I considered the move to ILB, but I don't like that option for a couple reasons. 1) There's no room for him there. 2) He can put the weight on to be an end. He's a workout warrior who loves bodybuilding. If anyone were even in a position to put on that much weight, and have it be "good" weight, it's him.
By his age and with his level of training he is pretty much at the end of his genetic rope as far as how much lean body mass he can build. Any significant weight he would put on at this point would be fat - which would not be such a bad thing if he were to move to DE. This is without the aid if drugs of course.
There will be room for him there sooner or later. Harris has been hurt several times already with the Jets and he was hurt several times at Michigan. The real question would be: does Vernon Gholston want to play football? If the answer is no then he'll just play out the string for another couple of seasons and walk away with his hopefully well-invested rookie contract to live on.
That's not true. It's wholly dependent on his training regimen. Granted, it's not as "easy" to combine proper nutrition with proper weight training, but given his own history, he's definitely got a leg up on the average person in his age group. I'd rather he stayed lean. His strength comes from, well, strength. He's powerfully strong because he's a workout warrior. I read that he's been weight training since before he was a teen, so who knows what would happen if he changed lean mass into fatty weight. He definitely would have some hard work ahead of himself to get into the right weight, but his alternative is being home without a salary.
I see ILB as a more instintive position, If we have learned anything about the Ghost is that his instints are lacking!
You are right about him being a pass rusher in the nickel with his hand down, whether it's in a standard nickel or a 335 set, that's how they have mostly used him. As much as I want immediate production from this guy, I think the whole idea behind drafting him in addition to signing Calvin Pace was to give him some time to grow. I'm as impatient as the next guy, and I don't really like the idea of the Jets paying this dude 6th overall money to be a learning depth player, if that is the plan, then I hope it works. If he eventually turns into something, I'll be a happy dude. Hopefully it's right around the time BT's contract is up. Or right before it, so we can trade Cactus for some decent picks to make up for the years he was ineffective.
I agree with you about him staying lean. He seems to have a pretty low bodyfat % so he could probably get away with putting on 10 lbs of weight and have it not affect his speed too much but I wouldn't want him to get much heavier.
He was very quick on that game saving solo against Chris Johnson. His speed was on display if u ask me. He needs to learn a few tricks to get off blocks. Im sure Ryan can teach him those. He's in a new scheme yet again and as we have noticed, he is a slow learner. Maybe he'll be worth his money next year. He's definitely not being released by end of this yr (cap hit).
If he racks up some decent stats this year, some idiot team like the Redskins, who don't have any realistic concept of the draft, could easily overpay picks for him. Or some team in dire need of DE help and is switching to a 3-4. Not all teams are run by geniuses.
Bryan Thomas has actually been a plus player for the Jets this year. I expect him to bookend for Pace just fine. In fact I'm looking for him to breakout when Pace comes back.
I was talking about it in another thread, when Pace comes back, they won't be able to run the ball at Gholston every time he's on the field, because that will probably equal about 10 times at most. Thomas is going to rack some stats up something fierce from this point forward.
Gholston is very strong and plays strong his biggest problem is he has one move and thats the bull rush by bringing in chuck smith i would not be surprised if gholston develops some nice moves and be comes a solid contributor to our defense in college he was so strong and althetic he could throw people around but that doesnt work in the nfl so he must improve his technic to fully use his strengths.