New York Jets: Trouble Brewing for Front Seven in Season Opener

I wrote a article a few days ago about which college football players the Jets should be looking at for the 2010 NFL draft. The theme of that piece was the lack of depth at the defensive end position, and if we did not address that in the draft next year, it could cause problems.

Well consider problems caused; it just came a little bit earlier than I expected.

News filtered out that Mike DeVito (pictured) had to leave the Jets preseason game against the Giants with a pulled hamstring.

The New York Daily News reported that it could cause DeVito to miss the season opener against the Houston Texans. Normally your third choice defensive end missing one game to open the season would not be considered that much of a problem, however with other issues plaguing the Jets front seven, it takes on added significance.

Starting defensive end Shaun Ellis is already suspended for the season opener after violating the substance abuse policy.

Ellis was stopped in November and charged with possession of marijuana, and was informed several weeks ago that as well as having to pay a $100,000 fine, he would also not be eligible for week one of the regular season.

Mike DeVito, who has caught the eye of Rex Ryan this preseason, was penned in to fill in for Ellis on opening day, but now his hamstring has thrown a curveball Rex Ryan's way and his choices for replacement are inexperienced and very thin.

This is another blow to the Jets who will already be without outside linebacker Calvin Pace, who is suspended for the first four regular season games after violating the leagues policy on performance-enhancing substances.

If DeVito can not play week one, there are only a select few defensive ends to choose from.

Ropati Pitoitua is the most likely candidate, signed by the Jets after being undrafted in 2008, he has quietly put together a nice preseason. Although we do have to keep this in perspective, his contribution has been against second and third stringers, although he has never really been given the chance to prove himself against starters.

At 6'8" and 290 lbs, Pitoitua would give the Jets height at the line and we have already seen him bat down passes this preseason. Pitoitua played the majority of his senior season at Washington State at the DT position but in his limited time at DE this preseason he has shown flashes of potential getting to the quarterback and bringing down the runner.

Next up we have Zach Potter, honourable mention Big 12 for two years running in 2007 and 2008, and compiled quite a nice senior season while playing at Nebraska. He had 16 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, 47 tackles, two interceptions, and managed to break up seven passes at the line. He is still very raw for the NFL, and went undrafted in the 2009 draft, however with strong showings, he could feature.

Finally we have Potters Nebraska teammate Ty Steinkuhler who also went undrafted in 2009. He had 48 tackles, 21 solo, eight tackles for loss, and two sacks his senior season at Nebraska, and I feel that there would need to be a few more injuries before we could seriously consider him as a starter on opening day.

So although it is not confirmed that Mike DeVito will miss the opener, the Jets have to start looking at ulterior options.

I think that this incident has clearly shown that we have a significant lack of depth on the defensive line, and I really would not be surprised to see us go early and often in the draft to this position to add much needed depth.

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