The sacks will come from a lot of guys this year because of ryan's schemes, but Pace and Ellis seem to be the only ones who can generate a consistent pass rush on their own by beating their man. Pace would have had much more sacks last year if Mangini hadn't put him in coverage late in the season, so i'm going with him, despite his 4 game suspension. Maybe that keeps him fresh for the later part of the season, when other guys start wearing down.
I said Thomas because he has looked pretty good lately. What I really expect though is that the Jets will lead the conference and maybe the league in sacks. They were 7th in the league last year and it appears they will be much better this year.
Two things I'm pretty sure of: First, no one will pick Gholston Second, it would have been Pace, but with the four weeks off it won't be
i'm going with harris.i love that rex's blitz schemes has harris running past the guard and to the qb.unlike last year when he seem to want to hit the guard square on
I went with Harris, only because Pace is missing the first four. As a result I expect that one of the ILB's will be picking up the slack and getting in on the rush early in the season. However Ellis led the team with 8 sacks a year ago, so it is possible he does it again, but I am guessing our sack leader finishes with closer to 15 than 8 this year.
I think it will be split up between several players too. But with Pace being out 4 games, I think it leaves Harris with the most and Thomas a close second.
Even with Pace being out the first 4 games, I'm still going with him as a 10+ sack guy this year. Harris close behind.
Most likely Pace as he is the most dynamic of the OLB's by quite a distance. Despite missing 4 games, it only takes 2-3 big games to really pad the sack stats. Harris and Scott are both going to get a lot of sacks too. Other than that, Ryan is going to bring the pressure from so many areas, that sacks will be spread out all over the place in my opinion.
If Pace wasn't missing four games, then he would be my choice. Thomas had a decent year last year, I'd say he will probably have the most sacks.
I voted Gholston, partly just to to be ornery, but partly because I think he's going to steadily improve and surprise a lot people this year.
HaHa...I like your spirit Skip. Just think of the joy of digging up this thread at season's end and the "I told you so" delight you'll have. Hey, I hit a longshot exacta at the track this summer for over a grand on a $5 bet, so like I said, I like your spirit. I voted Harris and was a little surprised so many others had too. I just think he's gonna be a beast this year...absolute breakout All Pro year if he stays healthy.
We all hope your right. But once Pace comes back, the amount of snaps he'll play will change drastically. Who knows though, if I could pick one guy I'd say Harris. It looks like Rex is ready to send him on blitzes a ton and rely on Bart Scott more in coverage. Our D-Line doesn't really have any candidates. If Jenkins is healthy, as a team we'll have more sacks, but he won't get many himself. That's why stats are misleading sometimes. I think we'll see a variety of players get sacks, but no one gets to 10.