The New York Jets have lost one of the bright stars of their 2017 draft class, OLB Dylan Donahue, for the season.
A tough loss for the up and coming New York Jets with their rookie OLB Dylan Donahue now out for the season with an elbow injury. This continues a run of mid-round outside linebackers selected by the team that has yet to live up to expectations.
Although this isn’t throwing Donahue under the bus at all. He showed a lot of positives so far this season: high motor, great team guy, and more so than anything else, he’s uber talented.
Donahue was a fifth-round selection out of West Georgia, a real college football factory. So, great job by the Jets finding some premiere talent in the later rounds who flew under the radar.
If you look at the stats he put up in college, he shouldn’t have flown under the radar, according to his combine profile on NFL.com.
“Donahue racked up 19 sacks in two years at Palomar College before heading to UWG for the 2015 season. He was the Gulf South Defensive Player of the Year in 2016, along with multiple All-American honors, after setting the conference record with 13.5 sacks (67 tackles, 20 for loss). He was also a finalist for the Gene Upshaw Award as the best lineman in Division II.”
At 6-foot-3 and 248 pounds, he doesn’t possess the prototypical size you look for at the hybrid position in the Jets defense. Although what he lacks in size, he more than makes up for in heart.
Literally and figuratively speaking, he has NFL bloodlines with his father Mitch Donahue. His pop was the WAC Defensive Player of the Year back in 1989 and 1990 for Wyoming and went on to play a couple of years in the pros.
While this leaves the Jets in an interesting position as it pertains to their depth. With only five outside linebackers on the roster. Expect one of the latest signees, David Bass, to reap the benefits of more playing time with Donahue on the shelf for the season.
Bass finished with six tackles, one of those for loss, and also garnered a sack in his latest game against the Jacksonville Jaguars last week.
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