Lawson showing some improvement entering third season Shaq Lawson has not had a great first two years of his professional career. Year one was completely derailed by injury (and the Ryan brothers). Year two was seen about as close to being a rookie year without actually being a rookie year. A new coaching staff didn’t seem to ease his transition either. Despite these setbacks White Andre Reed Jerseys , Lawson has still been considered underwhelming considering his lofty draft position (19th overall in the 2016 NFL Draft). This year he seems to have come on better, drawing praise for his work ethic and attitude. During the offseason, I noted several notable issues that would need to be cleaned up. Lawson showed tremendous power, but was highly inconsistent using it. Poor hand fighting technique and a small arsenal of moves while rushing were seen as a problem. Lawson also struggled to get off the snap quickly, and frequently was far behind his linemates. With last year as our baseline, let’s take a look and see where he’s grown. Play 1Shaq Lawson is delayed off the snap, but not drastically. His head suggests he’s looking at the man in front of him which could be the reason why. Despite the delay, he understands his team has the receivers covered and plays Cam Newton perfectly. Lawson has good position to pursue and gets his hand up as soon as he sees Newton wind up. Play 2Lawson’s head is looking more to the ball and he moves in sync with the entire line. Between this play and last, it suggests that Lawson’s delays are not physical or neurological in nature. When he’s responding to the snap, he moves just fine. He’s attempting some hand fighting Andre Reed Jerseys 2019 , which starts to work. The ball is out too fast for Lawson to impact the play but he ensures Newton has nowhere to go if the play is slower to develop. Play 3Like in the second play, Lawson has his eyes on the ball and there’s no delay off the snap. He sees Newton’s arm cock back and knows the time to pass rush is over. This batted pass is all heads up play on the part of Lawson. Play 4Lawson’s head is turned to the ball and he’s tied for first at the races. Lawson is trying to hand fight more frequently so far this year with mixed results. Not only is Lawson not driving toward Cam Newton but he’s pushed so far behind Newton that it creates a wide open lane for the quarterback to scramble or drift to see his throwing lanes better. Play 5Lawson demonstrates excellent power again and at one point is holding off two lineman. A true double-team is beyond Lawson (and most ends to be fair), but when stacked up like this he’s a good match. Lawson knows the play goes behind him and disengages before the runner is beyond where he can help out. Lawson walks back to narrow the lane and turns in time to help his opponent to the ground. This is a team effort stop, but Lawson played his part. Play 6Lawson isn’t getting a good push and remains somewhat inconsistent in the power game. He does a fantastic job of breaking off the block and clogging the lane however. Lawson gets enough of Carlos Hyde to end the play before it gets too far. A little better push initially and Lawson would have given a demonstration on how to stuff a run for no gain. Play 7Here’s likely our most disappointing play. Lawson isn’t getting great push or winning his hand fighting battle. Most damning however is that he finds another gear after seeing the missed tackle. If he had found that gear right away this play is a little less positive for the Browns. Play 8Lawson is a little late off the snap but not anywhere near as bad as what we saw last season. More importantly, he blows up the line and disrupts Hyde enough to let the rest of the team clean it up. If Matt Milano makes the tackle this is a dominant performance from the defense. Play 9Lawson is again slightly slower than his teammates, but follows up with a nasty push on David Njoku. He’s so far in the backfield that Carlos Hyde has to cut and slow to get around. Lawson one arms the running back and assists Tremaine Edmunds on the tackle. Shaq Lawson’s improvement seems to be real. Lawson seems to have been coached up to play off the ball this year and is much better off the snap than last season. His ability to use his strength is still spotty at times and his finesse techniques could use a lot of work. Overall though, Lawson is more consistently impacting the play. It’s only preseason, but Lawson’s improvements aren’t ones that should go away when teams start scheming for one another. Even though the season ultimately ended on a high note, the Buffalo Bills still managed to hold on to a top-ten first-round draft pick in the coming 2019 NFL Draft. With the Atlanta Falcons able to eke out a win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Buffalo will only drop down a few spots from where the team was last week and will be selecting either ninth in April.Here’s where the top ten spots in the draft currently stand White Harrison Phillips Jerseys , along with the accompanying record for each team:Arizona Cardinals: 3-12New York Jets: 4-12San Francisco 49ers: 4-11 Oakland Raiders: 4-11Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 5-11New York Giants: 5-10 Jacksonville Jaguars: 5-11Detroit Lions: 6-10Buffalo Bills: 6-10Denver Broncos: 6-10UPDATE 9:30 p.m. Eastern:We’ve changed this article a few times now based on fluctuating math, but we have clarification now, FYI. The first tiebreaker is strength-of-schedule, which sorts out the Lions ahead of Buffalo and Denver. The Bills and Broncos have identical SOS, and so it moves to conference tiebreakers. Here is the breakdown, courtesy of Adam Stites:1. Strength-of-schedule (opponents for both are 133-121-2)2. Conference record (both are 4-8)3. Common games (both are 1-4)4. Strength-of-victory (record of teams Bills beat 39-45-1; Broncos 44-41-1)Bills will pick 9th, Broncos 10th