far, but i like to see guys playing in new areas every week and throughout the game it doesnt sound like a winning formula, but if the guys are comfortable with the change and movement...it has proven to lead to more sacks and a better defensive showing i just hope we stay creative today it seems that whenever we run the 3-4 with everyone where they are suppose to be...that is when we get owned... i want romo to break us with his legs today, because if i have to sit back and watch owens and witten torch us all day...i am going to be upset
...not if he isn't fast enough to get to the outside to cut off outside running plays. He'd probably be a liability and coverage, you're right about that. We can use him at OLB as a situation pass rusher when he isn't lining up at end.
That's why you have Nickel, Dime and Quarter defense. The WR is always going to beat a LB no matter who it is.
Playing Ellis at LOLB and moving Thomas to ROLB or even LILB is where I'd like to see them go. Barton and Hobson are the two least effective LB's on the Jets right now and having Thomas playing over either of them would be an improvement. With Shaun Ellis at LOLB and Bryan Thomas at LILB the Jets would have a very stout pair against the run on that side. With Ellis at LOLB and Thomas at ROLB they'd have a big set of bookends, both with pass-rushing ability. Either scenario is better than what the Jets had prior to the bye.
I like the idea on downs that are not obvious passing plays of having Ellis at LOLB, moving Thomas over to ROLB and having Hobson next to Harris in the middle. Get another 300 pounder on the line should make it a lot more difficult to run on them. On passing downs, I don't think it makes sense to keep Ellis standing up.
I suggested Ellis at linebacker towards the beginning of the season, and no one seemed to look at it. He's an athletic dude, who can tackle in space. It gives us a lot more beef, and helps us not only in the blitz, but run stopping because tackles no longer have a 260 jumping jack to push around, they have four fat lineman and a 260 lbs. Thomas. http://forums.theganggreen.com/showthread.php?p=644888#post644888
I think he will be better as a "shifting" DE, like getting off the line on certain plays while primarily playing line, he doesn't have the speed to be a full time OLB, but putting him there in certain situations helped us a lot during the Pitt game and might be effective down the road
Uh who plays on the Line in the spot Ellis leaves? Eric Hicks? I don't think I really like that idea...
Mike DeVito, an UDFA who saw significant snaps last week and played well. Might as well try some new stuff considering we couldn't stop the run for 9/10 games so far.
I think Shaun Ellis lined up at linebacker for 3 or 4 snaps today although you couldn't really tell. I have no clue if the experiment on defense continued or not though. I saw nothing today to suggest continuity from last week other than the couple of sacks and a few eye-opening plays from D-Rob. He does that a half dozen times a season and you always wonder where it is the rest of the time. I have to say that once again the coaching was poor today. The 2-9 is real and it is based on management, coaching and talent, and that is a very sad thing.
