Good play up front makes for good play in secondary (ask Drew Brees and Tom Brady vs us last year) . Im excited for Antonio Allen's return and i trust milliner & Wilson on the outside. Landry will be attacked and so will our nickle but we will be better than i think even some jets fans think on defense.
Took him a while to get acclimated to the position. He did break his foot last season,.. Hopefully an entire offseason this year will allow him to further improve
i think he played solid over there the year Revis went down. Him and cro really stepped up. He seems more comfortable there . Walls is pretty good too so either way i wouldnt mind.
Not necessarily. Body language says quite a lot about a person, as does word choice. I agree with you that it isn't wise to make a full character study of a few brief interviews and some sideline reactions that inevitably have little contextualizing them. Still, i don't think this is stupid, it merely has to be understood as a limited way to gauge what he MIGHT be like. Also, in all fairness, may anti-Sanchez peeps were quick to jump on his body language during is time has a Jet. His sulking and less than confident general demeanor. So if it is a gauge for Sanchez then why not for Coples?
This is my opinion on what makes Coples effective despite his "tweener" measureables 1) His combination of strength, length, and burst off the line allows him to stack the blocker, despite the blockers often considerably outweighing him. He gets as good an initial push as anybody I've seen. 2) Once he stacks the blocker, he has the athleticism to make a play in either gap. So if he's playing OLB, he can set the edge well even if they pull a blocker to his side. He may not be as fast as a true OLB, but it's rare for him to be neutralized by a blocker, and athletic enough to still make a play. 3) Again, he'll never be a true speed edge rusher, and I do think that's a kind of player we don't have at the moment. He's not going to beat a tackle to the edge and get sacks that way (think Giants defense). What he does do extremely well is control the blocker until the pocket starts to break down. With the combination of Wilkerson, Richardson, and himself, this is going to happen a lot. He gets to the QB by disengaging with the blocker to make the play. Obviously with the QB pressure stat, he's done a good job at this, and hopefully with a bit less weight he can actually get more sacks this year. In short he's lining up at OLB not because they want him in coverage or want him to be a speed rusher. He still creates pressures more like an interior lineman, but he still has the athleticism to set the edge. His rare combination of strength, burst, and length, combined with impressive athletic ability for someone his size allows him to control blockers and make plays.
I think you're confusing 'versatile' with 'better.' A multi-tool is versatile, but Kobalt makes a much better screwdriver, file, torque wrench, etc. To the point, I agree that Coples is versatile and probably moreso than the other DLs (I'll leave that debate to others). This might be stunting his growth somewhat as he is having to learn to work from a bunch of different positions. I've seen enough from Coples to convince me that he will be good. As another poster mentioned, his development floor is going to be Bryan Thomas, but I think he will go on to be much better and his ceiling is much, much higher. Thomas was a solid but unspectacular player. I think Coples might turn into a new John Abraham type. I just don't want to give him that title yet until he earns it....
He's a serviceable D lineman, nothing more. He's definitely not an OLB, doesn't have the quick instincts nor the natural pass rush moves off the end. But a solid d lineman and run stuffer.
Fair enough. Moreso of what I was trying to say. And yes Pace outplayed Coples last year. Coples doesn't even have to drop back in covg. Coples is FINE, like I meant to say he has met expectation, hoping for a bit more from a rd1 player. Judging from our past (vernon gholston) i'll take where he is at. Still though his rookie yr was almost better than yr 2. Still young, lets keep improving this kid.
I'm really surprised by people questioning Coples here. He is an outstanding athlete, and really came on as he recovered from that injury he had. He recovered from that injury freaky fast, so there's a good chance he was playing hurt for a while. He took advantage of single blocks well last year, and was learning a new position. Although what he actually does for the team really isn't very different than his role as a defensive lineman, the times at which he does them are different, and he has a few different responsibilities. He was in the backfield a lot, and both Wilk and Pace's sack totals benefited from Coples' pressure. I think Coples doesn't need to be like Aldon Smith to be a very good player for us, and that's what a lot of people seem to demand as an OLB in our defense. People think Wilk is like Justin Smith, but Wilk is a much better pass rusher. Wilk will beat double teams in pass protection much more often that Justin Smith, and our defense doesn't demand an Aldon Smith type player. Defenses aren't all built the same, yes there are "prototypes" but the more versatile the defense (aka Rex's) the more you can expect to see pressure coming from different places. A good example are the earlier RR Jets teams that generated pressure by using very smart safety/DB blitzers. It's one reason I'm high on Darqueze denard, because he plays really smart and blitzes well. Coples' unique size and athleticism will only show him exploiting match ups more in the future.
What does Coples have to do to shed the notion that he's some lazy, uninspired football player? He had a damn good year despite missing time with his foot. He's arguably the most versatile defensive player on the team (I know Sheldon is up there too). Kid rushes the QB, maintains gap control, is a good run stuffer, moves from the outside to inside from time to time...I mean what else does he have to do? He'll never be some speed edge rusher, that's not his job...but he has that great combo of good speed and power from anywhere he comes from...he's totally a handful and a great compliment and asset with a DLine that can do similar things. I'm not sure of the timeline of when Barnes went down, and Coples on the field but I believe they may have played together. Bart Scott had mentioned the role of Pace being so important in that he really controls the action and him setting that edge is SO important. With Barnes, by Scott's account, being that guy who can "recklessly" rush the passer, Coples really couldn't be as aggressive as he wanted if he was playing Pace's role at LB. So when Barnes went down, Pace became that guy to set the edge and direct the flow of the play, while Coples shifted to Barnes spot as a pass rusher who really had more freedom to get after the QB.
Yes, he looks awkward, but put any 290 pounder who has played DL his whole life and then make him an NFL linebacker and what do you expect? Another brilliant move by Rex the wonder dog . Do you know of any other team that has a 290 lb. OLB? On every passing down the opposing QB KNOWS Couples will be the "rusher" since he is too slow to drop back into coverage.
Coples by far is the most versatile player in our front 7. I really want to see what he does this year. Listening to an interview he did 2-3 months ago talking about how he is down to 270lbs and was spending a lot of time working on his hands in the offseason. Can you imagine if he got down to 260-270 with his athleticism. Even if there is only small progression this year he is b y far the best strong side linebacker we have had in a while. Just gonna leave this here.
I'll have to go back and look but I'm pretty sure Coples was hurt in the preseason and they didn't really play together, but even if they did Coples would have been far from his best. But you're right, Coples will rush the passer like a traditional 3-4 OLB some, but what is really so amazing about a guy like Coples is that he can rush the passer or play the run from ANY defensive linemen technique, even NT. The Jets have 3 guys who can destroy single blocks from multiple positions, so Rex can move the guys around pre snap, totally screwing with offensive line blocking assignments. This was on display at its best against the Saints. Pace ended with more sacks than Coples because offensive linemen have to give him the least amount of consideration with the other 3 guys coming at them. Pace is pretty freaky at his size, but he is not super fast for his size. He is still surprisingly nimble for his size though, and has not lost the ability to shed blocks and make tackles. Pace isn't going to blow around the edge and make a tackle look foolish, that is however unless they are too focused on making sure Coples, Wilkerson, and Richardson are taken care of.
They have completely different roles on their teams. They are certainly not speed-rush only guys, but that is their primary designation on their defenses. They are wide rushers, and are not nearly as versatile as Coples. I'm not saying Coples is better, I'm saying don't try and act as if he is the same type of player.
