Micheal Clemons could represent the missing New York Jets defensive piece (EDGE)
One of the critical aspects New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh made clear after his hiring is this: He feels as though he needs pass rushers in order to have a successful defense.
In his first offseason as head coach—paired with general manager Joe Douglas—the Jets were able to land two effective rushers in Carl Lawson and Vinny Curry.
Unfortunately, the team lost both players prior to the start of the 2021 NFL season.
The full (over two hour) member-only Micheal Clemons film breakdown can be seen at the bottom of this article (if you're a subscriber and logged into the site).
Entering his second offseason as head coach, fans knew the Jets would still want to address edge-rusher. The question remained, “How far would they travel in that regard?”
Not only are the Jets getting Lawson and the re-signed Curry back in tow, but they also enter 2022 with an underrated pass-rusher in Houston Texans EDGE Jacob Martin.
Even with all of these additions, fans (and Saleh, I’m sure) still wanted an upper-tier edge-rushing prospect in the 2022 NFL draft, in order to solve the Jets’ nearly two-decade EDGE rush problem (since John Abraham was shipped to the Atlanta Falcons).
The Jets somewhat, fortunately, landed Florida State’s Jermaine Johnson late in the first round. That meant, of course, the Jets were done addressing the edge position. Right? …
Wrong.
In the fourth round of the 2022 NFL draft, the Jets select another edge rusher in Texas A&M’s Micheal Clemons, the kid Blewett Blitz breaks down in his latest in-depth film review.
- Was he a luxury pick?
- Was he worth the selection?
- What can we expect in year 1?
- What are his strengths and weaknesses?
All of these questions and more are answered in this edition of Blewett’s Blitz. Plus, a list of strengths and weaknesses are listed below (to go along with the two-hour member-only Micheal Clemons film breakdown that can be found at the bottom of this article).
Blewett’s Blitz YouTube clip and podcast episode
Strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
- Strength
- Aggressiveness
- Violently sheds blocks
- Arm length
- Pop in hands
- Flashes strong stack and shed
- Thump as tackler
- Pass rush includes strong club-rip, stab-chop and cross-chop. Other moves include chop-rip, swipes and spins
- Versatility to play inside in limited reps
- Grip strength
- Uses one arm stab to keep clean and soften the edge
- Straight line burst/speed
- Goes for strips/knockouts when after QB
- Foot drive vs double teams to create havoc
- High effort player
- Ability to redirect to bull rush after the initial move doesn’t work
- Enlongates stride as he anticipates clearing blockers hips
Weaknesses
- Tight hips
- Boxy
- Bend
- Can struggle to disengage cleanly
- Fluidity
- Flexibility
- Needs to add to more pass rush moves
- Can play high
- Struggles in space
- Delayed trigger in run game shows up
- High waisted
- Inconsistent edge setter (can shed inside early)
- Comes into tackles high
- Can telegraph moves
- Lateral agility
- Can struggle to regain balance once he losses it
- Some reps of him being late off the ball
- Can struggle to disengage blocks when he has to cross face
- Plays some blocks wrong (pulls, down blocks, etc.)
- Feet can stall in rush
- More consistent pre-snap coil needed
- Spacial awareness
- Can shed late in the run game
- Can play with more control
- Hand accuracy
- Can throw hands early
- Tackling in space
- Lacks consistency in pass rush plan
- Can stack with more consistency in hand pop
- Relies on cross chop too often
- Hands can land high in the run game
- Can struggle to corner
- defeating containment/secondary punches
- Hip height hurt him in winning the hip leverage battle
Member-only Micheal Clemons film breakdown (full two-hour review)
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