{"id":58530,"date":"2022-03-29T05:49:24","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T09:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jetnation.com\/?p=58530"},"modified":"2022-03-28T22:54:09","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T02:54:09","slug":"carl-lawson-update-saleh-on-new-defensive-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/2022\/03\/29\/carl-lawson-update-saleh-on-new-defensive-upgrades\/","title":{"rendered":"Carl Lawson Update; Saleh on New Defensive Upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday we had a few updates from Robert Saleh at the league meetings. He mentioned that AVT is moving to right guard<\/a><\/strong> and he also gave updates on Zach Wilson and the offense. Here is what coach Saleh had to say about free agency and the defense as the team prepares for the NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

On free agency additions\u2026<\/strong>
\nI feel like we really attacked the character side of the football game and our locker room. When you look at D.J. Reed and (Jordan) Whitehead and C.J. (Uzomah), (Tyler) Conklin and Laken (Tomlinson) and I\u2019m sure I\u2019m forgetting someone.\u00a0(Inaudible: 2:10-2:17)<\/em>\u00a0They\u2019re bringing an edge to the locker room, they\u2019re bringing professionalism to the locker room and they\u2019re bringing a winning pedigree to the locker room. They\u2019ve all been in Championship games, they\u2019ve all been with winning organizations, so it\u2019s really exciting to get those guys here.<\/p>\n

On Carl Lawson\u2019s progress\u2026<\/strong>
\nHe\u2019s doing great, expecting him back for training camp. He\u2019ll be around the building, we\u2019ve already seen him. He\u2019s excited to get back. I mean the guy is watching tape on the draft picks, he\u2019s doing everything. He\u2019s fully involved, really excited to get him back.<\/p>\n

On Carl Lawson potentially returning earlier than training camp\u2026<\/strong>
\nWe wouldn\u2019t want him to, there\u2019s no point in rushing him back.<\/p>\n

On the additions of Reed and Whitehead\u2026<\/strong>
\nD.J. Reed, I always talk about Nate Shepherd being the king of strain, D.J. Reed is going to be right there with him for that crown. The young man works his absolute butt off and every single play you will feel the intensity of how he plays. Having him out there and his fight, obviously it helps the d-line a lot. Whitehead, what he\u2019s going to bring, along with his toughness and his tenacity, his ability to communicate and his mental football IQ is off the charts. To have him back there to be a stabilizing force for our young defensive backfield, again, couldn\u2019t be happier that he\u2019s here and really excited to see him play.<\/p>\n

On the outlook of the defense for next season\u2026<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s going to be a lot better. Last year, I\u2019m not making excuses, but it is what it is, last year we had that four-game stretch in the middle of the year where we got beat up. But before the Bye Week, we were playing at a pretty good level. After those four games, we played significantly better. I think we ranked like 18th, which is still not good enough, but we were better a year ago at the end of the last half of the year. Those four games in the middle of the season were so bad we could never recover. So, very confident, especially when we get Carl back, and we continue to add in the draft and our young guys continue to get better. Really excited about our group and its ability to get better.<\/p>\n

On the possibility of drafting an edge rusher\u2026<\/strong>
\nYou guys know me, I\u2019ve said it before, if we had the Fearsome Foursome, we\u2019d still be wanting to add a pass rusher. It\u2019s always going to help. If the opportunity presents itself, we\u2019ll get it, but we\u2019re not going to force the position either. John Franklin-Myers is in good shape, obviously with Carl, we added Jacob Martin, Bryce Huff is still in the fold, so we still feel good about our defensive line as it stands. Quinnen (Williams) is getting ready to have a really good year and Sheldon Rankins, so it\u2019s still a really good group. It allows us the ability not to have to force the issue at any of our draft picks. Again, if someone is there, we\u2019ll pounce on it.<\/p>\n

On Whitehead\u2019s fit on defense\u2026<\/strong>
\nYou know, with Jordan, he did a lot of different things in Tampa. Played corner, played nickel, played safety, did a lot of different things which shows he has the mental aptitude to be able to handle a big workload. He\u2019s going to play one spot and do a handful of things, so really excited to see where he can go when he\u2019s asked to do the same thing over and over and over again. Everyone is different philosophically, but honing in on a position where he can put himself on repeat, we always feel like a guy can maximize and really take his game to another level. And with how instinctive he is, when he\u2019s seen the same things over and over again, it\u2019ll allow him to trigger a lot faster. Really excited for his opportunity and really excited to see where he could take this defense.<\/p>\n

On Demeco Ryans\u2026<\/strong>
\nJust from when he was a QC even, Demeco, definitely on the fast tracked as everyone sees, but it\u2019s deserved. He\u2019s incredible intelligent, he\u2019s got a tremendous demeanor to him, he\u2019s got great presence to him, very organized, very detailed and I know he pulled himself out of the head coaching race this year, but I promise, whoever hires him as a head coach is going to be very, very fortunate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday we had a few updates from Robert Saleh at the league meetings. He mentioned that AVT is moving to right guard and he also gave updates on Zach Wilson and the offense. Here is what coach Saleh had to say about free agency and the defense as the team prepares for the NFL Draft. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":56675,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,213],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-58530","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-injury-report","8":"category-jet-news"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Carl_Lawson.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-fe2","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58530","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58541,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58530\/revisions\/58541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}