I absolutely agree with Brooks Reed; he shined in the Senior Bowl, and he will be a 1s Rd lock if he goes nuts in the combine. He showed he's not just a gym rat that can rush the QB (Gholston), he showed a good skillset of rip/swim moves, the way he smacked a tackles helmet to get leverage, I was impressed with his performance. To also add to the Nose Tackle debate, its true that Rex Ryan has his Nose Tackle play a 2 technique, which allows Pouha to play both the A/B gaps, but at the same time, Devito/Pouha excelled against the run this past season, there was little to no pass rush. & where the argument is that the pass rush comes from the OLB position in a 3-4, we had no pass rush from that position either. The defensive ends/nose tackles did not command double teams to allow the OLB to destroy opposing quarterbacks. (see soliai, paul), Soliai would command a double team and that would allow Wake to go one-on-one with a tackle, and get 14 sacks this past season. We do not have a dominant nose in that respect. Taking nothing against Pouha, he is a great player; I would not say that Devito overachieved, I feel that Devito stepped up when he became a starter, and he had the build at 6'3 305 to be effective. & for those who are unfamiliar with defensive lineman "techniques", here you go: 0 technique: Head up on the center. This is common in some type of odd or “50″ front. This is also called a “nose”. Many coaches will automatically tag any front that has a nose or 0 tech., as a 50 front. This includes, but is not limited to a 3-3, 3-4 or 5-2 defensive front. 1 technique: Lined up on the outside shoulder of the center. 2 technique: Head up on the guard. This is important for players to recognize because the lineman can attack either the A gap (between guard and center) or the B gap (between guard and tackle) on the snap. 3 technique: Outside shoulder of the guard. 4 technique: Head up on the tackle. Again indicative of a defensive lineman who is playing in a 50 defense. 5 technique: Outside shoulder of the tackle. Quite common alignment for defensive ends who play in a three man front.
Mr. Electric, Thanks for your response. Sorry if your head exploded. ;-) LOL I have responses to several of your comments and an additional question or two. You may be right that only a rotational player is needed if Pouha stays healthy, but what if he doesn't? That's a big if. At that point, it won't matter whether NT is the most important position in Rex's version of the 3-4. His body may not have had the wear and tear on it that other 32 year old football players have, but that doesn't mean his body won't start breaking down at this age. Some player's bodies break down on them sooner than others. He's taken a LOT of snaps and pounding in just the last 2 years. The Jets have been very lucky in terms of injuries the last few years. I don't know that Tevaseau won't work out, just as none of us know whether Pitoitua will be able to come back and be the player Rex thought he could, or whether Dixon will be the player Tanny thinks he can become, or whether Gilbert will be able to put all that athleticism to use on the field as a solid DE. The Jets could wind up with anywhere from 0 to 4 fair to very good football players from among those 4. The odds are a whole lot better that they'll be able to find a quality starting DE from that group than they are for Tevaseau to be the rotational guy they need at NT, or if Pouha should go down with injury, to be a quality starter in his place. For a team with championship expectations and aspirations, however, do you just want to leave it at that? I don't recall but where do you stand on the Cromartie vs. Wilson issue? If they sign Cro, they may not be able to re-sign Harris or one of Holmes or Edwards. Who would you let walk? With regard to Tevaseau being called up for the AFC Championship game, that could simply have been a matter of Rex wanting another big body rather than a DB. I hope the Jets are high on Tevaseau and he does pan out. That will make one less position of need, but just as I'm not counting on Dixon, Gilbert & Pitoitua to get it done, or I'm not counting on Wilson, I'm not counting on Tevaseau. At least in Wilson's case, he was a #1 draft pick so at least potentially he has a better shot at making it. Gilbert was a high draft pick too, so the same goes for him. We'll have to agree to disagree that Pouha is incredibly underrated. I didn't hate him several years ago when many other Jets fans did, but I'm not gonna go wild over him now, either. I think he has played better than I ever thought he would and has been unbelievably solid or above average the last couple of years, but there is a big difference in the impact from the NT position when Jenkins is in the lineup vs when Pouha is in. We'll also have to agree to disagree on whether the Jets will take a step back or not. I believe they will. I didn't say they won't be "competitive." I said they will take a step back. Barring a minor miracle, I don't see them making the AFC Championship game again next year. As long as Rex is here, they will be competitive. Hopefully, he'll continue to learn from his mistakes and the dumb penalties and the team coming out flat in games will cease. That said, with all the big contract FAs they have, it's going to be nigh on impossible to re-sign all of them. They have quite a few other FAs as well. They're gonna be hard pressed to be able to sign anyone new, either. Even if some of their better vets like Ellis, Jenkins,and Woody are back, they will be another year older, and probably less effective and more likely to be injured. This is where I think all the 3- and 4-player drafts and bringing in older FAs is gonna bite the team in the butt. They haven't built from within. Their depth is thin on the OL. They have too many big contract guys and not enough good, young, cheap players on the team. The high level the D has played at for the last two seasons with a lot of older players (Ellis, Green, Douglas, Taylor, Pryce, & Sheppard to name a few) and a lack of real speed is a credit to Rex. The pass rush still hasn't been adequated addressed and they still can't cover TEs, RBs or WRs over the middle of the field. In all likelihood we're stuck with Pace and probably BLT for at least another season. I'm not happy about it, but I just don't see how the Jets will be able to make the AFC Championship game again next season losing players and being hampered in being able to replace them effectively with probably no money to sign outside FAs and not even a full compliment of draft picks. I'm not afraid of NE. I don't know where you got that from. I AM a realist, however. NE isn't going away until maybe Brady retires. There's no way I thought they would be anywhere near as good as they were this season, yet they wound up 14-2. They have brought in a lot of good young players and have a solid nucleus for the future. They have a buttload of draft picks this year and do every year with which to re-stock their team. Tanny hasn't figured out how to do that yet. Unless the Jets are able to dramatically improve the pass rush during this offseason, they are going to continue to struggle with NE. Belicheat will figure out a way to deal with the game plan that Rex threw at him in the playoffs. The team still hasn't beaten Baltimore.
yea, but it was well thought out and a decent read, not the wall of text crap that many ramble on with.
I'm not trying to say joeklecko doesn't know what he's talking about - his posts are just entirely too long. He needs to break them down.
Sorry if those two posts were too long. I just like to discuss things thoroughly. When a number of points are related and pertinent to a discussion, I have a hard time leaving them out. I realize that most people don't like longer posts, and some will skip my posts when they are long. That's ok, it doesn't bother me.
