Calijah Kancey Strong Against The Run
July 15th, 2024
Not just a pass rusher.
This really blew Joe away.
When Joe read about the stat, solo tackles that prevented zero success yards, Joe immediately thought Lavonte David would be included. The stat itself just screamed “Lavonte David.”
But no! David was not on this list. But it gets better.
Based on research from Jets analytics staffer Arjun Menon (see below), the first four players are all veterans, three of which are dynamite players. Calais Campbell, Folorunso Fatukasi, Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt.
The fifth player on this list? Try a rookie who never played a full season, Calijah Kancey.
For a rookie known more for his pass rushing than stopping the run to be right up there with some of the game’s best players, including two that ought to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday, that just blows Joe’s mind.
A rookie defensive tackle. Who missed three games!
And, oh, by the way, Kancey was tied for 13th in the league in tackles for loss (10). As a rookie. In 14 games. Kancey can’t play the run? Stop it!
Joe never thought Kancey was supposed to be a strong run-stopper. Apparently, he is.
Learning this stat, Joe is just so friggin’ fired up. Let’s get this season going!
July 15th, 2024 at 4:25 am
But Trashk! He’s the future .
July 15th, 2024 at 5:02 am
Menon’s use of those stats looks to be somewhat misleading IMO. He ranked players by ‘Percentage of Solo Tackles for No Offensive Success’ rather than using their actual tackles for no offensive success.
Looks to me like Calijah is tied for 3rd on the list Joe, not in 5th place. Anfernee Jennings of the Patriots had 23 solo tackles for no offensive success; Calais Campbell of the Falcons had 15; and our own Calijah Kancey had 13. And most of those on the list were DE/OLBs, not DTs. Calijah ranked 1st among the 3 DTs on the list.
July 15th, 2024 at 6:00 am
All some fans did was see Kancey’s height/weight on the roster to come to the conclusion that he could not defend the run. In spite of his 2023 play, there are those who still make that assertion. Someone once said, “check the sheet”. Here’s another novel idea………watch the game.
July 15th, 2024 at 6:18 am
DR, you make several good points.
July 15th, 2024 at 7:39 am
Kancey appears to suit Bowles defense looking to leverage the B-gap.
His playstyle echoes the type of smaller gap player that Floyd Peters introduced to the Bucs in the early 90s (Santana Dotson) and which was further developed by Monte Kiffin and Rod Marinelli in Tampa leading to some historic Bucs defenses.
Hopefully Kancey can have as strong as career as Dotson.
July 15th, 2024 at 7:52 am
Good company to be in, but this “data” just sounds like it repurposed TFLs and accounted for the solo stops and not the combo stop which would alter this listing.
Kancey had the lowest run defense grade out of every DT in the league that played a minimum of 300 snaps last season, and some of his struggles against the run mostly come when he’s being combo’d, double’d, or has a blocker coming from his either shoulder and blocking across his face.
Being the technician he is as a player and the weight it appears like he’s added to his base, I’m not really worried about Kancey not improving as a run defender.
July 15th, 2024 at 7:57 am
From what I saw Kancey looked pretty darn good against the run. I don’t need Deep Blue the super computer to measure the angle of the dangle. I’ve got a TV set.
July 15th, 2024 at 8:13 am
Defense will be MUCH better this year . Watch out Kirk!!
July 15th, 2024 at 10:49 am
I remember people complaining about this pick, THIS WAS A HOMERUN
July 15th, 2024 at 11:47 am
GO BUCS! Training camp starts next week! Does anyone hear of R. Gregory? I think he is in a mental hospital chilling out. But I haven’t heard a word.
July 15th, 2024 at 7:01 pm
Wow! This is the story I have been waiting for. Almost all draftniks claimed his weakness was the run. Once again they were dead wrong go figure.
July 15th, 2024 at 7:40 pm
I hope Kancy is watching those Derrick pass-rushing highlights!
I got a rush just watching the attempted passes. OH, can we get back to those days? Hardy Nickerson’s, too. It gave me a personal new feeling for “pass-rushing”!
July 15th, 2024 at 9:12 pm
As long as he stays healthy this season he will be be a game-wrecker for the Bucs defense season. Bucs defense will be one of the top defenses in this league this season. Contenders they are, Go Bucs!