I agree, but believe you slightly misspoke. It would be a 4-man rotation with Lawson, JFM, 1st round pick and Huff, not a 3-man rotation. If Zuniga or someone else joins, it would make it a 5-man rotation. When you move JFM inside, who is he replacing, Rankins/Fatukasi or Q. Williams?
It’s really not a good look for JD to have nearly $30 million sunk into the position group and need to add another top ten pick. But I do agree with you and it’s a good year to grab one. Aidan Hutchinson gets a lot of the headlines behind Thibs but I like the kid from Purdue a lot. George Karlaftis. Reminds me of a more pure skilled Maxx Crosby.
Personally I think Huff should not really see the field much in this scenario, outside of injury. He is developing and overall he’s a huge win as a UDFA, but no one is winning playoff games with Huff seeing substantial snaps I can tel you that. As far as who JFM replaces, it just depends who is gassed at the moment. Or who is healthy. To me in this scenario the #1 Four-Man rush front on 3rd and long would have to be Lawson, Williams, JFM, 1st Round Pick, but you could also have a 5 man rush front with the same but adding Rankins so you run a 2 IDL/3 Edge package. Often you don’t have every guy healthy though, and guys get gassed n long drives. It just depends.
I like Karlaftis too, but I don’t think it’s a bad look. Tampa had JPP and Shaq Barret, still went 1st Round Edge. Pittsburgh just spent as much on TJ Watt as Lawson and JFM combined, and they still pay Heyward and Tuitt. If the Steelers draft an Edge Rusher in the 1st to pair with Watt, would you say it’s a bad look or would you say it’s adding strength on strength? To me you need as many pass rushers as possible, inside and outside. Guys get hurt, whether it’s a game or two, or a whole season. Neither Lawson nor JFM are Watt, but if you can have both for the price of 1 Watt, it’s the next best option.
Meh. Would you rather have TJ Watt or JFM and Carl Lawson? JPP and Shaq Barrett combined to dominate an entire playoff run. I get the sentiment in loading pass rushers, but the comparisons aren’t valid.
I’d rather have Watt, but it’s not always an option. Frankly I want legit 1st round talent at Edge. If you have a span of 3 more years where the QB is cheap, and there is no Watt to spend $30 million on, you might as well add a couple of quality Defensive Ends to the roster for the money to pair with the young Edge draft pick. If Lawson was not good, I could agree it’s a bad look. But he’s just injured, so what is there to say? If he was healthy and played like he looked in training camp, there would probably be a lot of people saying we don’t need a 1st round Edge, but I would still want one. The 49ers went to the Super Bowl on the backs of Five 1st round DL, 4 of their own and a trade+contract for Dee Ford.
He had minimal sack output for his entire career and a long history of injuries. So him being hurt (and subsequently not producing) is not surprising. Either way, the stars have aligned in it being a great edge rusher draft for us. We need Seattle to keep losing, although I imagine that won’t happen too much with Russ coming back shortly.
He does have an injury history unfortunately, and that will probably always be a factor but hopefully it’s a couple games here or there, not lost seasons.
that's saleh's system. spend the big money on rushers. get pressure with 4. load the back end with cheap, fast, young guys. We just don't have the rush yet. we probably need to draft 1 in the 1st and maybe sign another one to go with lawson and JFM.
As far as legitimate pieces on the DL, for 2022 the Jets have IDL -Quinnen Williams -Sheldon Rankins Edge -Carl Lawson -John Franklin-Myers -Bryce Huff That has the makings of a really good unit but you need a little more. I think a 1st on the Edge, and a Fatukasi extension would get it there for me. I think they need a 4th IDL, so you gotta sign another guy unless Jonathan Marshall shows more, but it doesn’t need to be a big money investment.
I think Shepherd makes a couple flashy plays at times but overall he is a liability. I would definitely like better than him
fair enough. could be. I haven't paid that much attention to him. but as a 4th string you could do worse for sure
What I don’t like about what Saleh does with the defensive line is that I think he over rotates them. The unit is not good enough at the bottom to give the starting four entire series off. Rankins and Quinnen need to play more than 60% of the snaps a game. Same with John Franklin-Myers. You want to steal snaps here and there when you can to get guys breathers but Williams can’t sit entire series on the bench. Fatukasi needed to hit the showers after the first 20 minutes last week when he couldn’t figure out what a trap block was. Bad bad adjustments.
Question, Could JFM not be that 4th IDL as well as the 2nd or 3rd Edge, or do you think we need another DT?
Yeah I noticed this too, but it has to be done in this defense. The defensive line is very aggressive in this scheme, and if guys get too tired they become ineffective. It crops up more when the offense goes 3 and out or turns the ball over, because if the offense has good long drives it gives let’s the best DL play a higher percentage of snaps. Is it a bad adjustment? I guess maybe but you set yourself up for an ineffective defense later if you just keep the best guys in all the time I think.
No you still definitely need another D Tackle. He doesn’t need to be a high profile guy, it might even be Marshall. But whoever it is can’t be a liability
Max, that makes no sense. You’re insinuating that something about the scheme requires the defensive lineman to somehow exert more energy because they play harder. They don’t cover anymore ground or run any faster or further than any other 4-3 defense. It’s just a flawed logic by Saleh and Ulbrich and maybe they overrate our second unit.
Well the way I look at it, the D Tackles in particular push upfield more aggressively than other DT’s even in other 4-3 fronts. Some 4-3 NT’s (many) still play double A Gap contain even if the 3T does not, but I’m seeing Fatukasi push it upfield more. Because they go Wide 9 a lot, the DT’s have a better shot of winning and hitting in the backfield than they do containing the run with the substantial gap spacing the DL leaves. No style of DL play is easy, but I think 2 Gapping is less draining than attacking upfield over and over again. To maintain the DT’s theoretical advantage in this 1v1 type of play, they have to be cycled through or they will become ineffective. This also can result in DT’s getting washed out of the run game, especially against a dominant Run Blocking OL like Indianapolis or Cleveland. It also gives a pass rush oriented DE like Carl Lawson a better chance in run defense, which is (partly) why I think they went after him. I think this scheme works with adequate talent, and the Jets are almost there with some better injury luck and another high pick there.
