{"id":10546,"date":"2012-01-31T02:05:04","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T06:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jetnation.com\/?p=10546"},"modified":"2012-03-17T11:49:18","modified_gmt":"2012-03-17T15:49:18","slug":"linebackers-wanted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/2012\/01\/31\/linebackers-wanted\/","title":{"rendered":"Linebackers Wanted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Linebackers Wanted!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Jets have drafted 23 players over the last five years.\u00a0 Of those picks only two were linebackers, Vernon Gholston now \u2018thankfully\u2019 gone drafted in 2008 and David Harris drafted in 2007.\u00a0 Bryan Thomas most likely will not be retained.\u00a0 Bart Scott has become a part time player and will be 32 in August. \u00a0\u00a0Calvin 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.<\/p>\n

Looking at the free agent market not to many names jump out.\u00a0 Yes, Mario Williams would be great but I just don\u2019t see how it is financially possible given the salary cap position the Jets are in.\u00a0 The Jets may want to sign a stop gap guy with some NFL experience but a truly impactful player may be out of reach.<\/p>\n

While I love reading mock drafts I\u2019ve never seen one that turned out to be correct.\u00a0 It\u2019s too hard with all the trades and rising and falling players.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what the Jets will do in the draft, trade up, down or neither but I\u2019ve tried to lay out some linebackers, where I think they\u2019ll be drafted, and why I like certain ones.\u00a0 The Jets have a glaring need for speed, athleticism and more depth especially at linebacker hopefully these needs can be addressed in this draft.<\/p>\n

The Big Names Possible Top 20 picks:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Courtney Upshaw, OLB – Alabama<\/p>\n

Whitney Mercilus, DE\/OLB – Illinois<\/p>\n

Nick Perry, DE\/OLB – USC<\/p>\n

Early Picks, More Likely if The Jets Trade Back:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vontaze Burfict, ILB \u2013 Arizona State:\u00a0 Burfict is a versatile ultra aggressive player whom I watched many late nights during the PAC-12 season.\u00a0 He can play inside or outside.\u00a0 He has great speed and plays to contact.\u00a0 You can blitz him or drop him back to cover, maybe even a tight end. \u00a0\u00a0I can just see a Tom Brady sandwich with Mo Wilkerson and Burfict as the bread.\u00a0 I\u2019d love to see a Harris\/Burfict combo for years to come.<\/p>\n

Dont\u2019a Hightower, ILB \u2013 Alabama:\u00a0 Hightower played within a 3-4 system for Nick Saban and went up against elite talent of the SEC week after week.\u00a0 He\u2019s a solid tackler and can get after the quarterback.\u00a0 Big, strong and fast would be a fine consolation prize if Burfict is gone.<\/p>\n

Vinny Curry, DE\/OLB \u2013 Marshall:\u00a0 If the Jets get a stud ILB and also land Curry life would be good.\u00a0 Curry can get up on the quarterback but is big enough to set the edge and play the run.\u00a0 He has good speed and could also play with his hand in the dirt if need be.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0If the jets trade back in the 1st<\/sup> they may be able to move up into the early 2nd<\/sup> if need be to get Curry without losing to many precious picks.<\/p>\n

Mid Round Pick:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tank Carder, ILB \u2013 TCU:\u00a0 Reminds me of his ex-teammate now Cardinal Daryl Washington.\u00a0 Carter is good tackler who can also play in space.\u00a0 He has a nose for the ball and can make plays against the pass. \u00a0might be a little bit of a project, if available in the fourth round he\u2019s a good value for some depth.<\/p>\n

Later Round Pick:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cordarro Law, OLB \u2013 Southern Miss.:\u00a0\u00a0 Will be interested in seeing how he does at the combine.\u00a0 Has good football speed can play in space as well as get after the quarterback.\u00a0 Law played well in the Conference USA Championship game against Houston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linebackers Wanted! The Jets have drafted 23 players over the last five years.\u00a0 Of those picks only two were linebackers, Vernon Gholston now \u2018thankfully\u2019 gone drafted in 2008 and David Harris drafted in 2007.\u00a0 Bryan Thomas most likely will not be retained.\u00a0 Bart Scott has become a part time player and will be 32 in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-nfl-draft"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-2K6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10546"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11506,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10546\/revisions\/11506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}