New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - Article Freestyle rusher: Galette's unorthodox style

As a pass-rusher, Junior Galette's playlist is constantly set to "shuffle."

The New Orleans Saints outside linebacker mixes up his moves so often that right tackle Zach Strief is convinced even Galette doesn't know what he's going to do when the ball is snapped.

"Yeah, it's unorthodox," Galette said of his repertoire -- beaming with pride.

But it's an organized chaos. The 6-foot-2, 258-pounder, who had a breakout season with 12 sacks last year, relentlessly studies film of other similarly built pass-rushers. And he'll happily borrow bits and pieces from them.

"It's not stealing," Galette said. "It's like Jordan and then Kobe. It's a copycat league, obviously, but I just add my stuff into the game."

In fact, Galette will also borrow moves from guys like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and their NBA peers.

One of Galette's favorite moves is his own version of the "Euro step" normally seen on the basketball court -- something he said he came up with while "messing around" and realizing that it worked.

That's how a lot of Galette's moves came about. When I asked for some of his other favorites, Galette said, "I have every. Any one you can think of."

Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan said, "He's got more variety than probably any rusher in the league." And when asked if all the different things Galette tries out can be hit and miss, Ryan said, "I think with Junior, it's a lot of hit and hit."

Linebacker Junior Galette had 12 sacks in his fourth season with the Saints last year.
Strief said Galette's unconventional approach makes him unpredictable.

Which makes him, "an absolute pain" to deal with on the practice field.

"I think it is complete free-flow. So it's very hard to have a plan against him," Strief said. "I'm a big game-plan guy. I like to have an idea of what I'm gonna see and have a way to stop what I think the guy is good at. I couldn't tell you what you take away from him. I mean, he takes one giant step up the field, he takes three lateral steps and then picks one of three moves. And I really think he makes it up on the fly.

"I'm very glad he's on our team, because I don't like blocking him particularly. I think he's made a lot of very good tackles look uncomfortable."

In other words, Atlanta Falcons rookie left tackle Jake Matthews might have a hard time getting settled in his NFL debut on Sunday.

What's made the biggest difference in Galette's career, according to Strief, is the way the Saints have embraced that unconventional approach.

The more they realized it worked for Galette, the more acceptable it became.

"They just kinda let me do my thing and trusted me, which I'm thankful for," Galette said. "They trusted me to get to the quarterback, and that gave me more confidence in myself, that, ‘OK I can tweak a lot of things and keep getting better.'"

read more