One of the more forgotten gaffes in Jets history. This guy was a speedy slot receiver and returner for us. Always seemed like he potential. We let him leave as a UFA and he catches 111 passes in 1994 and develops into one of the top receivers during the mid to late 90's. I mean how often do you miss 111 catch talent?
I agree the guy was talented and they probably should have kept him, but his numbers in Atlanta were inflated by the Run and Shoot offense the Falcons ran at the time.
And while we're at it, can someone puhleeze explain why Dedric Ward isn't in the Hall of Fame? Mathis was the odd man out in the Jets "Three Men and a Baby" WR alignment: Toon, Moore, Monk and Mathis. You can only carry so many.
Toon and Monk were not on the same team. Three men and a baby was Toon, Moore, Chris Burkett, and Mathis. A powerful arsenal for QB Browning Nagle. Third stringer was Jeff Blake, BTW. Mathis and Burkett left after 93. Monk came in 94.
I can think of a dozen 'why did we let them get away' former Jets that were head and shoulders above Mathis.
We let a guy that had one pro-bowl season slip away 15 years ago and you need to figure out why? Perhaps because that our staff in the mid 90's sucked. His 4 season leading up to the 1994 year were about the total of that season alone. He had one 111 catch season. One more season over 80 and one over 70. The rest of his years he avereged in the mid 60's in catches. All this in a pass happy run and shoot style of offense. He went on to have 3 more good years after the very good 94 campain, but was never conisdered one of the best in the game. He was a good speedy slot type receiver. Not much of a story here.
Yeah we let a young receiver get away before he had fully developed in favor of a "proven" WR in Monk. It's exactly why I would prefer to stick with the guys we have and let them develop. Lets see what we have before dumping one of them to take on someone whose former/current team doesn't want them (usually for good reason...teams don't give away excellent players...they know something we don't)
Please, if Mathis were on this team now with the stats before he walked away in 1994, we'd be treating him like Stucky. Mathis circa 1993 Rec Yds Avg TD 24 352 14.7 0 Stucky Last season Rec Yds Avg TD 32 359 11.2 3 Big whopping difference there huh?
I'm alot more miffed about letting Farrior go than I am about Mathis...The parallels between the Mets and Jets are uncanny...How the hell did I get stuck rooting for both of these teams???
When we were at our lowest point in talent around 1995 with Rich Kotite, Mathis and Jeff Blake were emerging stars in the league for other teams. That was a kick in the groin at the time, neither guy turned out to be Hall of Famers but both could have helped us at the time.
Hell yeah! Look at the ypc! But seriously, Mathis was playing fourth behind much better receivers. Of course he didn't see the ball more. Are you saying if Stuckey went elsewhere he'd have 111 catches?
Nope, I'm pointing out how easy it is to look back on a guy and say what could have been. We should have drafted this guy, and held on to that guy, but kept this guy too long. Yadda yadda yadda. Fans do this all the time and its often jsut an exerceise in frustration. Would Mathis of '94 been our current number 1? Maybe. I will always see him as a slot guy. Small fast and fearless. Wayne Cherbet with speed. He benefited a ton from playing across of Andre Rison who drew a lot of double teams that year. The following season the pass happy Flacons attack had not only Mathis, but Eric Metcalf and Bert Emanuel break 1,000 yards receiving. This was not due solely to player skill, but a very pass heavy offense that saw only 337 total team rushing attempts to 603 passes. Stats taken out of context are very skewed when trying to look back on a player. If message boards like this existed in the early 90's we would have been bummed that the guy got away but not too up set. Then in '94 all hell would have broken loose with posters weekly calling for the head of the coach, GM, and the guy who sells the beer because we let Mathis go. Its funny that its being brought up and talked about 15 years later. If we let a guy like stucky go then he had even an 80 catch season there would be folks all over this board whining for weeks on end. Hell some are still mad about Lamont Jordan for crying out loud.
Mathis still went over 1000 yrds receiving in Dan Reeves run oriented offense (1998 and 99). Mathis was a very good WR!
