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The Jets filled a lot of needs this off-season, especially on defense, but one particular position on defense still remains a potential question mark.
We have been writing about this need for years, and it might still be a need.
I think you know where I’m going with this. Yes, the Jets still might not have a pass-rushing 3-4 outside linebacker who can take over a game, a double-digit sack guy.
Jets third pick Lorenzo Mauldin is a nice selection, but he wasn’t a dominating pass rusher in college. He was a solid one, but not a game-wrecker. Playing in a 3-4 defense at outside linebacker as a senior at Louisville, he had 6.5 sacks.
Generally players who weren’t dominating pass rushers in college don’t become dominating pass rushers in the NFL.
There are so many bad offensive tackles on the college level. So if you aren’t putting up high numbers against these kind of lineman, what are you going to do on the Sunday?
When watching film of college players getting sacks, it jumps off the tape how over-matched some of these tackles are. You consistently see terrible feet and athleticism from so many college offensive tackles.
You watch how some of these players getting sacks in college, and a lot of times, how they are getting to the quarterback, that approach won’t work against an NFL offensive tackle.
Mauldin will help the Jets because he has a great motor and is very tough, but he’s a 4.85 forty guy who doesn’t have loose hips, and often plays too upright. He’s 6-4, so naturally his pad level is high. He needs to work on lowering it.
Also at outside linebacker, the Jets have a pair of 35-year-old players in Jason Babin and Calvin Pace. It’s likely one, not both, will make the roster. Babin has been a double-digit sack guy in the past but doesn’t run like he used to, so he’s unlikely to duplicate that in 2015. Pace has never been a dominating pass rusher. He’s a solid all round linebacker, but not a standout pass rusher.
The X-Factors in the outside linebacker landscape are IK Enemkpali and Trevor Reilly. They both showed some flashes last year in limited action, especially Enemkpali, who is a very powerful guy, with a low center of gravity, who does a nice job in the leverage game against tall tackles.
The Jet also signed a couple of undrafted free agents at the 3-4 OLB spots in Penn State’s Deion Barnes and Clarion’s Julian Howsare, but they are projects.
So on paper, it doesn’t look like they have the dominating OLB they have long been looking for.
However, it should be pointed out, that when you have a defensive line, with three players who require double-teams – Sheldon Richardson, Mo Wilkerson and Leonard Williams, that should certainly free up the outside linebackers to do some damage.
These three defensive linemen are going to garner so much attention, the Jets production at outside linebacker should definitely improve.
But the Jets mission to find their own Elvis Dumervil or Justin Houston continues.
May 19, 2015
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