Agree completely. Not to mention he's a major contributor on Special Teams and is tough. Anyone remember Jon McGraw? He's imperfect, but he's a contributor.
well said, but one aspect still bothers me. so when we do put the teams in 3rd n long situations and eric smith keeps failing to make a stop, y should we keep him?
Because getting rid of him will not solve the problem. A big part of the problem is lack of overall speed at linebacker, and lack of a pass rush is the other, if related, reason. The Jets lack speed in the middle of the field, and opposing Qb's don't get pressured enough.
Well I do understand what you're saying, people do not remember a few run stops they remember Smith chasing Celek, Cruz, and Gronfagski down the field. I for one see it in my nightmares.
Jets LBs do lack speed - but that's not the only problem out there. I don't know up to what proportion it is the quality of DL talent, and the quality of DL coaching by Mark Carrier, but what is more than clear for the past two years is that this DL 1) did NOT collapse the pocket. 2) did NOT generate any pass rushing lane. and 3) did NOT generate any pressure themselves. If the DL cannot 1) help generate pass rush, or 2) generate pass rush themselves, JUST WHAT GOOD ARE THEY??????
^Hopefully Karl Dunbar brings some of his success with the Vikings DL with him. I think it's pretty outstanding that this team has had a top 5 ranked pass defense ypg the last 3 years with absolutely no passrush. And Smith started a lot of those games, he gets toasted sometimes but it's like people forget the days of Damien Robinson or David Barrett.
It's a 3-4 defense. This past year Pace had to work to seal the edge after Thomas went down. Maybin made a couple of flashy plays, plays I totally appreciated, but the CS obviously did not play him more because he was a liability on run D. In a 3-4 D you can't rely solely on a 3 man rush to contain the pocket and get to the passer. The Jets lacked a consistent pass rusher from the LB's last year. I see you make frequent criticisms of the DL here, but you seem to leave out the foregoing analysis, for some reason. If the Jets had a better pass rushing linebacker, the DL would look better, without question.
The DL does a very good to great job of completing their assignments which is to provide the linebackers with the proper lanes and contain the run. Their job isn't to generate pass rush - that comes from the linebackers and blitzing defensive backs. That said, it would be awesome to get someone with a similar skill set to Kris Jenkins in. It was great watching him dominate the middle of the line.
1. Bruce Smith was 3-4 DE. I am saying these things for a reason. 2. I didn't say the DL must contain the pocket AND get to the passer. I just don't understand what's so hard to understand - I've been saying all along in tune of "Either HELP the LBs (or other rushers for that matter) get to the QBs OR... Get to the QB yourself." This DL fails to perform EITHER task. So what part of that statement do you NOT understand? 3. Of course, when you have Cactus and Pace deployed at OLB spot, the defense will look more like Eagle front with 5-2 alignment than 3-4. (Hell. Cactus and Pace are BOTH converted OLBs from DE. No fucking wonder.) That's been the trend that goes way back to the Mangini days. (And Gholston was such a colossal bust.) But that does NOT excuse the DL from not creating any kind of pass rushing lane whatsoever. (When Jets dialed up the blitz, LBs were mostly seen tangled up at the LoS. Just what makes you think the DL has been doing their job there?) Jets DL could absorb blockers - or I saw that happening - when 1. Jenkins was clogging up the middle or 2. Jason Taylor, of all people, was playing RDE. That is NOT a good job by the DL no matter how you slice it.
The Jets can operate with that 2m cap space in mind and cut him at anytime should they choose. There is no reason to cut him untill someone is signed and you need the space. There is a small grace period were you can sign a player and get under the cap within a day I belive. The Signing of Farve and later release of Pennington is a example of this. There is no need to cut him to sign another Safety, you sign you guy and then cut smith if we need the cap room.
Smith also played in a system where he was one up on the tackle on most plays. a very different thing than what we expect from our DE's on most downs.
Of course Smith played in Phillips 3-4. Ryan variant is somewhat similar in that the DL do not line up at 0 tech as they would in F/B 3-4; instead they are usually slanting. Just, in Ryan variant, he doesn't utilize the DE to create pass rush, and would use Will to seal the edge as well. (could look like 4-3 in that regard, but without Will backer - Jets variant gets Jack and Ted instead) I brought up Bruce Smith to illustrate the point: 1. The DL is NOT generating any kind of pass rushing lane for the LBs or any other pass rushers for that matter. 2. If they are not helping that, shouldn't they do that themselves? So this DL is NOT generating any kind of pass rushing lanes that other rushers could use (1) and is not collapsing the pocket either (2) and lastly, they do not generate pass rush by themselves either. (3). I would gladly understand if they couldn't generate the pass rush because that was not their job description (which I think is the case) but then what IS their job description? At the end of the day, if LBs have hard time penetrating through the LoS ALL THE FUCKING TIME, regardless of WHERE THE RUSHER IS COMING FROM, whose fault is it?
Only thing over the top about the Drew Coleman hate was people hating to see balls go over the top of Drew Coleman and into receivers hands. If Eric Smith is comparable to Drew Coleman, then that's all the more reason he should go. don't cut him and bring him back for reduced money. Just cut him. Period! We have draft picks. Eric Smith is not insurance. Insurance is a guy like Marquice Cole. He's not great, but when he gets in the game, he can make plays for you on occassion. He knows how to not fuck up most of the time. Eric Smith is a liability! A well documented liability. Just like Drew Coleman, teams are going to start targetting him more and more, every time he's on the field, and there's nothing he can do about it because he sucks. BTW, Eric Smith's play against the run is way overrated and damn sure not a compensation for his piss poor coverage skills. I mean, it's not like he's Laron Landry against the run... oh wait.
I'm not sure you really pay that much attention to the plays themselves. You complain about a lack of pressure, but pin this all on the line. Its not all on the line by a long shot. Our OLB's are not wining 1 on 1 battles. In Rex's Nickle package the OLB's move to end and the 5T's are replaced or kick inside to tackle to rush. Wilkerson did a very good job as a rookie in this part of his job. Devito adds nothing here and Pouha is not in on obvious passing downs. Lanes are only created on the inside Blitzes. In that case Harris or Scott need to find them and make the play. Harris did ok last year but Scott's play saw a big drop off and he was left out on obivous passign dows as we went to the nickle. If you want to complain about our D, look to the LBers. They are getting old and slow and not makingthe plays of two years ago. DL for our system is currently a strenght of the team.
TBH I don't want him gone I just want him to man up and take the pay cut he's earned (not that's how one should put it).
