One player I feel sorry for? Michael Carter II. He's become one of the best slot corners in the NFL and we don't talk about him enough. Last year he had an interception scrubbed off the board against the Patriots on a questionable JFM penalty, this year another interception scrubbed on a call on Sauce. In the words of coach Boone, ‘Let the boys play’. Joe Tippmann had another good game last night, allowing 1 pressure on 43 pass-blocking snaps. Becton and AVT had 3 pressures each with Becton tagged with 1 sack. Connor McGovern was also at 2 whereas Laken continued his bounceback season with 0. Ashtyn Davis only played 6 coverage snaps, but he got himself an interception. Sauce Gardner allowed 14 yards in coverage yesterday, that’s a whopping 133 yards through four games. Yeah Sauce is still elite, teams just aren’t throwing at him very much. He has already had 5 missed tackles though, he had 6 through the entire 2022 season. Bryce Huff led all defenders with 7 pressures, Quinnen was just behind on 6 and JFM had 5. Interestingly Jermaine Johnson had 0, although as we all know, he was held tighter than a high school prom date during a power ballard. One interesting side note is that Carl Lawson’s role has significantly diminished. He had just 10 pass-rush snaps, only 3 more than Will McDonald and significantly less than Huff, JFM, and a little less than Clemons, JJ. Zach Wilson completed 58.3% of passes under pressure. That’s a fantastic jump for him and you know how important I think passing under pressure is for an NFL QB’s future.
And we still lost, personal accolades mean nothing, when the game ends up in L column. It's good to see progress, for some, I love Huff, just about the only real pass rusher we have. I'll expect big things this weekend from Zach and the boys, against a putrid Broncos team.
This is going to be a controversial take, and I hate to burst people's bubbles, but its been a glaring thing to me since last season. Sauce isn't elite. He's arguably not even great. So far he's good and that's about it. Our 2nd best corner. His role is to cover the deeper route from the numbers to the sideline, a very small part of the field. Yet he has still given up 13 completions on 16 targets and QBs have a 99 rating against him. Its not that teams don't throw at him. Its that they don't need to make dangerous throws to his tiny cover zone. An elite CB mans up on a teams #1 and contains them. Sauce covers a small part of the field and still constantly grabs the WR. His tackling is poor and his hands aren't great. His makeup speed is good but he's far from elite. Rookies Gonzalez and Witherspoon already look levels ahead of him. Sauce is one of the most over hyped players in the league atm.
I get what you’re saying but you can be an elite corner in either a man or zone scheme. Richard Sherman is a perfect example and Sauce is playing the same role in the same defense. He is better than Reed. Sauce is great and takes away a very important part of the field that’s much bigger than you’re giving him credit for. I don’t disagree with you though in that I would like to see the Jets do one or two things. Move him around into different areas of the field because he’s definitely versatile enough to do so. And/or encourage him to take more chances. We don’t give up nearly enough big plays through the air for our corners and safeties to play so conservatively. His next step is to start jumping routes underneath because that’s where all those completions you’re referring to are.
How is he taking away that part of the field when he has an 81% completion rate against him? He's a good corner, not great, and certainly not elite. IMO Reed is better. But, he's only 21 games into his career, so we'll see how it all plays out.
Wasn't he the best man corner in college? I feel like I remember Saban specifically not throwing at him in that CFP game because they could just go elsewhere. Sauce could absolutely cover anyone man to man. He just isn't asked too. Great comparison to Sherman w/ Seattle. I was hoping that with Rodgers playing QB our CBs would be doing exactly what you said with jumping of the routes since they know they have a capable QB on the other side if they make a mistake.
Do you have a spray chart of the completions? How many are flat routes by runningbacks or tightends? More importantly how many are for first downs? He gets hit as the primary defender if he’s the nearest defender but a lot of times the cover 3 is built to allow those routes and rally up and make the tackle rather than actually cover it.
I like that you bring this up as no-one has dared to question Sauce's ability--he's not Revis shutdown but I guess they don't ask him to be.
Route tree is an excuse that goes both ways. If he is covering a man who turns and cuts across the middle Sauce dumps him to a LB or saftey. Sauce doesn't cover RBs or TE unless they go into his zone. As for 1st downs, he is overall allowing more because he is missing 31.8% of his tackles.
Can you post your sources for the stats? I’m not doubting you but I’d like to look at them. The point with runningbacks and tightends in the flats is that the scheme concedes flat routes which is why you see Mosley and Quincy flying like mad men up to go tackle them. Dawinner also made a good point in that Sauce can only play where they tell him to play. I’d like to see him travel but they’re not putting him in that position. He’s fully capable. We’re just going to have to deal with the tackling thing. He’s a willing tackler so it’s not a lack of effort. His arms hang down to his knees and he weighs 185 pounds, he’s never going to be a good form tackler.
He needs to put some meat on those tree branches, this isn't the NBA. They may not throw at him but they sure as shit run at him.
If you click into the advanced game logs he gave up the below by game. 4 catches for 59 yards vs. Buffalo 4 catches for 15 yards @ Dallas 2 catches for 26 yards vs. New England 3 catches for 24 yards vs. Kansas City. The interesting deeper dive on this is that his 124 yards given up total are on 55 air yards and 69 yards after catch. So I mean that pretty much holds true to what I was saying in that teams throw underneath. I think he’s a great player. He lead the league in pass breakups last year which is considered a havoc play by some different advanced metrics. Do any of those games look concerning to you from a coverage perspective?
After the first game I questioned Sauce as he missed several big tackles in that game, and looked slow, and like he was only half trying.
4/5 80% completion percentage against Sauce In that Dallas game. Yikes He only gave up 15 yards of total offense. Context matters. It would've been a 100% completion rate but he dropped that pick six. So he got lucky at 80% I guess.
Sauce is just at the stage where teams have adjusted to him and its his turn to counter to that. I think he will be fine as this is a natural thing for good CBs to experience but he does need to adjust. He can't get bored with the lack of action his way and he needs to recognize that those long arms give him a reputation as a grabby corner. I do agree with the poster above me, who cares about "percentage" when we are talking about them completing little 2 yard passes
Many here have said that Sauce's style was gonna draw a lot of flags... and he drew one at a bad time. He's basically useless as a tackler... Revis & Cromartie were far more physical. And like @abyzmul alluded to... he plays the game like it's basketball. He sticks to receivers like annoying glue.
The stats basically say he’s still damn good in coverage and has just fallen off in tackling and allowing yards after catch. He does need to get a little bigger and get better tackling technique. But he is still a beast in coverage
On 10/3 we brought in 3 db's to the PS releasing 2 OT's and a different DB. Conclusion: Echols will be out for Denver game minimally.
