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This is a good NFL season for the Jets to win with their current formula of running the ball, playing great defense, and a low-risk conservative passing attack wtih a reserve QB.
The league is down. There is no doubt about it. There are very few really good teams.
Because there is a shortage of elite quarterbacks.
The Jets face two quarterbacks, in their next two games, who got huge contracts in the off-season, and neither is living up to the money.
And you could say the same thing about the last two quarterbacks they faced, who got paid big bucks recently as well.
In the past, when you had a league rife with great quarterbacks, and you had to face a bunch of them, it was harder to try to win games 20-17 in those contests. You saw that when the Jets had to face Tom Brady in his prime.
Trying to minimize the impact of the QB position when your opponent was a Brady or a Peyton Manning type, it was hard to win that way. It was like taking a knife to a gun fight.
But this year you can do it most weeks, because the league is so down, so the Jets can probably challenge for a playoff spot with this approach in the 2023-24 season . . .
Garrett Wilson is a smart man. He knows what he can say and not say. While the Jets have won two in a row to get to 3-3, he’s clearly not thrilled with state of the Jets’ passing offense.
But if you talk about it publicly, you have to do it in a passive aggressive way, so it doesn’t look like you are ripping a teammate, in any way.
After the Eagles game, the Jets’ second game in a row with no touchdown passes, Wilson said: “We talked about it in the showers even. It’s seemingly like these dudes, they don’t think too highly of us as far as the offense. … It seems like they mentality we’re getting from the defense is: ‘Let’s make them throw the ball and let’s see if they can do it’. And I know we’re taking that personally. And every week we’re going to continue to have that chip on our shoulder that we have something to prove because we do. They have their right to have their opinion and we have the right to prove it wrong. And that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
That is a way to get your point across without throwing anybody under the bus. Words matter.
But when a team fails to throw a passing TD in three of the last four games, and a WR is venting like this, don’t you think part of the issue might be the triggerman? . . .
Jets right tackle Max Mitchell could use a little work on pass pro, but it’s impressive how aggressive and tough he is as a run blocker. He really gets after it.
Late third quarter against the Eagles, on the same series, he had had key blocks on two running plays:
1-10-PHI 25 (4:16) Bre.Hall up the middle to PHI 17 for 8 yards (H.Reddick).
3-1-PHI 16 (2:53) (Shotgun) Bre.Hall up the middle to PHI 13 for 3 yards (N.Morrow).
While the loss of Alijah Vera-Tucker is a tough one for the Jets, this guy looks like a pretty good replacement . . .
October 23, 2024
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