Here are five thoughts I have from the Jets’ preseason loss to the Giants last
night.Sam Darnold should be the starting quarterback Week 1.Again
Blake Cashman Jersey Draft , Darnold had a pedestrian stat line. He was only 8 of 16 for 84 yards. The stats were deceptive. Before I went to bed last night, I
rewatched all of his throws to try and make some sense of the disparity between
his numbers and my perception. I was a little sleepy when I was watching, but of
the eight incompletions, I saw four hit his receiver in the hand, three
throwaways, and one batted down at the line. So every single pass Darnold where
Darnold was targeting a receiver last night and got it over the line was on
target.This isn’t to say he played a perfect game. I saw two notable rookie
mistakes. One was an intentional grounding penalty. The other was a clock
management mistake near the end of the first half. I also haven’t gone through
to make sure he made the proper read on every play.But the biggest takeaway from
preseason should be that Darnold doesn’t seem to be in over his head. We aren’t
talking about throwing Christian Hackenberg to the lions when he can’t execute
basic functions. There are going to be moments where Darnold makes mistakes and
looks very bad. But there aren’t any basic skills Darnold needs to develop from
the practice field and the bench. I don’t see the benefit in holding him out.2.
The tight end hype should end.There has been this weird disparity between the
amount of hype the tight ends have been getting from training camp practices and
the lack of talent/upside the group has. Things came to a head last night as the
tight ends played a brutal collective gain. I estimated that Sam Darnold lost
somewhere between 50 and 55 passing yards from throws that hit his receivers in
the hands and were not converted into receptions. The tight ends were
responsible for approximately 40 of those yards on 3 such passes. The group also
accounted for 5 penalties.Jeremy Bates’ philosophy is built on using the tight
end position, but there just isn’t any quality there for the Jets.3. Special
teams was so bad that it was comedic.During the Kotite Era, the Jets special
teams coach was a guy named Ken Rose. If you go back and read news accounts
during that era
Blake Cashman NFL Jersey , you probably wouldn’t believe how bad the special teams unit was. Some of the stuff you read seems implausible.The Ken Rose era is the
only thing to which I can equate last night’s performance.The Jets committed
four penalties on special teams, fumbled a kickoff away, missed an extra point,
and allowed a punt return for a touchdown.The only comforting thing is that
things have to go up. It’s impossible to sustain a performance that bad over the
long haul.4. The cornerback play is kind of concerning.The Jets have more money
tied up in the cornerback position this year than any team other than the
Houston Texans. Without a single proven pass rusher on the team, this defense is
going to lean heavily on coverage holding up.It, therefore, is disconcerting to
see Eli Manning throw for 188 yards in the first half. Trumaine Johnson held up
his end of the bargain and played very well. Morris Claiborne,
however
Blake Cashman NFL Draft , was toasted on a deep route, and Buster Skrine was repeatedly beaten.The Jets still haven’t given up a touchdown in the preseason,
but that isn’t going to sustain itself. This isn’t a bend but don’t break system
that’s willing to surrender yardage and get tough in the red zone. This is a
high risk defense where success is determined by how the corners cover one on
one. I foresee pain if things don’t get better.5. Penalties are also kind of
concerning.One of the ongoing themes of training camp was that the Jets were
taking a lot of penalties in practice. Last night they committed 13
penalties.Some of this is just based on a lack of talent. If you are less
skilled, you are going to be beaten and apt to commit a penalty. With that said,
there are other discipline issues the team needs to clean up quickly. It is
Thursday, which means it is mailbag day on our podcast. Thanks to those of you
who submitted questions for the show. Fortunately and unfortunately there were
far too many questions submitted for me to be able to answer all of them.
Apologies if your question was unanswered. Feel free to ask it again in a future
podcast.On this week’s mailbag, we look at whether it will be easier for the
Jets to work around their offensive line situation or their cornerback
situation, how the offensive line has looked so far
Blake Cashman Buffalo Bills Jersey , whether the Jets will look internally or outside the organization for Quincy Enunwa’s replacement, whether there was a
difference between the way Todd Bowles and Kacy Rodgers calls a game, areas of
improvement for Jamal Adams in year two, differences between the Sam Darnold of
2018 and the Mark Sanchez of 2009, how much blame Parry Nickerson deserves for
touchdowns against the Colts, and more.Thanks for listening.
