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Maybe it was statistically, but he still has some work to do.
Headline – “DL John Franklin-Myers not satisfied with career year.”
The player has a lot of talent, some would argue that the performance wasn’t “career year” material.
The article mentioned his “six sacks tied for the team-high with DT Quinnen Williams, and his 43 QB pressures and 14 QB hits led the defense.”
First off, it’s hard to say anybody had a career year on a defense that finished 32nd in the NFL.
Secondly, the Jets need more from Franklin-Myers.
It just seemed like there were too many stretches where you didn’t hear his name. He made some very good plays, but he needs to make more, especially after the team gave him a lucrative contract extension during the season last year.
On October 7, 2021, Franklin-Myers signed a four-year contract extension for $55 million, with $30.2 million guaranteed.
A couple of plays from last year are illustrative of the need for improvement:
In the Jets’ loss to the Buffalo Bills at MetLife Stadium, on the first series, running back Devin Singletary ran off left tackle for 15 yards. Franklin-Myers shot too far up field which contributed to the big hole.
In the Jets to the Philadelphia Eagles, on a 34-yard run by Myles Sanders to the right side, Franklin-Myers got turned inside by center Jason Kelce helping to open the hole.
Franklin-Myers needs to be more consistent and he knows it.
“Everybody wants to talk about how well I did and how I had a career year, but there’s so much meat left on the bone in the sense that I could’ve had 10 sacks,” Franklin-Myers said. “I could have done more, and at the end of the day hindsight is 20/20 but it is just something I look forward to next season.
“Something I can get better at is running to the ball. I can get better at playing consistent during that five-game stretch that I didn’t have a sack in. Those are things I beat myself up about in the offseason and I think it’s important to.”
“We’re going to help each other make a lot of plays and just get a lot of wins,” he said. “That’s the plan going forward, these guys do a great job of playing with each other, so I’m looking forward to this season.”
And something else that should help Franklin-Myers a great deal is playing inside at defensive tackle a lot more on passing downs, and with a lot of depth at end, he should be able to do that more.
“(Franklin-Myers’) ability to win one-on-ones in pass rush, his best spot is inside,” said Robert Saleh. “So ideally we can get him inside on third down and even get him in more passing situations on first and second down to get him some run on the inside. So, having that flexibility by drafting Jermaine (Johnson), getting Micheal (Clemons), it gives us that flexibility to allow him to not have to grind outside so much and keep himself fresh because he wins at a very high rate when he’s inside. It does give us a little bit more flexibility with JFM to put him where he can win.”
June 24, 2022
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