David Harris unappreciated already

[Kentucky Jet]

Recently things have changed. Gone are the days of wasting first round picks on Ken O’Brien, Roger Vick, Johnnie Mitchell (and NY NY has becoming Tight End Tight End) and Warren Sa…err Kyle Brady. The Mangenius has brought upon a new era. Last year the Jets passed on sexy picks like Matt Leinart and Vernon Davis to draft a cornerstone left tackle. They also allowed defensive star John Abraham to depart and instead solidified their O-Line with center Nick Mangold (who looks like a perennial pro-bowl.)

This year the Jets ended up with two high picks again, they traded up in the first (Revis) and second (Harris) rounds. Also much like last year, the second of the Jets pick is going to have more of an impact than the first.

Last year when the Jets switched to a 3-4 defense many players found themselves playing out of position. Bryan Thomas went from a speed rushing defensive end to an outside linebacker. Dewayne Robertson went from a one gap penetrating defensive tackle to a nose tackle (primarily responsible for taking up blockers.) Vilma went from having free roam over the football field as a middle linebacker to an inside line backer who had to shed blockers in order to make an impact play. Bryan Thomas, who previously looked like a first round bust broke out in his new role, however not all the players responded well to their new assignments. Robertson and Vilma struggled.

Robertson has the body type to play nose tackle. Jets fans can only hope he improves with time and experience at the position. In Vilma’s case he doesn't have the ideal 3-4 linebacker body. Vilma needed more help than just time and experience; Vilma needed a thumper to play next to him. He needed a big body linebacker who had experience playing in the 3-4 .A guy whose primary responsibility was going to be taking on blockers and keep Vilma free to play sideline to sideline.

Vilma got that help when he Jets traded up to draft David Harris.

Harris was unanimously rated the second best inside linebacker among draft experts, behind Patrick Willis. Harris, however really isn’t the same style of player as Willis.

(from Scott Wright's NFLDraftCountdown.com)

Willis is a bigger version of Jonathan Vilma, a speed linebacker who plays well in space, mainly going sideline to sideline. If you paired Vilma and Willis together in a 3-4 it would look good on paper, but in execution it would probably work about as well as Marbury and Francis in the same backcourt or Randolph and Curry in the same front court.

Harris is a thumper, a guy who is going to do all of the little things that often go unnoticed on a football field. When you see Vilma making more impact plays everyone is going to sing his praises. What you’re not going to see or hear is people singing Harris praises for engaging the offensive lineman that allowed Vilma to get free. That’s because engaging a blocker isn’t sexy, a sack, tackle for loss or a pick is. Harris is the fullback of the Jets defense. If the Jets defense makes a major leap this year, Harris is going to a major contributor, even though it will never show in the statistics.

So when the Pro-Bowl comes around and Jonathan Vilma is starting for the AFC squad remember what got him there.

David Harris is already unappreciated and he hasn’t even set foot upon a football field yet.

written by Jason Comak on his blog

[BwanaZulia]

Nice right up. I like the analogy to the fullback.

BZ

[The Troll]

Didn't we draft Anthony Schlegal last year?

[joewilly]

the title is a little misleading. I thought it was a good article. ya can't go too far wrong with a thumper at the linebacker position

[will]

Didn't we draft Anthony Schlegal last year?

Chalk it up to experience and move on?

[Mavrik]

Let's see how the kid plays first before we start talking about how unappreciated he his. We haven't even started a down in the season yet and we're already annointing him a great LB?