Quinton Coples knows exactly what this season means for him and his career.
“I know this is a big year for me,’’ the Jets’ third-year linebacker said Monday. “I came in as a defensive end and last year I got moved to rush linebacker and with that year of experience under my belt … I’m excited about stepping up and being a leader on this team and being more productive than I have been in the past two years.”
In those two seasons, Coples has produced only 10 sacks and left some observers questioning the drive of his play-to-play motor — a reputation that followed him from college.
In only his third season, Coples’ career is at an early crossroads: production not commensurate with being the 16th overall player picked in the 2012 draft.
But steps that Coples took this offseason suggest he very well might be a different player in 2014.
He lost 20 pounds and he worked privately with former NFL defensive lineman and college and NFL assistant coach Chuck Smith on pass-rush technique in an effort to turn some of his team-leading 50 quarterback hurries into sacks.
Coples reached out to Smith, who played nine years in the NFL and had 58.5 sacks, and worked with him for more than a month.
Aware Coples had faced much criticism for the modest production in his first two seasons, Smith worked with him on his attitude and drive as well as technique in getting off the ball with more explosiveness through digging in his pressure and plant foot.
“The thing we first had to talk to Quinton about is you’ve got to change the way you look at yourself. ‘Don’t let what people say about you define you,’ ’’ Smith told The Post on Monday night. “Quinton has the capability to be 10-sack guy. This guy has a chance to be dominant. He’s only scratched the surface of what he can be. He’s explosive, he’s powerful, he can line up anywhere on the D-line.
“I expect him to dominate this year — to bludgeon people. He’s got to play like a wild dog now.’’
Coples also has two outside motivating forces that figure to stoke a flame underneath him: This is essentially a contract year for him, with the Jets needing to make a major financial decision in the spring on whether to sign him to a fifth-year option, and the presence of Jason Babin, the veteran who was signed recently to help reinforce the pass-rush linebacker position Coples plays.
In Saturday’s preseason game at Cincinnati, Babin played 31 snaps to 15 for Coples. This, of course, raised eyebrows and speculation about whether Coples’ playing time is in jeopardy.
The convenient company line from Rex Ryan on Monday was Babin got more reps with the first team to help him become more familiar with the defense. Completely understandable. But so, too, is this: You can count on Ryan playing the more productive player.
Babin, in his 11th season, had 7.5 sacks and three forced fumbles for the Jaguars last season — numbers similar to what Coples has done, total, in his two seasons.
Coples, a player with an affable personality that belies the stereotype of the angry footballer, insisted he is not rattled by the presence of Babin or the fact he knows his critics are ready to pounce on him if he does not pounce on more quarterbacks.
Coples said all the work he did in the offseason, trimming down to 265 pounds and honing his pass-rush technique, has been designed to turn some of those quarterback hurries into game-changing plays like sacks.
“I was there, but I wasn’t there,’’ he said. “That’s the reason I lost the weight and worked on my game — to turn those hurries into sacks, to cut that millisecond down from a hurry to a sack.’’
If Coples executes his plan and that production comes to fruition, then the Jets picking up that fifth-year option on him the way they did with defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson last spring (locking him in at $6.9 million for 2015) will be a no-brainer like it was with Wilkerson.
If Coples does not improve, then the $7 million-plus it’ll take to lock him up in that fifth-year option in 2016 will become no option at all and Coples likely will fade away and become another on a lengthy list of high draft picks that didn’t work out.