How fast can he get from the edge to the middle of the pocket through a block? The distance to the QB goes up dramatically depending on where you are lined up. It's the Pythagorean thing. Think of the QB's drop back point as the hypotenuse. Then make the point where the ball is snapped the base of the right angle. The closer you are to that point the shorter your distance to the QB. The farther out on the line the greater the distance to a sack. It's likely that a guy lined up in the 9 has 1.4 or 1.5 times as far to go to get to the QB as a guy lined up on the nose. The factor that works against the distance involved is the number of blockers between you and the QB, with closer rushers blocked by more intervening players. Now guys who are lined up outside often increase the distance even more by taking outside routes to avoid blockers. They use their speed and quickness to offset the increase in actual distance traveled. The question with Coples outside is can he get to the QB in time to get a sack?
Neither Suggs nor Thomas is a good comparison for Coples though. Suggs is 6'3" 260 and was a college DE, as opposed to a DT playing out of position at DE like Coples did his last year. Thomas had a fast 40 time, like 4.49 to 4.56 at 6'3" 270. It takes a very special player to play really well out of position at a position that he is not really suited for based on his physical characteristics. Coples is not suited for ROLB. He just doesn't fit the mold of what you want out there on the flank. So he's going to have to be a really special player to make it work out. The better bet for the Jets would probably be playing him out of position at RDE in the 3-4 and taking advantage of his superior height and reach to cause problems for the QB in the pocket. Then they'd still have the ability to line him up in the 3 when they went to a full pressure front and get sacks out of him there. The best option for them would be to play him just in the 3, at DT with a DE outside of him that prevented the defense from doubling him very often.
these are some sack leaders from the last few years that had similar measurables to coples coming out ... jpp, charles johnson, julius peppers, mario williams, chris long, michael johnson ... edge rushers come is all shapes and sizes
Those are numbers in controlled environment, no pads...etc. Let us see him in Game speed rushing the edge. The guy has the body of Terrell Suggs if he can any way shape or form show us glimpses of that type of play I think Rex will/is making the right move. He is finding ways to get his BEST PLAYERS on the field at all times can't shame him for that
Coples played DT his sophomore and junior years and then shifted to DE his senior year. He looked very good at DT and not so great at DE. None of that however means much when you are talking about putting him at OLB. If you want to get the most out of your players you put them in a position to succeed and you avoid asking them to do things they likely cannot do. Moving Coples to OLB seems like a move designed to resolve a clogged depth chart for the Jets. If the move was generated by the Jets need to get the most talented players on the field at the same time but it is also a move that will not put Coples in a position to succeed, well that's the kind of move you don't want to make.
Speed isn't the only requirement for the Predator/LEO/Elephant position in the 4-3 Under. Chris Clemons at 6'3 254 had 11.5 sacks in the "Elephant" role for the Seahawks last year. Their combine #'s were very comparable, with Coples having an edge in size (6'6" 284), 10-yd shuttle (1.63 / 1.72), and bench (25 / 18). Clemons had an edge in the 3-cone (7.48 / 7.57) and a slight edge in the 40 (4.68 / 4.69). I don't know how Coples will do in this new role but I trust Rex when it comes to D. It will be exciting to see if Q, Mo, Richardson, and Snacks can get some consistent pressure on the QB. Anyone have a nickname for Richardson yet? She.Rich?
I understand. I think with his size he can seal the edge and with his moves he should have a nack to get the sack. Plus he shouldn;t receive all the attention
First of all the "OLB" proclamation is not that cut & dry. The Jets show so many different looks during the course of a game which will keep Coples on the move. The OLB label comes from the fact that Rex was on record at the end of last season stating that he wanted to get Coples on the edge more often. Secondly, raw 40 speed is far from the most important factor when evaluating a stand up edge rusher. The more crucial attributes include: 1. First step- Getting a good release at the snap of the ball to get a proper leverage angle to the QB. Coples has a very good first step & fluid get off 2. Length- Long arms lend to disengaging blocks as well as setting the edge. Wingspan makes it harder for ball carriers to escape the pocket & get up field. Coples has long arms & quite the wingspan. He has also proven to be a hard guy to elude outside the pocket. 3. Bend- Get good leverage, pick your move to shed the block, & flip your hips. This is all about movement skills as well as change of direction. Even w/ Coples body type he is a very fluid athlete able to bend on a dime. Now Coples needs to prove he can handle outside duty..but he most certainly has the tools to be very successful. In fact, if he is..given his size..he could change the position forever. He's that type of athlete.
Using D line 40 times is not the greatest measurable to start with. Get their ten yard splits. It's a better test of how quick they come off the ball and get into the lineman on the way to the QB. Moving Coples to OLB is a risk, but if Rex knows anything it's defense, so I'm willing to take a wait and see attitude.
The problem with moving Coples to ROLB, aside from the fact that he's not suited to play the role, is that it's one of the most important positions on the field in the NFL these days. The Jets chose not to address the position in the draft, which was understandable given the needs of a rebuilding team and the prospects available. They should have like 5 no-names lined up to compete for that job in camp. They need somebody to step forward and provide them with real pressure from the outside. Instead they're going to spend most of training camp trying to fit a likely square peg into a round hole. Coples move to OLB is going to drain resources and force the Jets to look away from the actual task at hand. That's the problem with the move. If there was a good chance Coples was going to work out it's not a bad idea but he's a 280+ lb guy. That's not where success at ROLB has come from in the NFL. The Jets defense the last few years has been good but it had issues with interior pressure after Jenkins retired and it had issues getting pressure from the outside. Now the Jets have decided to take a good developing interior pass rusher and move him outside where his prospects are less clear. The move may work in which case I'll happily eat crow on my pessimism. The last time the Jets tried a move like this they had a good fallback option in case the move failed in Josh Evans. I don't see the fallback move this time.
antwan barnes is the fallback. and its not a square peg situation. rex had this vision from the day of coples' pro day. rex sees an olb and i going to trust rex on this one. worst case scenario is pace/mcentyre and barnes are the olb and coples goes to d.e./d.t. and we have a very deep dl. if coples not working out at olb is the biggest problem we have this summer,we will be in good shape
If the Jets played a conventional 3-4 D I think your points would carry alittle more weight. But the Jets play a multi-scheme that focuses on putting players in position to succeed. Coples isn't always gonna be lined up at outside backer. Depending on the situation he could be lined up all over the front 7. The whole "OLB" label is a dumbed down way of saying that Q will be used on the edge more frequently. Rex said at the end of last season that he wanted to get him more opportunity to play on the edge. I believe the jets see Coples as a match-up X factor type. He has a unique body type & skill set that can be used alot of different ways. Putting him on the edge allows him to use his length & bend against smaller and/or stiff blockers. That said you'll see him moved all over the place depending on the situation & match-ups.
Soft Kitty? When Coples was drafted there was a reasonable amount of talk both around the league at large and specifically the Jets, including the draft forum here, over whether he might transition to OLB at the next level. I remember Rex answering the question sitting next to Tanny and Clinkscales right after saying 'the plan is to have his hand in the dirt.' The point I'm making is that it has always seemed within reason enough to generate plenty of speculation. I don't know why he was underutilized last year; whether it was for motivation, a question of schemes, ineffectiveness at secondary and tertiary roles, doubts about mental aspects, or simply bad decisions to leave him on the bench too much. Most likely I would guess it was some combination of those factors, but the fact is he generated wildly successful production especially compared to his peers from the same class when he was on the field. I believe that the transition is more geared to developing Coples into a more dynamic threat throughout his career than necessarily being a 'let's try to win now even though we're short personnel' move. Maybe they were unhappy with how he played DE despite playing DT so effectively and this might be a better way for him to generate pressure outside. Maybe they think he will develop at DE too and he can do pretty much anything including OLB and the transition is designed purely to give OC's nightmares. If that's the case they wouldn't know how he's about to hurt you until the snap let alone all of the repercussions his shifts would cause for the rest of the talented DL's plans from play to play. Another possibility for the plan is to use him at OLB on about 25% of his snaps accepting the fact that his individual threats will be somewhat diminished due to the square peg in round hole theory. But if he's effective enough to make due it could still cause progress overall by aiding in deception for the rest of the guys and it would be harder to sell out protections against his threat as a DT the other 75% of the time because you're not as confident that's where he'll be when the ball is snapped. Admittedly this stuff gets to be beyond my understanding of the game because switching around alignments with several different plans in each look is about as complex as football can possibly get, and there are very few teams in the league that would even bother trying to pull something like this off let alone how effectively Rex can implement things if he has the dynamic personnel to do it. I think there are a lot of arguments for why they're trying to do it in the first place, just as there are a lot of different ways the plan could be carried out with varying probabilities of effectiveness. For me it's too early to pluck out specifics definitively but I'm interested to see how it develops because Coples seems to be a big bright spot for the future. If the transition is a success in whatever form it takes, it should prove to be a key piece in the defensive identity of a killer unit. As to the lack of other decent OLB options, yeah it's a problem but it wound up being one of the holes that had to be neglected this year. Still, the team might not even be that reliant on Coples' transitional success if another fairly cheap semi-competent OLB can be added through free agency. That seems like it could be a possibility too. There's a lot going on with this and we're on the outside trying to look in as far as I can tell.
I agree with you in principle, in that Coples had success as an interior rusher. Not because he will fail at ROLB. Ryan doesn't even deploy traditional OLB in his scheme much anyway. If at all, Coples will be doing what Bryan Thomas was doing on the weakside. He is 'technically' an OLB, but he will play much like a lineman. I just don't agree with the move in that Coples was at his best playing inside - so why kick him outside?
I'm wondering if they'd get more out of Coples at ILB than OLB. That puts him easily in the middle when he is rushing and it makes his speed issues potentially less aggravating. The Steelers had a huge ILB for about a decade in Levon Kirkland. He weighed 270 lbs at 6'1". Kirkland used to sit down on 3rd down but the Jets could put Coples up on the line there instead, maybe 0 or 1 gap.
Funny you mention Kirkland cause that is exactly who I thought of when you raised your concern of Coples playing weight. Kirkland was beast for Pittsburgh for alot of years. That said I don't think Coples would make alot of sense at ILB. He lacks the necessary instincts as well as center of gravity. Coples makes sense on the edge b/c he's long, he can bend & he's a hard guy for the QB to manuever around. He did make a few plays against San diego late in the year in more of a rush backer type role. Additionally there was a series or 2 against the Panthers last preseason when they had Coples lined up on the RT's outside shoulder both standing up & in a 3 point stance. I'd encourage anyone to take a gander if they can find the footage b/c he was virtually unblockable. I wondered all year why we didn't see more of him lined up like that. Maybe now we will.
