Bryan Thomas, Vernon Gholston and Calvin Pace are supposed to be the big time pass rushers in this 3-4 defense. Pace seems to have a starting job locked in, but Thomas and Gholston will fight for the other OLB spot. All 3 of these guys are getting big money and have potential to have big seasons. We have lacked a big time pass rusher ever since John Abraham left, so my question is very simple. How many sacks with the 3 get combined this coming season?
Sack Numbers for Pace/Gholston/Thomas? Bryan Thomas, Vernon Gholston and Calvin Pace are supposed to be the big time pass rushers in this 3-4 defense. Pace seems to have a starting job locked in, but Thomas and Gholston will fight for the other OLB spot. All 3 of these guys are getting big money and have potential to have big seasons. We have lacked a big time pass rusher ever since John Abraham left, so my question is very simple. How many sacks with the 3 get combined this coming season?
Anything less than 15-20 between the three of them and I think the defense will be a dismal failure...the OLBs need to really step it up this season if we're to be competitive.
Pace: 8-11 - I think he'll really step it up and get after the QB. Gholston: 5-8 - EVERYONE will call him a bust when he gets under 10 sacks as a rookie. Thomas: 5-8 - How can you expect anything more from BT?
pace will probably get anywhere from 5-7, thomas could possibly get more than 7, but ill say he could get about 5-7 as well. gholston is a rookie and still has some unrefined skills that need to be worked out, but also has a huge upside even in his first season. so ill say he could get anywhere from 4-9
If Gholston gets 8 sacks in his rookie year, splitting time with other LBs, not only won't I call him a bust, I'll call him a big success.
Everyone needs to read this post by KurtTheJetsFan, and remember that Pace is not just here to get sacks. Gholston: 8 Thomas: 7 Pace: 6
Pace 6 Thomas 8 Gholston 6-8 depending on playing time I think they very well could go a 3-4 with pace and harris as the middle linebackers and gholston and thomas on the outsides. with the linebackers we have, i could see that unit alone getting 25-30 sacks. that doesnt include the front line or backs. this unit has the potential to be the best
I'm also going to factor David Bowens into my results, as he'll be used more as a situational pass rusher like Gholston probably will. Pace: 5 - 8 Thomas: 6 - 9 Gholston: 4 - 9 Bowens: 3 - 5 Total: 18 - 31 I'll take a bracket towards the lower end of these, so 21-25.
Calvin Pace is gonna notch 6 or 7. Bryan Thomas won't have any because he won't see the field. Vernon Gholston is going to break 10. But I have a bolder prediction. I think the type of confusing, smoke-and-mirrors blitzing our team likes to throw out is going to lead to a whole new prototype defensive player. The Blitzing Inside Linebacker. David Harris notches 10 sacks. He pulled down half that rushing in behind D-Rob. He'll double that now that Jenkins will be consistently double-teamed. BTW, Kerry Rhodes gets five. Three of them strips.
I see Gholston getting 8-11, Pace getting 5-9 and Thomas getting 5-8. Other guys will add to the total though.
I went with the popular vote of under 14 as I think the D will need to gel quite a bit before hopefully being as dominant as we would like them to be. Looking at our div, only the Phins should really bump the sacks column for us.
Repeated from another thread elsewhere herein: NT: Jenkins 3-5 sacks (last year Robertson had 4.0) NT: Pouha & Mosley 3 total ( Mosley had 3 last year, 1 in 2006 and 3 in 2005) DE: Ellis 6-8 sacks ( last year he had 5) DE: Coleman 3 sacks (one less than his career high in 2006) OLB: Pace 4-5 sacks (1-2 less than last year) OLB: Thomas: 7-8 sacks (He'll "overachieve" in 2008) OLB: Gholston 8-9 sacks OLB: Bowens 4-5 sacks OLB: Chatham 1 sack (Woo Hoo! Followed by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for performing a Gastineauesque sack dance over Brady) ILB: Barton 2-3 sacks (He had 2 last year and 5 the year before) ILB: Harris 6-8 sacks (5 last year) CB: Revis, Poteat, Barrett, Coleman, Lowery 1 sack FS: Rhodes 2-3 sacks (Had 2 last year and 5 the year before) Thomas, Gholston and Pace = 19-22 sacks
Gholston 11 Pace 9.5 Thomas 5.5 Gholston and Pace should easily be the starters starting week 1 or by midseason and each should have an impact right away with the JETS. Both guys won't be lazy like Bryan Thomas was last year but B. Thomas should improve on his sack numbers from last year. That should give all three guys a total of 26 sacks combined which would be amazing since the JETS defense as a team last year had 29 sacks total. Hopefully, we can finally see a return of a pass-rush from the JETS defense which has been lacking the past couple of years.
I expect our LB corps as a whole to produce upwards of 30 sacks. That shouldn't even be hard...the main 4 (Gholston, Pace, Thomas, and Harris) have the ability to top that themselves.
