After one game in the books, Indianapolis Colts defensive end Kemoko Turay looks poised to have a breakout season in 2019. The 2018 second-round pick, hailing from Rutgers, tallied a sack, a forced fumble, and quarterback hit against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
Playing as a pure pass-rusher, Turay shined. Perhaps a large part of that is because he trained with Colts all-time great pass-rusher Robert Mathis in the offseason, as he said, via The Athletic's Stephen Holder:
“During the offseason, me and Robert Mathis were just trying to figure out what move best suits me. “Last year, I was using different moves, different counters. So, we just tried to figure out a way to stay consistent and try to make my moves look the same.”
While training with Mathis, Turay spawned an interesting comparison from the former five-time Pro Bowler. The player: two-time Pro Bowler and 2017 first-team All-Pro Chandler Jones, as Turay says of Mathis' comparison:
“He kind of compared me to Chandler Jones. We have about the same height and he saw that some of the sacks that I’ve had were because of my long arms. So that’s what we constantly worked on. It’s starting to become second nature. It takes time to make it muscle memory.”
Both Jones and Turay measure in at 6-foot-5 and around 255-pounds each — Turay – 253, Jones – 255. As Turay states, both are lengthy athletes too. Whether or not Turay becomes the next Jones is up to the future; but considering his first week of 2019, that spawned a feature in Pro Football Focus' Team of the Week, the future looks bright.
Follow Us
Subscribe