Rutgers defensive lineman Aaron Lewis tells ESPN that he’s returning to school for a fifth season
- Thread starter Tango Two
- Start date
Oh yeah! First Powell, now Lewis! C'mon Flip, Wes, Beam! What are you waiting for? We need you guys!
We need Toure and Flip to say Yes …now!!!!!!
If that turns out to be true, that's pretty huge. I'm a little surprised he didn't leave for the NFL, TBH.
He seems/seemed pretty banged up to me. He had gone down at least a couple times, probably more, in the final few games.
Which is what makes it so important, at this juncture, to keep as many of our productive players as possible for next season. Getting lots of players back buys some more time to continue to develop the pipeline of competent players coming in to maintain progress on improving the level of play.
Building depth is critical to maintaining upward momentum. Have a bad season and it'll get harder to pull in good players and harder to build that depth, and we'll lose some momentum.
I haven't looked at the stats, but he did seem to have more sacks and hurries the prior year. I figured teams scouted him based on that season and planned for him better this season. But that's just a guess.
He was double teamed a lot this year, and we were not as dominant at DT as last year. I would also not be shocked if he was hurt this year.
I would've thought that NFL scouts would see that he was double-teamed and made some allowance for that, perhaps looked back to see clips from last year when he wasn't as often, perhaps.
OTOH, Lawrence Taylor was double and triple teamed and he still managed to get the QB. So what you say seems correct - he needs to figure out how to be more disruptive even when double-teamed and his NFL draft stock will rise.
He gets a lot of hits on the QB and pressure, but he missed 2-3 big sacks that I can remember this year. Adjusting to being the guy teams plan to stop a big time jump. I expect to see him have an awesome year next year.
I think he is the best DE that has ever played for RU.
Everyone loves Aaron Lewis. When all is said and done years from now I think he will be an NFL commentator.
I think AL is a more all around player against the run and pass. Turay was an elite edge rusher but not necessarily eat double teams in the run game. AL was a critical edge crusher in the run game that also could stretch the run out consistently sideline to sideline. He was able to split double teams but also collapse the double team without giving up gap superiority. One on one he is able to get up and force the QB to step up into the pocket. Many of our interior sacks were because AL created edge destruction on the pass rush. Sometimes he jumps inside and does not finish his sack. If he is able to finish that off he finishes with 2-3 more sacks this year.
You may want to look up someone named Nate Toran if you’re interested in all-time Rutgers greats for their performance on the banks.
Toran was an elite DE absolutely. But in regards to the modern game I still say that AL is the best DE we have had, especially in the B10 era.
Very hard to compare players 50 years ago to today. The size, speed, and game understanding have changed so much, it is a very different sport.
But in my regards about AL it is hard to project how AL would have done in the Big East, on the 2006 team, on the 1976 team etc.
I was trying to see Toran's height and weight, but was not immediately able to find that. I saw one thing that said he was 6 foot 5.