Linebackers Wanted

[JetNation]

Linebackers Wanted!

The Jets have drafted 23 players over the last five years.  Of those picks only two were linebackers, Vernon Gholston now ‘thankfully’ gone drafted in 2008 and David Harris drafted in 2007.  Bryan Thomas most likely will not be retained.  Bart Scott has become a part time player and will be 32 in August.   Calvin Pace will turn 32 in October, while still a serviceable player, Pace had only five sacks in the 2011 season and his best days are behind him.

Looking at the free agent market not to many names jump out.  Yes, Mario Williams would be great but I just don’t see how it is financially possible given the salary cap position the Jets are in.  The Jets may want to sign a stop gap guy with some NFL experience but a truly impactful player may be out of reach.

While I love reading mock drafts I’ve never seen one that turned out to be correct.  It’s too hard with all the trades and rising and falling players.  I don’t know what the Jets will do in the draft, trade up, down or neither but I’ve tried to lay out some linebackers, where I think they’ll be drafted, and why I like certain ones.  The Jets have a glaring need for speed, athleticism and more depth especially at linebacker hopefully these needs can be addressed in this draft.

The Big Names Possible Top 20 picks:

Courtney Upshaw, OLB – Alabama

Whitney Mercilus, DE/OLB – Illinois

Nick Perry, DE/OLB – USC

Early Picks, More Likely if The Jets Trade Back:

Vontaze Burfict, ILB – Arizona State:  Burfict is a versatile ultra aggressive player whom I watched many late nights during the PAC-12 season.  He can play inside or outside.  He has great speed and plays to contact.  You can blitz him or drop him back to cover, maybe even a tight end.   I can just see a Tom Brady sandwich with Mo Wilkerson and Burfict as the bread.  I’d love to see a Harris/Burfict combo for years to come.

Dont’a Hightower, ILB – Alabama:  Hightower played within a 3-4 system for Nick Saban and went up against elite talent of the SEC week after week.  He’s a solid tackler and can get after the quarterback.  Big, strong and fast would be a fine consolation prize if Burfict is gone.

Vinny Curry, DE/OLB – Marshall:  If the Jets get a stud ILB and also land Curry life would be good.  Curry can get up on the quarterback but is big enough to set the edge and play the run.  He has good speed and could also play with his hand in the dirt if need be.    If the jets trade back in the 1^st they may be able to move up into the early 2^nd if need be to get Curry without losing to many precious picks.

Mid Round Pick:

Tank Carter, ILB – TCU:  Reminds me of his ex-teammate now Cardinal Daryl Washington.  Carter is good tackler who can also play in space.  He has a nose for the ball and can make plays against the pass.  might be a little bit of a project, if available in the fourth round he’s a good value for some depth.

Later Round Pick:

Cordarro Law, OLB – Southern Miss.:   Will be interested in seeing how he does at the combine.  Has good football speed can play in space as well as get after the quarterback.  Law played well in the Conference USA Championship game against Houston.

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[T0mShane]

The Jets have to have more money tied up into LBs than the Niners do, and the Niners LBs are young and awesome. Add to that the cost of re-signing Maybin, and how are the Jets going to add payroll at this position? I can't believe that cutting Bart makes the unit better (even as it makes it cheaper). IMO, Tannenbaum should give Steelers GM Kevin Colbert a million in cash under the table to give him a list of names of mid-round OLBs we can draft because the Jets obviously don't have the capability of scouting one on their own.

[sg3]

agreed

pass rushers needed from OLB and DE, players who can provide QB pressure without seven man blitz packages 80 percent of the game

time to release Bryan Thomas for starters.....

[hoping4ASuperBowl]

The Jets have to have more money tied up into LBs than the Niners do, and the Niners LBs are young and awesome. Add to that the cost of re-signing Maybin, and how are the Jets going to add payroll at this position? I can't believe that cutting Bart makes the unit better (even as it makes it cheaper). IMO, Tannenbaum should give Steelers GM Kevin Colbert a million in cash under the table to give him a list of names of mid-round OLBs we can draft because the Jets obviously don't have the capability of scouting one on their own.

I thought Maybin was a RFA.

[SenorGato]

Nick Perry, Whitney Mercwhatever, Vinny Curry, or...someone...please.

[Jetfan13]

I love Carder from TCU. Been watching him and I believe he was their defensive mvp the last 2 years, including their national chapionshp game season. And what a great name for a lb, TANK!

[Sperm Edwards]

If he isn't a great - a GREAT, as LBers go - TE-covering ILB this should be one of the last positions we look at in round 1. Last thing this team needs is another serious investment in a LB or S who can't really cover.

There are at least 6 other positions I'd take a comparably-rated player (or even less-rated) over ILB.

David Harris plus a mid-rounder to break in and split time in Scott's final season should be more than adequate for the position.

Like the idea of an OLB pass rusher even though we got burned pretty badly on our last one. If it's going to be in round 1 at least make it someone who has seen some time at the position. Too much of a gamble to take someone really high then move him from the position that made him a high pick in the first place. Not all DE's can play OLB.

[denden29]

Bryan Thomas is a FA and probably won’t be back besides who wants him at 33. Maybin disappeared in the last 4 games of the regular season with zero sacks, teams figured him out. He is a restricted FA and the Jets can get him for a non-guaranteed minimum salary, no other teams going to want him.

Yes, there is money tied up at the linebacker position in 2012 because the Jets have signed Scott and Pace two high priced FA and never addressed the position in the draft. These players have friendly 2013 cap numbers and will most likely be gone. That would make 3 out of 4 starting LBs gone in a two year period, where will the replacements come from? Harris is set to make $9 Million this year, while I love him he’s not worth that, an adjustment is in order. Given the new CBA the cost of a 16-26 1^st round pick like shouldn’t be too bad financially.

It may not look like it but LB is the most important position on the Jets in need of an up-grade. I know the Jets have many holes to fill but the great 3-4 defenses in the league have stud backers. The bottom line is the Jets can’t afford to neglect linebackers once again in this year’s draft; the position turnover is too much to handle without some serious help this year.

[JustInFudge]

OLB

OLB

S or WR

Dont care about the rest.

[Maxman]

Bryan Thomas is a FA and probably won’t be back besides who wants him at 33. Maybin disappeared in the last 4 games of the regular season with zero sacks, teams figured him out. He is a restricted FA and the Jets can get him for a non-guaranteed minimum salary, no other teams going to want him.

Yes, there is money tied up at the linebacker position in 2012 because the Jets have signed Scott and Pace two high priced FA and never addressed the position in the draft. These players have friendly 2013 cap numbers and will most likely be gone. That would make 3 out of 4 starting LBs gone in a two year period, where will the replacements come from? Harris is set to make $9 Million this year, while I love him he’s not worth that, an adjustment is in order. Given the new CBA the cost of a 16-26 1^st round pick like shouldn’t be too bad financially.

It may not look like it but LB is the most important position on the Jets in need of an up-grade. I know the Jets have many holes to fill but the great 3-4 defenses in the league have stud backers. The bottom line is the Jets can’t afford to neglect linebackers once again in this year’s draft; the position turnover is too much to handle without some serious help this year.

It would be sweet if the Jets could hit a home run on a 3rd round LB, an inside guy with coverage skills. Since I am in fantasy land, how about they also hit a home run on a Safety in the 1st Round. Then they can draft Wayne Hunter's replacement in Round 2 and not miss this time like they did with VLad.

3 for 3 in the first three rounds this year? Too much to ask for?

[bitonti]

upshaw or ingram. those are the real OLB in this draft. Either one at 16 would be fine.

burfict is a rd 2 if not a 3 due to off the field stuff, but he'd fit right in to the Jets locker room insanity.

i dont think Curry, Perry or Mercilus fit Rex's system. it would take years to learn, if they could stand up at all. upshaw and ingram are instant starters.

[Stonehands]

The Jets have filled their line backing corp over the last few years with guys that were long on size and short on speed. Guys like Von Miller with plus size speed ratios are nearly impossible to get, but we need to be more conscious of speed when drafting linebackers. The Steelers have inside linebackers that can run and it gives them better pass defense on tight ends and backs and the ability to shoot gaps and make plays in the backfield. With Harris manning one of of the inside backer positions, we need to add some speed to the mix this offseason.

[Barton]

Again, I will say the name.....

Zach Brown, UNC

[SenorGato]

Again, I will say the name.....

Zach Brown, UNC

He'd be awesome inside for this team...Speed is such a need too...

[BroadwayJ667]

Burfict would be a fine pick, ONLY if they take him in the 2nd round. Barron would be a better pick in the 1st round. Somewhere in there they need to find a way to get TY Hilton, late second early third

[Maxman]

He'd be awesome inside for this team...Speed is such a need too...

Are the Jets allowed to have fast players? Seems to be some sort of regulation preventing it.

[Barton]

He'd be awesome inside for this team...Speed is such a need too...

I think he might be a better fit outside for us.

[bitonti]

I like Zach Brown but it's tough to project him as a pass rusher. He's like Aaron curry. super fast tackling machine, will work out like a freak, but not alot of impact plays.

look at a guy like Melvin Ingram's stat sheet he's got sacks, hurries, interceptions, blocked kicks, touchdowns off of fake punts (!) a million different ways he fills up the box score.

Zach Brown makes tackles. that's basically all he does. he's got 5 career sacks which is about as many as Dontari Poe or Almeda Ta'amu big nose tackles.

[afosomf]

I like Zach Brown but it's tough to project him as a pass rusher. He's like Aaron curry. super fast tackling machine, will work out like a freak, but not alot of impact plays.

look at a guy like Melvin Ingram's stat sheet he's got sacks, hurries, interceptions, blocked kicks, touchdowns off of fake punts (!) a million different ways he fills up the box score.

Zach Brown makes tackles. that's basically all he does. he's got 5 career sacks which is about as many as Dontari Poe or Almeda Ta'amu big nose tackles.

mayock was down on brown, doesnt shed off blockers well

[Maxman]

mayock was down on brown, doesnt shed off blockers well

I read that quick and it didn't read well...lol.

[SenorGato]

I think he might be a better fit outside for us.

Not at all. Too small and not a pass rusher.

[Barton]

I like Zach Brown but it's tough to project him as a pass rusher. He's like Aaron curry. super fast tackling machine, will work out like a freak, but not alot of impact plays.

look at a guy like Melvin Ingram's stat sheet he's got sacks, hurries, interceptions, blocked kicks, touchdowns off of fake punts (!) a million different ways he fills up the box score.

Zach Brown makes tackles. that's basically all he does. he's got 5 career sacks which is about as many as Dontari Poe or Almeda Ta'amu big nose tackles.

He had 5.5 sacks this year.........from a 4-3 OLB position. Once he bulks up, he'll be a versatile defender.

Jets will also have a LB capable of covering RBs out of the backfield for once.

[bitonti]

Once he bulks up, he'll be a versatile defender.

I have no problem with projects in the 2nd or 3rd rounds. the 1st round pick should be good at the role they are drafting him for already.

since we are on the subject, Utah State LB Bobby Wagner was awesome in coverage. maybe the best coverage LB i've seen in Mobile for years.

[Barton]

I have no problem with projects in the 2nd or 3rd rounds. the 1st round pick should be good at the role they are drafting him for already.

since we are on the subject, Utah State LB Bobby Wagner was awesome in coverage. maybe the best coverage LB i've seen in Mobile for years.

Saying he'll become even better once he bulks up does not make him a project. It means he has great potential.

His floor from day 1 is on par with any LB in this draft. But his ceiling is higher than most.

Ingram looks good but his speed and agility tests will be crucial because I do not see elite explosion from him. JMO.

[flgreen]

The Meanest Man in College Football: Vontaze Burfict

PUBLISHED 6 months and 3 days ago

LAST UPDATED 6 months and 3 days ago

Matt Hayes Sporting News

Text size A A A

We begin with a story because it’s those tales of you’re-not-going-to-believe-this moments that best describe Vontaze Burfict.

It was Week 3 of his freshman season in 2009, barely two months removed from the first time he had strapped on pads at Arizona State, walked onto the practice field and shown he was the best player in the park.

A Pac-12 coach calls Vontaze Burfict “deliciously violent.” An NFL scout calls him “what you get after you kick Ray Lewis’ dog.” (AP Photo)

Deep into the fourth quarter on a steamy night in Athens, Ga., the score was tied. The player Georgia coach Mark Richt would later say “should be playing in the (NFL) right now” saw from his middle linebacker spot that the defensive front was lined up incorrectly. So he did the unthinkable.

As the umpire walked away after marking the ball ready for play, Burfict pushed the official into the Georgia line of scrimmage to stop the play and allow the defense to reset.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” ASU quarterback Brock Osweiler says. “I said to one of our coaches,

‘Did he just do what I think he just did?’ ”

And that’s just half the story.

After the reset, with Georgia in a goal-line power formation, Burfict timed the snap, leapt over the line of scrimmage, his body flying into Bulldogs fullback Fred Munzenmaier and disrupting the play.

As quickly as he landed, he popped up to his knees and pulled Munzenmaier down for a loss.

“For every great story you have about Vontaze,” says Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck, “another guy on another team will say he has one better.”

Here’s the best one of all: The toughest, meanest, nastiest player in the college game—the guy opponents fear and officials target, the guy once benched by his own coach because his violent makeup led to too many personal fouls—barely says two words away from his 53⅓-by-100-yard lined playground.

He is the ultimate enigma. A shy and reserved son who loves his mother and football and focuses on little else and a destructive, intimidating linebacker whose exploits have become so famous—or infamous, depending on how you see it—he has become a YouTube phenom.

Don’t believe it? Type Vontaze Burfict into the search field, and watch the ensuing carnage.

A Pac-12 coach calls him “deliciously violent.” An NFL scout calls him “what you get after you kick Ray Lewis’ dog.”

When told this story would proclaim him the “meanest man in college football,” four soft words escaped with one breath:

“I would love that.”

After an offseason of turmoil, after both teams that played in last year’s BCS national championship game find themselves in the middle of NCAA investigations, a crossroads season begins with little certainty about where the game is headed.

Leave it to a guy who idolizes Ray Lewis and Dick Butkus, who at 6-3, 252 pounds has eye-popping closing speed, to bring it all into focus. The game is still about blocking and tackling and X’s and O’s and ultimately about who plays defense.

It’s the Arizona State defense—and Burfict’s place in it—that reveals some delicious possibilities this fall for the Sun Devils: perhaps a Pac-12 championship, a national championship and maybe even a Heisman Trophy run for the nation’s best defensive player. All from a team that finished 6-6 last season and from a player very few know about outside the West Coast.

So while every television bobblehead and basement blogger knows every statistic connected to Luck and his fabulous right arm, maybe it’s time to go retro and celebrate the beauty that is violence. Unvarnished, unhinged, unreal physical violence.

“I know one thing,” says Oregon State coach Mike Riley. “Somebody is taking a blow every play (Burfict is) on the field.”

Poor Russel Hill. The Idaho State quarterback was just trying to get through a game two years ago

when his FCS Bengals played rent-a-victim for Arizona State in the season opener. That was also Burfict’s first game—Idaho State was the first opponent to experience the terror that is Burfict.

Midway through a typical blowout game against an FCS patsy, Burfict left his zone responsibility as Hill rolled left out of the pocket. Burfict’s rush from his spot 5 yards off the line of scrimmage to 5 yards into the backfield was so fast and furious, Hill could not avoid the collision.

Burfict hit Hill so hard with a textbook tackle—shoulder pads in stomach—Hill was knocked about four feet off the ground and four feet back before Burfict drove him into the turf.

“That kind of opened everybody else’s eyes,” Arizona State linebacker Colin Parker says, “but we knew what we had.”

Arizona State knew what it had on the field. But away from the field, away from the collisions and destruction that play out like a video game, there is real life—and there are reasons the most violent player on the field becomes the quietest person in the room like the flip of a switch.

There is a boy growing up in a single-parent household, who was named after a father who hasn’t seen or spoken to him in years. A boy raised by a mother who did all she could to protect her children, so she eventually moved from the streets of Los Angeles to Corona, Calif., because she could take no more.

“I earned my ‘I survived South Central’ T-shirt,” says Burfict’s mom, Lisa Williams. “I wasn’t going to put my kids through that anymore.”

Burfict, at age 12, devised a plan of his own. He’d go to the NFL and with his first paycheck buy his mother a beautiful home. When as a young man he recognized he couldn’t fulfill that dream without correcting his academic shortfalls, he made another decision that will someday help him take care of the mother who’d always taken care of him.

Burfict was a sophomore in high school when he decided he had to leave home and stay for weeks at a time with the family of Tia Magee, an academic counselor and mother of his Centennial High School—and current Arizona State—teammate Brandon Magee. Burfict was ineligible for nearly his entire sophomore season, and he had to make up a year and a half of coursework with summer school, night classes and independent courses over the next two years.

From near academic casualty to a player former USC coach Pete Carroll whined about upon losing the recruiting battle to Arizona State, Burfict now is arguably the most gifted—and complicated—player in the game.

“I’ve never seen anyone who can change his personality so quickly and so differently,” Arizona State defensive tackle Bo Moos says. “It’s almost like it’s building up and building up, and then he releases it when he’s in pads and gets on the field. Then you see the plays he makes, and it blows your mind.”

Like the first day of pads at ASU, when the sound of one of his hits reverberated.

“The entire practice just stopped,” former Sun Devils assistant coach and current Duke passing game coordinator Matt Lubick says. “We kind of looked at each other and said, ‘Whoa, we’ve got something here.’ ”

Or the play against Washington in 2009, when Burfict shot the gap on a fly sweep, knocked the guard off his feet and made the tackle. During film study, coaches replayed the moment over and over in sheer disbelief.

“I swear to God, he decleated a 325-pound guy,” Moos says. “You wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t on film.”

Or the play last year against Oregon, a game many NFL scouts say defines Burfict’s talent—which lies in his ability to chase and pursue from one side of the play to the other without giving up ground or explosive power—because the Ducks run read option plays where the quarterback reads the defensive tackle and directs the flow of the play away from his pursuit.

Burfict shot the gap, knocking Oregon guard Carson York into the backfield and forcing Ducks quarterback Darron Thomas to commit to handing off to tailback LaMichael James. Burfict then tackled both York and James—460-plus pounds of player—at the same time for a 5-yard loss.

“You’re thinking he can’t do that,” former Oregon center Jordan Holmes says, “and then he does it, and you’re left thinking, Holy cow.”

Or two years ago against Oregon State, when the Beavers ran a simple isolation play with tailback Jacquizz Rodgers. Left guard Grant Johnson was pulling to the right side. Burfict negotiated traffic, burst through a hole as the play was stringing out and hit Johnson—who was in front of Rodgers blocking—with such force that the near-300-pounder flew into Rodgers and put him on the turf.

“Oh yeah, I remember that one,” says James Rodgers, Jacquizz’s brother and then-Oregon State teammate. “Players, we see a lot of stuff on the field. It’s not often that you’re left saying, ‘Did he just do that?’ ”

Almost always, he did, and here’s the best part about it: He’s already moving on to the next play, the next adjustment, the next chance to get better. In this age of chest thumping, me-first peacocks primping and posturing for all to see, Burfict is a rarity.

He doesn’t really care about the highlight reel. In fact, he has never seen his videos on YouTube and doesn’t plan on searching. The game, he says, is simple: The toughest guy wins.

“Especially in the position I play,” Burfict says. “I can’t be soft. I’m going against 300-pound guys coming at me full speed. You’ve got to bring that violence.”

Sometimes that hellbent style does more harm than good. At least in the eyes of officials. Since that first game against Idaho State, he has built a unique relationship with them: He doesn’t like them, they don’t like him.

Arizona State has become so concerned about officials targeting Burfict, they sent game tape to the league office this offseason so new Pac-12 coordinator of officials Tony Corrente could better evaluate the situation. The league fired 11 officials after last season, and although commissioner Larry Scott didn’t give specifics, a Pac-12 source said poor and inconsistent calls during and after plays—including personal foul calls—were determining factors.

“People paint him as a monster, make it seem like he’s eating babies or something,” ASU linebacker Oliver Aaron says. “When he’s on the field, he’s not saying nice things; it’s definitely R-rated. Then you see him making plays 99 percent of the guys don’t make, and you can see how (officials) may have it out for him.

Every play is a highlight.”

So everyone has a story. Like the time Burfict—from one knee—threw a perfect spiral 60 yards in practice.

Or the time in a high school all-star game when a game of rock, paper, scissors with a teammate allowed him one carry at tailback—a carry he took 73 yards for a touchdown.

Or when people would tell Lisa Williams that her youngest son wouldn’t make it, that he’d be a “street thug” because he didn’t like school and didn’t want to put in the effort to change.

Or when, after yet another All-American-level performance last season, Burfict stood outside the gates at Sun Devil Stadium and signed autographs and mingled with young fans long after the crowd of players and coaches had thinned out.

“I told Junior, I’m so proud of who you have become,” Williams says. “He looked at me and said,

‘Mom, that was me once before.’ ”

For every story you’ll hear about Vontaze Burfict, someone somewhere will have one better.

Read more: http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/story/2011-07-28/the-meanest-man-in-college-football-vontaze-burfict#ixzz1l9KFkyUF

[bitonti]

Saying he'll become even better once he bulks up does not make him a project. It means he has great potential.

as a pass rusher, he's a project.

[SenorGato]

as a pass rusher, he's a project.

It's just not happening.

[#27TheDominator]

I like Burfict for this team. I tend to think he will go higher than currently projected here unless he works out poorly. My favorite quote: "What you get when you kick Ray Lewis' dog."

[Damaged89]

I like Burfict for this team. I tend to think he will go higher than currently projected here unless he works out poorly. My favorite quote: "What you get when you kick Ray Lewis' dog."

That article screams "Rex guy". I'd be fine with it if he can cover and we find an edge rusher as well.

[SenorGato]

I like Burfict for this team. I tend to think he will go higher than currently projected here unless he works out poorly. My favorite quote: "What you get when you kick Ray Lewis' dog."

He's perfect for this team but I'm hoping he keeps ******* up and it's in the 2nd/3rd. He's a scary talent if he gets his head together.

Oh, and I would not mind the ASU QB as a project pick either.

[#27TheDominator]

He's perfect for this team but I'm hoping he keeps ******* up and it's in the 2nd/3rd. He's a scary talent if he gets his head together.

Oh, and I would not mind the ASU QB as a project pick either.

I agree. I'd be ecstatic to get him in the 3rd. I doubt it happens though. That's the giant qb? Interesting guy. I thought the same thing wwhen I saw him, but he'd be taking (heaven help us!) McElroy's spot.