People critical of this Jets player for supposedly not having enough of an impact, don’t really get the player.
Talking about defensive end Carl Lawson.
Lawson has 6 sacks in 14 games this year. In his last year with the Cincinnati Bengals, two years ago, he had 5.5 sacks on the season, and the Jets gave him big money after that season. He missed last year with an Achilles injury.
Lawson has never been a gaudy sack guy, and if you expected him to become that, just because the Jets gave him big money, that is somewhat misguided. Big money doesn’t change the player’s skillset.
Lawson is a very good player but has never been a double-digit sack guy, at Auburn or the NFL. He’s better at QB pressures than QB sacks. That has always been his history.
Here is a perfect example of Lawson’s M.O. from the Jets-Lions game:
In the second quarter, on a third-and-12 on the Jets’ 13, QB Jared Goff threw an incompletion over the short middle to receiver Amon Ra-St. Brown. The QB was rushed into the bad throw by Lawson. First, the defensive end shed a chip block by tight end James Mitchell, and then got by left tackle Taylor Decker, and hit the QB as he was throwing.
That in a nutshell is Lawson. He doesn’t have the elite bend to be a double-digit sack guy, but he has tremendous strength, and a great motor, and creates havoc with that skill set, often creating plays for other players, by messing up the pocket.
The Jets know what they signed up for. They know they didn’t sign Von Miller. The people criticizing him now, just don’t understand the player.
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