Awesome piece on Marcus Maye by Cimini below. https://www.espn.com/blog/new-york-...amal-adams-replacement-right-under-their-nose I like the idea of safety versatility. I won't bash Adams because he's an outstanding playmaker. But he wasn't interchangeable - you'd never want to put him in a one high or deep third. I think Maye is going to have a fantastic season. I hope we don't screw up what he's good at by giving him too much and moving him into the box. But I'm excited to watch him this year.
I was watching SNY now. They were talking about Maye. I am excited to watch him this season. I hope we can keep him long term.
Well, according to @WarriorRB28 he ain't nothing special because he failed to score a TD after returning an INT 98 yards on the very last play in a game the Jets were up double digits.
What we can gain without Jamal Adams An interchangeable safety combination can help a defense a lot more than one thinks. The important part for this defense is that we can play a cover 3 robber defense with the robber on either side of the formation, with either safety. This is something that we didn't do a whole lot of when Adams was here because 1) you lose Adams strength putting him in the deep third of the field and 2) he's a bit too reactive and would be susceptible to allowing receivers to fly down one side of the field. When we have both safeties that can play the deep third it adds an element of confusion and allows the formation to switch at the last second and make a quarterbacks read a bit harder. I expect to see Maye and McDougald both playing the robber. I hope Williams sticks Maye in drills playing the ball all off-season because he can be an All-Pro if he improves in that area. The above is the man coverage concept but it's similar in zone. What we lose without Adams Obviously the huge playmaking ability in terms of blitzing although scheme can help to ease this. We're going to need to blitz to generate pressure again, so Williams can make this loss hurt a bit less. Where we will 100% miss him is going to be covering tightends and mismatches out of the backfield. We could struggle against tightends this year since we really have no answer for it. Davis might get a run at this a little bit this year but it'll be hard to expect him to replace Adams in this aspect. Jamal Adams doesn't have to cover runningbacks in man coverage to be effective in slowing them down. He's such a magnet for the football that his speed after the ball is thrown stifles good ball catching backs. Determining factor for our defense As it is for most defenses, it's going to be 3rd and long pressure. We have no legitimate edge rusher - just a couple edge players that can get coverage sacks and blitz well. The run defense is largely unchanged and the run stopping linebackers/depth arguably got better. We will need to blitz to generate pressure on 3rd & 6+ and could also struggle in the middle of the field because of the inside linebackers being better blitzers and run stoppers rather than coverage backers. Brian Poole's coverage of slot receivers helps this a LOT though. I do think the defense will be good. I expect a very good Quinnen Williams season too assuming he stays healthy.
In general, good post and I agree. Where I disagree is in your statement about covering TEs. Both McDougald and Maye are better in coverage than Adams. Davis may be better as well. I think our pass defense will be better without Adams. I think our run defense might suffer a little, but we have the players to pick up the slack in that area.
There are different ways to define coverage. Adams is a great man to man safety. You don't want to have to man your safety up, especially if they're a talented rover like he is. But he always played Gronk tough. He got abused by Kelce in his young career but other than that tightends were not an issue for us while he was here. Maye and McDougald are good zone cover safeties. I wouldn't send either at a tightend and ask them to guard them all game like I'd feel comfortable doing with Adams (especially the more physical guys). Unfortunately we face a slate of good tightends this year too. Kelce, the Patriots rookies (albeit rookies), George Kittle, Darrin Waller, and Austin Hooper. We'll see how we fair. It's not a lost cause but it's harder when you can't man them up.
I may be mistaken, but I believe I remember reading that McDougald is one of the best man-cover safeties in the game. If so, Adams is not better.
He is definitely not one of the best man cover safeties. He is decent, good even. That’s a far cry. Adams was better and it’s not even a question.
Comparing Adams and McDougald is like comparing Adrian Peterson to Latavius Murray in their primes. Murray is a fine player, but it’s not even close.
PFF disagrees https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-best-safety-2020-nfl-season-minnesota-vikings-new-england-patriots
gregg does some funky things with the secondary too. For example he will show a deep quarters look or something like a cover 2 look, but he will alter the guys that will cover the deep halves. Like he will have the corners in essence be the deep safeties while the safeties and LB will man the middle. I’d have to find the YouTube video for sure but it was cool to see the different ways you can have a cover 3 look and it not be the standard looks for a defense.
A PFF grade is based is based on a win/loss in a rep. First of all, many times they don’t know what the assignment was on a particular play. I’m not necessarily saying I would when they would not, however, assigning a win or a loss on a play that you don’t actually know what was meant to be accomplished fundamentally makes your “grade” invalid. Second of all, it doesn’t take situational play into account. What if in 2019 the Jets didn’t really play many teams with good tight ends, so Jamal Adams best value was blitzing and in zone coverage. What if the few games they played against elite tight ends were the games Jamal was asked to play in man coverage, because that situation changed his best value? His PFF grade would likely be middle of the pack, as you are bound to get beat against elite TE's at least a few times. What if the Seahawks played the same teams, but since McDougald doesn't have unique value outside of solid man coverage, he plays it against a lot of middling TE's? And when they played elite TE's they didn't match him up because a switch in scheme would protect him from getting beaten? So in this hypothetical: Adams: 80 man coverage snaps against primarily elite TE's, 70% win rate McDougald: 120 man coverage snaps, primarily against average TE's, 85% win rate PFF would say McDougald has a higher man coverage grade. If you are only asked to do something against the highest competition, your PFF grade would look worse than the guy who may not be as good as you, but did that thing against a lot of just ok players. Yes this is just a hypothetical, but it's just an example of why I don't usually even look at PFF.
And here is everything you need to know. Why did the Seahawks trade for Jamal Adams? For a pass rusher? They could have gotten Clowney, or Griffin, or Ngakoue, or kept Frank Clark last year... any of them would not have cost two 1sts and a 3rd and a player. They got Jamal because of George Kittle. If McDougald was so great in man coverage, why would they trade him away along with two 1sts and a 3rd? When you have to face a TE who is as much of a threat as a WR, you need a S who can cover as well as a CB. That's why the Jets got more for Adams than Jacksonville got for Jalen Ramsey.
You theory gets discredited somewhat due to the fact that McDougald's "win rate" was higher and he was playing against the very TE you cited (Kittle) twice a season as the reason for trading for Adams. McDougald is 29, Adams is what, 24? Big difference. They'll be facing Kittle for years. Adams is entering his prime. McDougald's career is winding down. Seattle's D hasn't been so great the last several years. Probably a bigger factor in the trade and the one reason I saw cited for the trade is that Seattle's "Legion of Boom" has been more fizz than boom recently. Adams will bring back some of the Boom. He is better in the box and vs the run, and a more dynamic player than McDougald.
Why did they trade for Jamal? Pete loves to have dynamic players in his secondary and what's better to have then one of the best safeties in the game? At the age of 24, of course you trade for someone like that. It's a big upgrade of athleticism and potential to have Adams in your secondary for 5-6 more years then McDougald who has maybe 1-2 prime years left. You give him up because you try to keep your young talent at the S spot.
Nope. Seattle don't ever use their safeties in man coverage. They run a cover 3 defense. They got rid of McDougald presumably because the Jets asked for him in return. They want Adams to play that Earl Thomas roaming zone safety, not man coverage 1-on-1 with a tight end. Man coverage is not even Adams' strength
