Quinton Coples “making strides” in transition to outside linebacker

According to the Newark Star-Ledger, Quinton Coples seems to be making strides in his transition to outside linebacker.

Coples was a defensive end as a rookie, but converted to a stand up edge rusher in the New York Jets base defense. He won’t be asked to drop back in coverage, so Coples is still going to rush from the interior in all sub-packages.

He worked with both defense line and linebackers in the last 2 days of training camp.

"“I just mastered the D-line, now I’m moving to outside linebacker and I have to master that as well. But it’s been coming pretty good.” Coples said in an interview"

Even head coach Rex Ryan has been kind of impressed with Quinton Coples saying

"“I think just his and if I say maturity, I’m going to get killed for it because people are going to say ‘Oh, well, come on, Coples is not mature’. Yeah he is. But I think just knowing the pro gram and work at a higher tempo, I see him doing it. We’ll give him a lot. He’s playing in, he’s playing outside, he’s been doing a lot of different things. And you can’t do that if you don’t know what you’re doing so I think I see that from him. Obviously he’s jumping out to everybody because you see the athleticism. I think that’s what jumps out at you. But I see other things too. I see he’s not making mental mistakes. We’re challenging him mentally. We’ll say, ‘Oh by the way, you play D-end right now’, we haven’t even gone over it with him, but he has to pay attention in meetings and things like that. Again, I’ve been kind of impressed with him.” Rex Ryan said on NewYorkJets.com"

Let’s see how Coples plays this season. He has 30 sacks and 5.5 tackles, coming off of his rookie year.