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To me all these stories about Garrett Wilson’s discontent and possibly wanting to be traded are irrelevant.
He’s under contract next year and the following year (fifth-year option).
If the NFL lets itself become the NBA and allow players to force their way out early, because they aren’t happy with the team’s record or how they are being used, the NFL will go downhill like the NBA has. The NBA ratings are in the toilet.
But with that being said, Wilson has a right to be ticked off about how he was used in the Jets’ loss to the Los Angeles Rams, and Jets fans have a right to be ticked off as well.
It was ridiculous. He had six catches for 54 yards and was targeted seven times.
Davante Adams was targeted 13 times and had seven catches for 68 yards.
The Jets only scored nine points so clearly something was amiss with their approach.
Look, targets can be overrated. The best approach is to throw to the open guy, and if somebody is consistently getting doubled, perhaps that will lead to more throws to another receiver.
But not sure that is the full picture of why Wilson was underutilized against the Rams.
And there is no play more illustrative of the foolishness of how underutilized Wilson was in this game than on the fourth-and-four incompletion to Davante Adams in the third quarter.
The Jets were up 9-6, and had a terrific drive to start the second half, holding the ball for a little under 10 minutes on a 17-play drive. On fourth-and-four from the Rams 13, Rodgers made a poor decision, throwing a fade on the left side of the end zone to Adams, with cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon in tight coverage and the pass fell incomplete.
Wilson was running a shallow cross and was open, and likely would have gotten the first down and moved the sticks if Rodgers had thrown to him.
Rodgers got a little greedy here. Why not just move the sticks and keep the drive going instead of going for the home run?
And something else to consider, he was throwing a fade against a 6-2 corner, who is good at high pointing the ball. It’s not like this was a mismatch on a fade.
This wasn’t the only play Rodgers got greedy on fourth down.
Down 16-9 in the fourth quarter, on fourth-and-four, he threw a pass down the deep middle to tight end Tyler Conklin, who wasn’t open, and it was broken up by cornerback Darious Williams.
Rodgers had Allen Lazard underneath open in the zone past the sticks.
But getting back to Wilson, if you saw the receiver’s first catch of the game, on the Jets’ first possession, you got the feeling the Rams were going to have issues with him.
On third-and-seven, Wilson ran a great route on Witherspoon. Starting on the left side, he pretended like he was going to cut over the middle on a crossing route, but then quickly pivoted to the sideline and was wide open and Rodgers hit him for a 15-yard gain.
Sorry, there was no reason for Wilson to have such a quiet game.
Not sure who to blame – Rodgers, Todd Downing or whoever, but something was amiss.
But his dismay after the game, or the media stirring things up about this future, should have no bearing on the Jets’ decision-making moving forward. He’s under contract for the next two years, and three years and beyond with the franchise tag. I’m not saying he should have to wait two or three years for an extension, but it’s time for NFL teams to nip the NBAing of the NFL in the bud.
Who cares if a player is unhappy? Deal with it. You get paid great money to play a kid’s game . . .
It happened again.
An opponent had a short TD run on the goalline right at defensive end Will McDonald.
It was the Rams’ first TD of the game, a two-yard run to the left side by Kyren Williams.
Like I asked before when this happened, what is a slender edge-rusher doing on the goalline defense? It’s absurd and I’m not taking a shot at McDonald, who overall is having a solid season with 10 sacks.
But he should not be used on the goalline defense, where teams generally go with their biggest defensive linemen
And it’s not even like he was taken out by an offensive lineman on this run – it was tight end tight end Tyler Higbee, who handled the defensive end one-on-one and twisted him around.
Look, I don’t want to attack any coaches because a lot of them could be gone in a few weeks, but not sure what they are thinking here or at other points earlier in the season.
Attention to detail is so important in the NFL if you want to win consistently, and putting a skinny defensive end on your goal-line defense is a case of bad situational football.
December 23, 2024
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