GREEN LIGHT
Year after scare, Mauldin Jets into picture
When he woke up in Mount Sinai hospital nearly a year ago on that Monday morning, he saw the fear in the faces of the people that meant the most to him even if he didn’t understand why, how or when he got there. It was the strangest feeling. Didn’t he have a game to play? “The last thing I remembered I was on the football field,” Lorenzo Mauldin said in a quiet moment after a recent Jets practice. “The next thing I know I got needles stuck in my arm, stuff all over my head, trying to figure out what’s going on with my brain. What happened?”
It had been hours since Mauldin, the Jets rookie outside linebacker, who had overcome a hellish past, lay motionless on the field after his early fourth-quarter collision had forced a fumble. He had gotten up only to collapse after the first big play in his first NFL game.
He had a childhood that no child should have endured, bouncing from foster home to foster home, before finalizing realizing his dream. Now, one moment threatened to take it away. The team feared neck and spinal cord injuries as medical personnel strapped him on a spinal board and carted him off. His friends feared paralysis. “They thought I was going into a coma… because I wasn’t responsive,” Mauldin said. “It was pretty scary.”
Hours later, Mauldin had feeling in his extremities. He had suffered a concussion, but cheated something much more ominous… even if he has no recollection of the play or the stunned silence at MetLife Stadium when he collapsed. For once in his life, he was lucky. If you have a pulse, it’s impossible not to root for him.
Mauldin’s past has buoyed him when it could have easily buried him. The Jets expect big things from the second-year linebacker in this win-now season. “He’s going to take a big step from where he was last year to this year,” Todd Bowles said. “How big? That remains to be seen. I’m not looking for him to have a breakout Reggie White-type season, but as a complete linebacker I expect him to get better.”
Mauldin must morph from situational pass rusher to every-down linebacker for Bowles and Kacy Rodgers’ defense to evolve. For all the difference makers along the defensive line, the Jets lacked a consistent presence on the edge last season. Mauldin spent the offseason working on the nuances of playing his position with special attention on dropping into coverage.
He only played one season in college at outside linebacker. He was never going to be an overnight sensation at the next level. He learned on the fly last year. Bowles limited the former third-round pick to sub packages on passing downs. He finished with four sacks and seven quarterback hits as a rookie.
Now, he’s expanded his understanding of the defense. The possibilities for Bowles and Rodgers’ unit are frightening if Mauldin turns into the player that the brain trust believes he can be this year.
“We’ll be an unstoppable defense,” Mauldin said. “We were close to No. 1 in run defense last year. We just hope to get up there (statistically) with pass rushing. I feel like we’re a lot faster on the defense. We’re going to show people…”
Mauldin is more comfortable than he was in his first training camp. “I was a little confused,” he admitted.
So, he logged plenty of study hours after the season. He even gained weight to become a better edge setter.
“I feel like I’ll be good as an every-down player now, because I understand the system,” Mauldin said. “Last year, I was just used as a rush specialist. I was able to just go, go, go. But now I have to drop back. I have to look at formations. I have to understand what’s going on… and I have a better grasp of that.”
He is trying to apply all this knowledge in camp. Although he hasn’t jumped out in the first two preseason games, that doesn’t mean a lack of progress.
“He’s learned a lot of things,” Bowles said. “He flashes as a pass rusher, but we’re trying to get him to learn how to play the total linebacker positon and that takes some learning. We’re not disappointed in him. He hasn’t regressed at all.”
It might only be Mauldin’s second year, but there’s real pressure to deliver. The typically reserved Bowles and Rodgers have heaped plenty of praise on the young linebacker. The expectations are clear. The expectations are high.
“All I got to do is live up to the expectations,” Mauldin said. “I’ve been doing it my entire life. So why not now?”
He needs to make a significant jump.