Carl Lawson was reportedly told to not use all his pass rush moves

Carl Lawson is immensely talented. His numbers, though, don’t quite reflect his talent. Now we may have an explanation.

According to Bengals insider and host of YouTube’s “New Stripe City” Ace Boogie, Lawson was asked by to refrain from using his entire skillset.

“There was some juice to Carl Lawson not really being able to utilize all of his rush moves. Carl Lawson was told to rush a certain way, and because of that it kind of affected some of his production in terms of what we saw this year,” Boogie said.

Finally, according to Boogie, the upcoming free agent decided to ignore the advice and unleash the beast. “But if you look at the Steelers game, Carl Lawson just decided to use all of his moves in that repertoire,” Boogie said.

Boogie is referring to the shocking upset of Pittsburgh in Week 15, when Lawson dominated with 9 pressures, 5 hits, 3 hurries, and a Pro Football Focus grade of 92.4, the highest on the team. He also had 2 tackles for a loss and a sack. Overall, the fifth year edge rusher showed potential suitors his ability on the biggest stage of the week.

So what does this mean? Was a coach trying to get Lawson to play more disciplined? Or was this about fitting a particular scheme?

We discuss in the video below:

You can also listen on iTunes and using the player below: