Content available exclusively for subscribers
These rankings don’t mean anything as far as I’m concerned . . .
I’m talking about Power Rankings. When I post them on my Twitter account, it’s totally tongue-in-cheek. I think they are a waste of time. This isn’t college football where rankings matter.
I understand why websites do them, because they create a lot of discussion and site traffic, so I’m not being critical of the people who do them, but to me, they are absolutely meaningless.
NBC’s Peter King posted his latest NFL Power Rankings today, and had the Jets ranked as the 28th best team in the NFL.
I don’t care about the ranking, but I want to get into some of the points he made as to why he ranked them so low.
I will get into a few things he wrote, and then respond.
“The Jets had one of the most deceiving years in the league, finishing 6-2 in their last eight games while facing only one premier team—Baltimore. Otherwise, they beat Daniel Jones, Dwayne Haskins, Derek Carr (in one of the great no-show East Coast games by a Raider team in history), Ryan Fitzpatrick, Mason Rudolph and Josh Allen, and got creamed by the Bengals,” King wrote.
Spot-on. That schedule down the stretch was weak, weak, weak. The Jets deserve some credit for going 6-2 over the last eight games, but totally agree with King. You have to take it with a grain of salt. There were a lot of cream puffs on the schedule. So it’s unlikely this strong finish will have a carry-over into 2020, unless they make market improvements in areas like their pass coverage, pass rush and running game.
“The Jets spent huge on Le’Veon Bell and then rushed for 78.6 yards a game as a team, 31st in the league; I don’t see a vast improvement,” King wrote.
Obviously I have no idea what kind of season Bell will have because I’m not Nostradamus, but I understand that King’s gut telling them there won’t be a “vast improvement.”
First off, there could be an entirely new offensive line which isn’t getting a chance to work together this off-season. There is an old saying in offensive line rooms – “Five men, one mind.” It’s hard to develop “one mind” when you can’t work together in person, which is the current set-up right now. Not sure just one training camp is enough to get perhaps an entirely new line on the same page.
But aside from the line, if Bell doesn’t become more of a violent runner than he was last year, the results will likely be the same. He needs to punish defenders more, and stop hesitating going into holes, which was often the case last year.
“Rookie Denzel Mims and tight end Chris Herndon both need to hit the ground running for Darnold to have a chance,” wrote King.
It’s probably going to be hard for Mims to “hit the ground running” because he needs a lot of work on his route-runner and getting off the jam at the line. Not saying Mims won’t help, but it probably might take some time for him to get up to full speed. He can help in a limited role early on – especially on go-routes and fade-routes in the red zone. But Herndon should have no issue hitting the ground running because he has a lot more experience than Mims, and Herndon has a chance to be a star. Herndon could be special if he can stay healthy. Mims and Herndon aren’t in the same boat.
Don’t be shocked if Herndon is centerpiece of the Jets’ passing offense this year.
Will have more on this tomorrow . . .
June 1, 2020
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Tuesday.
