These two Jets have been much maligned on this site and deserves some respect from their start to the season. Eric Smith for one, he is off to a great start to the season and was a major factor in yesterdays game. He looks to have a big role on this D this year. Pouha as well has been a factor adding some nice depth to the DLine. He seems to be greatly improved under Ryan.
When used properly, he's a big asset to the defense. When he's used as a safety in a standard sense, he's sometimes a liability. Thankfully, we have a true defensive strategist for a head coach now. Ryan has been implementing Smith perfectly.
I completely agree and was going to start a thread about Smith and Cactus. Glad you did. Smith probably won't ever wow us with his Safety skillset, but he blitzed effectively and he's definitely smart enough to play on this D (with all the pre-snap movement and timing). And, he didn't trip over himself yesterday either!
+1 I've noticed that too. Pouha looks like he's trying to replace Jenkins. And Smith has been in the right place at the right time on a lot of plays.
I'm wiht everyone including adding Cactus into this. While not eveyone stands out s in making great plays, none have them have stood out in making huge blunders as of yet as well. The D is functioning like a well oiled QB killing machine. I love it.
Ugh. I feel dirty for saying it, but I have to agree. Still want him replaced, though. Maybe after this season, a certain Charlotte resident will find the 3-4 defense he's been looking for. :smile:
I think we're finally going to see Cactus's full potential in Rex's scheme.....I watched him get penetration into the backfield on numerous occasions yesterday.
I think Thomas has been great, with the continued development of Westerman and hopefully Gholston I don't see OLB being a need in the near future.
The culture is changing man, get with it. I'm especially happy about Eric Smith, I have felt he has been unfairly bashed on this site in the past. I never saw him as bad as some of the posters led you to believe.
Pulling your plumb man :wink: I've had a hard-on for Smith for a while, anyone whos played SS/FS must have an affiliation to guys who play the position. Jim leonard smashes into Moss' back, result? No catch...
This was actually a very, very smart play by Leonhard. This was a tipped pass that Moss could've made a play on inside the endzone and Leonhard came and pushed him from behind to go out of bounds. Two years ago, this would've been called a force out, but Leonhard showed good awareness and prevented Moss from making a play.
I thought it was real interesting how we used him. Often times we would only play 6 in the box with a 3-3 and play all 3 safeties (rhodes, leonhard, and smith). Seemed to work pretty well holding maybe the best qb this generation to under 50% passing
Both third round picks that we questioned (and the draft analysts questioned) at the time but both have turned into nice role players/backup defensive players for us.
I have a question about that play: Leonhard waited until Moss was about to catch it, waited for the ball to reach Moss, and then pushed him out, as you said. However, since the ball was already tipped, couldn't Leonhard just have hit Moss or knocked him out of bounds way before the ball reached him? Because when I watched the replay, (a) Moss almost made that play and (b) Leonhard was there with Moss waiting for the ball, so he definitely had the chance to hit Moss earlier, in which case it wouldn't have even been that close. Does that make sense?
