Here's what I found useful out of last night's game: 1. Marty Mornhinweg called a game that a rookie QB could manage. Thirty passes and forty runs was roughly the reverse of his usual ratio. If the Jets are going to start Geno Smith they're going to need to protect him, particularly in the rough patch before the bye. What we saw Marty M demonstrate last night was that he has that kind of rookie bubble available in his repertoire. 2. The Jets defense is soft in the middle of the field, but the safeties might surprise us. Part of this was no Kenrick Ellis. Part of it was slow LB's. The Jets are going to have some real issues against the run this year. They may well have real issues against backs catching passes in the flats. The LB's cannot chase down a speedy back for their life. That makes the safeties jobs a lot tougher than they ought to be. If DeMario Davis finds himself then a lot of the problems will be mitigated. If he takes awhile to get his feet on the ground we're going to have problems. I'm really not looking forward to the Pats game at this point. On the positive side Jaiquawn Jarrett looked decent and showed a nice burst on a couple of plays. Dawan Landry is a solid player. If they both stay healthy the Jets safeties are probably going not going to be a weakness. 3. The running game was really solid from all angles. Yeah it's the Jaguars but still Bilal Powell looked like he might be able to take 250 carries without making us suffer too much in the process. He is the closest thing the Jets have had to a two-way back since LT left town albeit not in that class. Chris Ivory might be the change-of-pace back (again). That might well be the best role for him given the injury concerns. Tommy Bohanon looked like he might be able to take a few carries a game without hurting the Jets. I'm not as concerned as I was a bit earlier in camp. The Jets probably do need to pick up a waiver wire guy when the cuts start happening but I'm ok with Powell and Ivory as the one-two at the moment. The offensive line looked pretty solid also in the run game and I'm thinking if the Jets have to run the ball 600 times next year they probably have the hogs and horses to make that happen. Knock on wood about the injury potential in that kind of game plan but the Jets seem to have a bit of depth on the line this year as well. 4. The TE's might actually be a strength this year. Kellen Winslow is a good player and we just have to hope that he stays healthy and that Father Time doesn't come calling for him in December. Jeff Cumberland is going to be an acceptable #2. Konrad Reuland is going to make the team on Special Teams but he's actually a decent third receiving option. He's a gutsy receiver who is not afraid to catch the ball in traffic and he has good hands. All things considered I think the Jets get much improved play out of the TE's this season and that's a big factor in helping a run-oriented offense maintain itself over the grind of a long season. TE's up the seams force safeties to back off some and LB's to cover some and generally loosen up the trenches a bit. 5. The offensive play calling in general. I really like what I'm seeing out there so far. Receivers are open, backs have holes to hit, the mix seems to be good. The Jets haven't had a really talented OC since Charlie Weis. Mornhinweg looks good so far. He's forcing me to learn how to spell the name and that's a good sign. I'm still thinking the Jets are probably a 6 win team this year but I see some little things here and there that might have some real upside for them. Can you imagine what it's going to feel like for Geno Smith if he gets on the field and suddenly realizes he has a defense he can depend on most of the time?
Agree with everything you said, Bradway. Especially with the playcalling. It truly is amazing how we're actually scoring touchdowns right now and not settling for field goals after a run up the middle for one yard
Nice work. Do you think part of the problem last night with the rbs catching balls in the flats in the no huddle was simply the jets being caught off guard? They seemed to be catching up just before gabbart was injured.
Pretty good summary. To add my two cents: 1. Spadola and Rogers look mighty fine. It won't matter by the end of the year, when Jets cut Braylon and Santonio loose. Hill/Kerley/Spadola/Rogers/Gates look like a very promising WR corps. Yes, I used the word 'promising' and WR corps in a single sentence - which I never expected to before this summer. 2. Powell looks like a real deal to me. Of course, he is not in the class of Tomlinson, but then we are not looking for that out of Powell either. If he can keep this up, he may end up starting for the Jets. All in all, Powell/Ivory/Bohanon look like a promising RB corp as well. 3. Cumberland keeps impressing me. I recall what Rex once said about Cumberland - he's got the speed of WR and size of the TE; now he has to put it all together and also learn how to block. So far, He has done just that. Keller will not be missed this season. [And he can't block for shit anyway.] Now... onto the defense 4. JJ looks to be a very good find. He was a 2nd-round worthy prospect at one time, and it looks like he's re-gaining his draft status, albeit with different franchise. Hopefully he thrives here, and Jets lock him up for long term. This will surely solve one of the safety problem. 5. Dawan's presence is felt. He is here for two seasons, so Jets should draft his replacement in the coming draft. In the meantime, he's going to be a very solid FS for us. 6. Jets LB corp is at the current stage the weakest of all three depths. They are slow, and they don't play fast either. Either too much mental clutter, or just lead-feet or both, but Jets need to improve here big time. 7. Did Garay play yesterday? Jets DL looked very soft up the middle last night. Jets should do very well to keep drafting NT guys just so they can have effective rotation along DL. And lastly 8. Special teams look like they are earning their keep too. Fumble recovery off the punt was just awesome.
The run game isn't looking as bad as I had feared, hopefully Ivory is still shaking the rust off and picks it up soon. The line looks good. T-Bo looks good at FB. Special teams looked good outside of a few missed tackles. At least no fumbles on returns. On defence thought the safeties looked good, line looked shaky with the no huddle but had some okay pass rush plays too. Milliner didn't look great but wasn't a disaster by any means. LBs looked brutal, especially Harris. Davis looked good to me though.
I didn't get to catch the game, I was working last night, but I don't like the stats defensively, I sure hope LTJF is right, and they were just being caught off guard, we can't afford to have our defense be demolished like that, especially by Blaine Gabbert, I can only imagine what Brady will do. In the end though, I guess it was just a preseason game, so still hoping we improve come the regular season.
Oh, also, how long until McKnight is cut with Gates being solid in the return game and Powell and Bell playing pretty well? Probably should give Gates a bit more return attempts before doing anything rash.
McKnight might not be around come week 1 of the regular season. One big complaint I had about last night, and excuse me if I am wrong about this as my phone was being buggy.... but did we have the ball 1st and goal at the 1 yard line and not score? If so, that would probably be my biggest complaint/takeaway of the game, we cannot blow such easy opportunities like that, we can't afford it.
Good post looking realistically at what the team can be about this year and refreshing not to be about Sanchez On board with your take on Jarrett and Landry given they both appear to be physical. Jarrett's got something to prove given being cut by the Eagles and being closer to home may well ground him a little. I read that they don't meet the attributes of being clear cut strong or free so will be interesting to see how it mixes up but don't expect either to be a ball hawk LB's do concern me as we haven't seen much upgrade in speed with depth a bit of concern. Hopefully Davies comes on and develops to his potential I think we will go through some growing pains with Milliner but trust coverages can be set to give him some back up as he adjusts to NFL speed. Run game is not as much of a concern right now but will need somebody added. I like what Bohannon is showing and hope he can work a little on blitz pick up as I thought he missed/fluffed on occasion last night. I've got concern about the O-line related to 2 new guards and given how Colon came across in the brief sideline interview I detected he feels there is a need to be a bit ore consistent. Possibility for distraction and misplays could be a factor given the aggressive mindset. I noticed a lot of chippiness from Howard and Colon last night which probably relates to not backing down. We'll see Expectations for the season 7 - 8 wins at this point
I think the Jets LB's are slow for the most part and the CB's were missing tackles some and you can only ask the safeties to do so much. I'm hoping that Davis and Barnes are going to be part of the solution here. We'll find out in week 2. Coples injury might be a minor blessing early on because short of pressuring Tom Brady he has no viable role against the Patriots Spread.
Davis looked lost at times. He will have to pick it up - and he will have to do it real quick. Looks like he has right attitude and work ethic. It remains to be seen whether that translates to the on-field performance. To me, Barnes is a stop-gap player. Provided Jarrett sticks, I would love to see the Jets investing high picks on 2x OLB and 1x S, along with DL and OL. [If they do get 3 compensatory picks at round 3 like most expect the Jets to get, then I would love to see them grab 2x LBs, 1x S and OL/DL out of the five picks. Of course that means the player has to be there too, but for now let's just say that's my wish.]
He seems serviceable though. It wouldn't be too surprising for him to extend what he did last year over 250 carries. Throw in that he can catch the ball and that he can pass protect and he's a decent asset for a WCO.
Totally agree with both points. He's got speed though and that puts him a step up on the competition to be the glue guy in the middle.
It was kind of nice to see the guys on the line standing up for each other and for their team mates. There comes a point when it's too much and you have to dial it back but it was good to see them defending their turf, so to speak. I think the OL this year is our primary indicator of where the Jets wind up. If the line is good then the Jets chances to win 8+ games goes way up.
McKnight sure looks like the guy who is going to get caught standing when the music stops. At a certain point the lack of contribution just becomes too much to overcome and he's been hurt/sick/out of it all camp at this point.
I think the defense was a bit better than it looked yesterday. Rex was not expecting the Jags to run a no-huddle, and that is the mortal weakness of his hybrid scheme. When there's no time to swap guys in and out, they can be especially vulnerable to running plays. That's been a major strategy that NE tends to use against us, and I guess the no huddle in general is catching on around the league (Chip Kelly getting signed to coach the Eagles is a major example of that.) Other teams will probably be more likely to try that strategy against us, and hopefully Rex has thought of some way he can counteract it. Our run defense was iffy at first, probably largely due to Ellis's absence. It's worrying that Coples is out, but hopefully he will be ready to go by Week 2... That's our big chance to beat NE and split that series. If he's not ready, then week 3 is okay- not worth it to risk making the injury worse if he's not really ready. I think one very promising thing this year is that the offense has been scoring at a respectable clip in the pre-season. Last year, I think the Jets didn't score any offensive touchdowns in the pre-season, or something like that. The dominating performance against Buffalo in week 1 of the regular season proved to be a fluke, and most of the rest of the season it was an epic struggle to score. It's also extremely encouraging to see 15+ yard plays on a more regular basis. I think this year things will be a bit better on offense. Our receiving corps has the potential to be a strength of the team, and Kellen "The Soldier" Winslow could be pretty effective as well. I think McKnight is out- he seems to have some issues going on, and although he could be electric on returns and get TDs, it seems like he's way more likely than average to fumble and that tradeoff just isn't worth it. Powell could be an okay #1, if Ivory doesn't improve. He could just be rusty, and he'll get the chance to prove that he can be "the man" in the rest of the pre-season. Goodson probably won't make the team unless he becomes available for preseason game 3. We should also keep an eye out for any promising RBs that get cut. The O-line seems to be a lot better, and it was very encouraging to they didn't create any penalties, or at least none that I remember. Colon is great, except he tends to trigger a lot of penalties- maybe he finally has the right coaching to help him stop doing that. The Jets were semi-competitive for most of the season last year without much of an offense at all, so if it can improve from "probably the worst in the league" to "slightly below average" and if the defense improves, I do see 8 - 9 wins as a highly realistic scenario. I see Sanchez starting the season, and Smith taking over around the bye if we struggle in the hardest part of our schedule (the few weeks leading up to the bye).
i think the defense was caught off guard honestly. i know these guys are professionals, but they knew they were playing the jaguars who everyone believes to have the shittiest defense in the nfl in a preseason game. im sure they were extremely surprised to see them do a hurry up as they probably thought it would be a walk in the park
Rex started out with vanilla defensive schemes and got smacked in the face for it. I'm not sure if he expected Jax to just lay back and get abused by pressure defense at corner, but Jax saw it coming in advance and took advantage of it on both sides and the corners ended up getting backed off the LOS by the pick plays in 3 and 4 WR sets. JAX also saw slow ass Calvin Pace on the outside abused the hell out of him on outside runs with speedy backs. Then Rex tried to get aggressive with blitzes and that also blew up. If by "surprised" you mean that the Jets severely underestimated that offense, you would be correct. The JAX defense played bend but don't break, and aside from the initial drive, they didn't break. Take away that stuff in the second half with the backups and you have a game where the Jets were outplayed and out coached.
