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He might want to avoid this until he gets his sea legs.
Jets fifth-round pick Jason Pinnock, in an exclusive interview with the Jets’ website, was asked about a comment he made on “Good Morning Football” about his trash-talking in college towards opposing receivers.
He compared it to being an “internet troll” with the way he goes after wide receivers.
“Basically, just do something and provoke a reaction type of thing,” Pinnock said.
I will preface this by saying he’s a great kid, and doesn’t mean any harm by this.
However, he probably shouldn’t even think about trash talking right now. He has work to do on technique, footwork, route-recognition and so forth, so perhaps trash talking should be the last thing on his mind.
You probably don’t need to provoke opponents, especially, when you are trying to figure out the why’s and wherefore’s of being an NFL cornerback.
According to NFL.com’s draft analyst Lance Zeirlein, Pinnock has some thing to work on:
- Average recognition of play-action and misdirection.
- Tends to lose balance when opening hips to sprint in pursuit.
- Allowed six touchdowns of 25-plus yards since 2019.
- Panics and loses his bearings with back to the ball.
- Needs to improve timing at catch point.
- Below average finding proper positioning at times.
- Very average ball instincts and hand accuracy to play the football.
Changing a football culture involves changing everything. It’s not just about drafting players with the right character, skill set, toughness and so forth.
And one part of changing the culture, is not hyping up young player too much while they are learning.
In New England over the years, they made it a point of not letting rookies talk very much. Their availability was the bare minimum so they wouldn’t get fined by the league. Players that don’t talk can get fined by the NFL League office.
I’m not saying the Jets need to take a New England approach, but you have to avoid, at all costs, having young players talk to much to the press.
They don’t have a lot of answers at this point, as they try to figure out how to be successful in the NFL, which is very difficult.
You know the old Bill Parcells saying that I beat to death – “Don’t put him in Canton just yet fellas.”
He always pulled that one out when a reporter asked him about a rookie.
There is a reason Pinnock slipped to the fifth-round of the draft. He has a ton of work to do honing his skills. He needs to be attached at the hip with Jets cornerback coach Tony Oden. Another guy who could help him a great deal is Jets defensive assistant Ricky Manning Jr. who was a terrific cornerback during his NFL career, and quite the ball-hawk.
The Jets have sponsored shows they need guests for, but perhaps fill those spots with veteran players, who are further along in their development.
And the last thing Pinnock, who’s a really good guy, needs to be thinking about is trash-talking.
Culture, culture, culture.
Truth.
May 21, 2021
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