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You are going to hear a lot of stuff about
. . . the Jets lack of weapons from the peanut gallery because there were three glaring drops today – Isaiah Crowell, Eric Tomlinson and Charone Peake in today’s game.
You combine this release of Terrelle Pryor, and you are going to hear a lot of fans and reporters chirping this week about the lack of weapons.
That is very common in this era of fantasy football.
Do the Jets have the best weapons around? Perhaps not, but keep in mind, all quarterbacks are going to have drops. Kirk Cousins has some today. Tom Brady has them.
The main issue isn’t the weapons – it’s a rookie quarterback not seeing the field great and not going through his progressions – one, two, three, checkdown.
So you might ask why was Sam Darnold so successful against Indianapolis. Simple – SO many primary reads were open. The Vikings’ pass defense is a lot better than the Colts, and the first reads were open a lot last week, but not as much today.
You hear Oakland’s Amari Cooper is on the trade block. This is what NFL.com wrote – “Cooper has had a disappointing up-and-down season. The 24-year-old generated two games of 116-plus receiving yards but earned fewer than 20 yards in each of his other four games.”
So why has Amari Cooper, “earned fewer than 20 yards in each of his other four games.”
Because the quarterback in Oakland doesn’t see the field well.
Darnold isn’t seeing the field great. Perhaps because he’s a rookie. Perhaps this will improve in time and with more experience.
It is what it is.
Darnold was asked after the game why Jermaine Kearse had no catches against Minnesota.
“It’s just me looking for the open guy every play and and executing,” Sam Darnold said.
With all due respect, I didn’t see him “looking for the open guy” on many occasions – I see a guy fixated on his first read.
“He’s a first-read machine,” observed one writer in the press box.
So you can sign or trade for whatever you want, but if a QB is only looking for one guy, what is the point?
Jermaine Kearse had nine catches last week, but zero today. He clearly wasn’t the first read very often today. Did he Kearse go from penthouse to the outhouse in one week?
No way, and Kearse seemed frustrated after the game. The QB wasn’t seeing him.
The QB needs to go through his progression better.
End of story.
And I like the prospect.
I’m just calling it like I see it . . .
The need run defense needs a fix.
Even during the two-game winning streak, it wasn’t great. Too many gaping holes.
I asked Jamal Adams what the Jets need to do to fix their run defense.
“Just do our jobs,” Adams said.
I asked him a follow-up asking for specifics on what needs to improve.
And he repeated, “Just do our jobs.”
He certainly does his job. He had nine tackles including three for losses.
You know you have a problem when your top three tacklers are defensive backs Darryl Roberts, Adams and Parry Nickerson. That means a lot of plays are getting past the first line of defense.
Mike Pennel had no tackles today. Somebody needs to light a fire under him. They paid him good money in the off-season and he’s having very little impact.
Nathan Shepherd had one-half tackle. He needs to backup Henry Anderson, not start in front of him. The decisions to start a raw rookie from Fort Hays state from the get-go was misguided.
Leonard Williams had one-half tackle.
Something needs to change up here.
Too many big holes opening up front.
October 21, 2018
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