Colts Preview

Edition #743

Good morning.

The Jets issues with tackling persist into week eleven, that’s not a short-term issue or an easy fix, that’s a long-standing problem that likely won’t be resolved this season.

Even so, Jeff Ulbrich has seen enough. Yesterday he announced that both Wednesday and Thursday’s practices will be fully padded sessions with a focus on tackling.

They’re going to need that with the Colts announcing that they’ve decided to start Anthony Richardson the rest of the way.

I wonder if having looked at the Jets tackling and inability to defend a mobile QB, it convinced them to go back to Richardson.

Anthony Richardson completed just 31.2% of his passes last time he started for the Colts against the Texans and is completing just 44.45 of his passes on the season, including 7 interceptions against just 4 touchdowns.

But he does offer something in the running game. He' has 242 yards and a TD to go with 17 first downs. He averages 3.61 yards after contact per attempt and has forced 10 missed tackles on the season. He has 12 rushes of 10+ yards and has nearly 100 yards on designed running plays.

For everything the Jets gain by Richardson being the inferior passer to Flacco, they lose by him being significantly more mobile.

I honestly can’t decide if this is a good or bad thing for the Jets. Richardson has been truly horrendous as a passer since entering the league before last season. Completing 50.2% of your passes after 10 games with 153.5 passing yard per game is pretty awful. But any QB who has mobility worries me. We’ll find out on Sunday.

Yesterday Rodgers said he thinks he wants to play in 2025. I’m not getting into that today as that’s the focus of tomorrow’s newsletter.

🟢 Davante Adams was out yesterday with an illness and wrist injury, although that doesn’t seem likely to keep him out this weekend. C.J. Mosley is still missing and it wouldn’t shock me if we don’t see much of him the rest of the way. Tyron Smith is still having imaging on the neck injury that forced him out of Sunday’s game and at this point it seems unlikely he’ll play on Sunday. Aaron Rodgers on the other hand was a full participant.

⚫ Jeff Ulbrich was asked whether the time was coming for the Jets to sit Tyron Smith in favour of rookie Olu Fashanu and he responded "The guy that gives us the best opportunity to win is the guy that plays.". If the Jets fall out of contention it’s pointless to their long-term plans to continue playing the veteran on a one-year contract. But for Ulbrich, he needs to win as many games as he can.

🟢 Chuck Clark has been designated to return to practice and he could be back for Sunday’s game. Clark has a career missed tackle rate of 8.4% and was one of the better tacklers on the team this season. In the two games before he landed on IR he had a combined 0 missed tackles and he’s only had 3 all season. He has 32 tackles, 1 pass defense, 1 forced fumble and a fumble recovery on 334 snaps this season, and we’ve missed him in a big way since he went on IR. He’ll certainly help defend Richardson.

⚫ I really dislike when coaches come out and tell us what their focus is for the week. Last week it was tackling, then they went out and missed 20 tackles per ESPN. This week? It’s tackling again: “Like, if there’s 15 minutes in (individual drills), it’s going to be 14 1/2 minutes of tackling,” Jeff Ulbrich said. “We’re going to get back to fundamentals and basics.”. So expect another game of 15+ missed tackles.

🟢 I’m not sure anyone outside the building still believes in the 2024 Jets. But PFF’s Power Ranking are one of the kinder ones ranking the Jets as the 16th best team in the NFL - “The Jets were embarrassed on the road in Week 10 and fell to 3-7 on the season. The offense didn’t score a touchdown against a poor Cardinals defense. See you in 2025, maybe. On the bright side, Garrett Wilson’s 82.0 overall grade is 13th among all receivers; his breakout looks real.”

⚫ According to PFF the Jets offensive line is still a top-10 unit, they ranked them #9 overall heading into week 11. “Right guard Alijah Vera-Tucker returned to action following his injury and played all 58 snaps in the Jets' loss to the Cardinals. However, his 54.8 PFF pass-blocking grade was the lowest among Jets offensive linemen. Veteran left tackle Tyron Smith exited Week 10’s game with a neck injury and was replaced by rookie Olu Fashanu. New York’s first-round pick earned an 83.7 PFF run-blocking grade against Arizona, which was the second-highest mark on the Jets' offensive line”

I was going to do a big statistical comparison for the game this Sunday, but then I stumbled across one on Colts Wire, and there’s no point repeating what someone has already done. This graph perfectly outlines how the two teams shape up against each other and there really isn’t a great deal in it.