If you actually watch an entire OSU game, he will have a couple of splash plays, but 95% of the time he pushes on the OT for a few seconds, then stands there.
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He went full meltdown mode.
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Tell me if I’m wrong about this, but I asked a buddy of mine who like you is a diehard Buckeye fan, and while he calls him Saint Jack now, he admitted that he thought Jack was a disappointment for 3 1/2 years considering all the hype when he came in.
That checks out for me, I don’t remember you being his biggest fan either until this past half-season tear that helped win you guys the natty. If you take your fan hat off and put your scout cap on, does that change anything?
Not as much as you’d think.
After the Oregon loss this year was really the first time under Jim Knowles that Jack (and J.T.) was really allowed to actually rush the passer. We completely changed our philosophy when it came to pass rush, and we freed up our elite DL recruits to do what we recruited them for.
I believe it was you (correct me if I’m wrong) who mentioned around mid-season that Jim Knowles had previously only coached one 10+ sack player (at OKST) in his pretty good history as a DC. After we made the change mid-season, we immediately saw Jack and J.T. become more productive as pass rushers, and they (J.T. especially) finally started to look like the players we recruited them to be.
Joel Klatt did a really great job of breaking our changes down on his podcast over the course of the season. Here’s his reaction to the Rose Bowl, where he pretty much summarizes it all at 7:50.
Sure they had more games than in a “normal” season because of the expanded playoff, but J.T. finished with 12.5 sacks and Jack had 9. It’s pretty evident even just by looking at the stat sheet that we changed our defensive structure, and because of that, I believe we were revealed to the players that Jack and J.T. actually can be rushing the passer.
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Did he play at all before Knowles got there? I thought he sort of bounced around positionally while they tried to figure out what to do with him for a while?
And I would file this under “why I do not pay any attention to what college my NFL players attended,”.
So crazy to hang onto that stuff. I guess Decker needs to go also…UM fans can be a problem.
So his and J.T’s first year was in 2021 as true freshmen. Knowles got there in 2022. J.T. played in sort of a rotation with Zach Harrison, and Jack was supposed to play the JACK linebacker position that Knowles brought with him from Oklahoma State.
The “JACK” in that version of Knowles’ defense was a player that could ideally put his hand in the dirt, and then also be able to play stand up LB to move into sort of a 3-3-5 look when needed. Of course, we see a ton of that style of defense in the Big 12 with all of the passing attacks that are featured in that conference, but that look didn’t work too well against the power of B1G teams.
Also, we found out that Jack Sawyer is pretty shitty at playing off ball LB. Who would’ve guessed?
But that position has so many responsibilities attached to it that we almost had to keep Sawyer there that whole season. Then, in 2023, Sawyer moved to DE full time, and the JACK was essentially eliminated from our defensive structure.
My only concern on Sawyer is his overall athletic ability. Clearly a Spielman type player which I am not sure plays well in todays NFL. Can you imagine asking Spielman to cover TEs all day? We would all likely be losing our minds.
I like JT much better. But if you are going to take him in 3rd - 4th then yeah he appears to be a hard worker, smart, and high motor. The question is does he have the first step and overall bend to be a productive NFL DE? He feels more like a 2 down DE and not a 3 down guy. And I could be wrong as maybe he just needed to be set free.
I know Hutch’s numbers really changed as the defense allowed him to just get after the QB.
Also Sawyer could be having issues because he was across from JT and maybe I am downgrading him because his running mate is so athletic.
Maybe I guess it wasn’t that podcast, but in one of them (post-Texas or pre-Notre Dame), he mentions how instead of our rushers being told to stay in their rush lanes even past the drop point of the QB, that we then allowed J.T. and Jack to speed rush to the drop point, and told them to anchor there to power rush through the QB.
Instead of essentially keeping contain and not generating pressure, they were told to generate pressure, because we could now have a blitzing nickel or a stunting DT responsible for the contain.
Previous to the first Oregon game, we NEVER stunted. We just had everyone rushing straight up and getting blocked.
This is where @Jman wants to use him…
Jman wants to use Jack Sawyer to the best of his abilities.
But like Jack Campbell his rookie year…playing edge. You can put Sawyer out there anyway you can to get him on the field to rush the passer.
Paschal can’t edge rush and Barnes is likely gone so throw him in there and let him get at it
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So I got lost in a little web spiral researching this (I’m doing my deep dive on JTT today), and found this article from the Athletic probably the most helpful. It really seems like it was a combo of changing coverages + blitzing + guys just playing with more urgency. Like the author said, hard to put a finger on one reason (which is what I was trying to do). I don’t know that it will really change my evals much overall, except that you love to see guys stepping up in the biggest moments. Alongside that you wonder why they weren’t playing with that urgency in the first place, so it’s probably something of a wash for me.
It’s hard to identify just one reason Ohio State’s defensive line has made such drastic improvement because there are multiple. Ohio State is disguising more things on the back end than it did all season, which is giving quarterbacks trouble, but it’s also do-or-die time for the Ohio State defense.
GO DEEPER
Ohio State’s Will Howard hitting postseason stride: ‘He runs this whole team’
Nine starters from the 2023 season returned to win a national championship, including Tuimoloau and Sawyer. They don’t want to let this moment pass them by.
“You get down to the end, and they want to keep playing together,” Knowles said. “They don’t want it to stop. Sometimes when you get to these moments of your career, we have veterans, there’s always that a little bit of extra level. That’s human nature. You think you have given it all until everything is on the line, and then you see, OK, wow, I do have an extra to give. I think you are seeing some of that.”
In the last two years, Knowles talked about his struggle to find balance at Ohio State like sending pressure, but not leaving people wide open in the secondary. Or playing coverage, but not giving quarterbacks all day to throw.
That was a massive talking point after the Oregon loss even with former Alabama coach Nick Saban saying that Ohio State had an “antiquated” pass rush scheme.
It’s been anything but that since, especially in the Playoff.
Ohio State dominated Oregon in a 41-21 quarterfinal win in which the Buckeyes sacked Dillon Gabriel eight times. (Robert Hanashiro / Imagn Images)
Ohio State had a blitz rate of just 7.5 against Oregon, its lowest of the season, but had 24 pressures. That was a season-high with the second-most pressures this season being 23 against Northwestern followed by 19 against Tennessee.
Ohio State has 43 quarterback pressures in two games.
On one hand, it looks like Ohio State’s defensive line is playing with an intensity that just wasn’t there in the regular season.
“I think our mentality these last couple weeks has been really just going after it, you know?” Cody Simon said. “I don’t want to say it wasn’t before that, but when it was time to go and get it, I think our guys have really been standing up for the challenge.”
It’s also a byproduct of how Knowles’ defense has evolved in his three years with Ohio State.
It’s hard for the common fan to see what’s happening on the field, particularly in the secondary, during a game. But Ohio State is changing its post-snap coverage often.
Disguising coverages is about more than faking blitzes. Ohio State has, at times, come out showing man coverage pre-snap and then dropped into a one-high or even three-high safety look.
That leads to quarterbacks holding onto the ball, giving Ohio State’s defensive line more time to rack up the pressures and sacks.
In the Rose Bowl, Dillon Gabriel held the ball for an average of 3.28 seconds per snap, per TruMedia, a drastic difference from the 2.39 time to release he had in the Oct. 12 game.
“You have to change the picture post-snap. That forces him to hold the ball and try to figure it out,” Knowles said.
GO DEEPER
Why nobody can stop this version of Ohio State: Final thoughts from the Rose Bowl
Knowles implemented his defense in 2022, but it took time for everybody to get used to what he wanted. Two years later, not only is everyone acclimated to what Knowles wants to call, but they are experienced.
“The staff has grown, but it’s a bunch of players who have grown and stuck together and played a lot of football now,” head coach Ryan Day said. “The combination of the scheme and the guys understanding how the scheme has adapted over time. That is one of the most important things. … You might have some talent, but when you have guys who have played a lot of football you can adjust quickly, put game plans together and guys recognize plays.”
More than experience, there’s also versatility in the secondary. Jordan Hancock has been an important piece of the defense because of his ability to play outside corner, slot and safety.
In the second half of the season, when Ohio State really began disguising things, Knowles made the conscious decision to move All-America safety Caleb Downs into the box more often to get him a chance to make more plays. That meant Hancock had to play safety at times and even go from the slot into a deep safety position after the snap.
There are weeks when Hancock doesn’t know what position he’s playing until Thursday (of a normal game week), but it’s not hard to adjust because he knows the whole defense.
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Keep in mind we are talking about the end of round 1 here. Not a concensus top 3 overall pick.
What else do you want out of a guy at pick #28? That’s my question
Not to mention…Team Captain. Recruiter for the program. And some say he’s one of the greatest buckeyes of all time.
I certainly don’t question all the intangible stuff, I’ve said many times he’s a glove fit in that respect. It’s just when I watch him, man I don’t see NFL athlete. I just don’t. He’s a try-hard guy… maybe a very, very good one, but he fits in that bucket for me. If we’re talking mid-rounder, OK, I can wrap my head around it. But 1st round pick? Yeah, I just can’t get there. And I doubt I ever will. Maybe 2nd round, but like I said that’s way too high for me as well.
He reminds me of Ben Boulware. He’s on the list of greatest Clemson Tigers ever, absolute undisputed leader of their first national championship team in decades, gritty, nasty, made a couple of huge plays in their biggest games… but ultimately wasn’t an NFL athlete and went undrafted. Sawyer’s not that bad of an athlete, like I said he’d be at the top of the list of that type, but I just don’t think he would sniff the 1st round if he played somewhere like Wake Forest. Hell I don’t think he’d sniff the first 2 days, even with the same production.
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It’s a fair concern I get it. I just tend to think we will lean this way more than a guy like Mike Green who got kicked off the team.
I keep seeing a lot of comparisons to Jaelan Phillips for the way he plays the game and highly recruited etc.
Also have to keep in mind RAS scores aren’t neccesarily the end-all determination for if a player is good or not.
Look at Brian Branch.
Look as Lassiter last year, after a bad 40 he never got mentioned again yet he was a top graded coverage CB and had 3 picks last year very good rookie season.
The good news is, we will have plenty of options to choose from in the trenches since it is a nice draft for this position group…so Brad will get to take his pick and we can all rest easy knowing we got our guy.
I just look and see Nolan & Sawyer as guys like you can’t miss on …you will at least get a solid football player with a high floor.
But you and others see it differently…and that’s ok
Yes trust me, I like it better when I was mocking him late round 3 last year to us. Just not the case anymore.
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Just not the case anymore in the draft community, but it might be in the actual draft. The draft community is an overreactionary bunch. You can feel it happening with Bech, Zabel, Belton, Skattebo, etc… and that’s true of Sawyer too imo. Those are all excellent prospects, but I saw Zabel mocked to the Jets at 7 recently. 7!! It gets out of hand, we see it every year.
Oh, 100%. Green won’t even be on our board. But if he had Sawyer’s intangibles, he’d be really, really high on our board. Much higher than Sawyer. He fails a different part of our test.
No, I actually agree with this totally. I see it the exact same way.
Where we disagree is what we’re willing to pay for a solid player with a high floor. No way I’m spending a 1st rounder on that. Ideally you want high ceiling and high floor - which you ought to be able to do in the first.
Right, it’s not the RAS that matters, it’s the athleticism on tape. That’s why I had no concerns about Branch’s athleticism, he clearly flew around on tape, especially in short areas. Yes, his long speed was clearly lacking - which showed in the testing - but that was never a concern for me. Also, safety is much more about instincts than it is anything else, which isn’t true of edge.
Sawyer’s different, his lack of athleticism shows up in many ways on the tape. He absolutely cannot corner, and he’s slow out of the gates. He lacks explosion AND agility, two key elements of edge play in the league. His best trait is his long speed (so, the opposite of Branch), which really doesn’t matter much at edge.
In fact even if he tests well, I trust what I see on the tape over a guy who’s practiced all the drills so he can crush them.
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That’s a really spot on assessment. Great post brotha. I don’t have much more to add, except for I have been right many times before and I have ben wrong many times before.
I’m not saying he’s TJ Watt. I’m not saying he’s Quinton Groves. Somewhere in between. Which isn’t saying much 
but my infatuations can vary widely for certain position groups.
Edge being one. Safety being another. No way you could’ve convince me that Kam Chancellor and Taylor Mays should not be first rounders.
But, with Sawyer football character/production/ability… and my perceived position flexibility DE,SLB 3-4, or 3-3-5 Jack Edge rusher. I just think you can win Super Bowls with guys like that on defense.
Vrabel types.
I think he could be some type of mix of Jaelan Phillips & George Karlaftis. And to me that is a round 1 player.
Fair enough, and I understand the love, truly. Easy guy to root for. I just think we can find Vrabel types for cheap. Like the Pats did, when they signed Vrabel as a FA for pennies.
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You could be right. I didn’t think Nakobe Dean would be a 3rd rounder either so we will see!