Covering for Sheldon

Edition #264

Good morning!

I’m not one to wish the days away, but I’m ready for some Jets football. The Patriots are on a good run at the moment winning 4 of their last 5 games, so they’ll be full of confidence this weekend.

After they face the Jets on Sunday, they’ll head to Minnesota to play the Vikings before playing the Bills, Cardinals, and Bengals within the next four weeks. If we can grab a victory on Sunday, the Patriots will start feeling the pressure.

Yesterday I wrote a piece for SB Nation on how the Jets need to stop Rhamondre Stevenson to walk out of New England with a victory and today I’m talking about Sheldon Rankins as I have some backtracking to do.

Get to the ballot boxes to make your votes count! That’s a general rule for life but here I’m talking about Pro Bowl voting. I don’t tend to care if players get to the Pro Bowl, it’s the All-Pro nods that I look out for. But the players tend to like getting an invite, so why not help them? Head to the Jets website to cast your votes.

The Jets placing a waiver claim on Jerry Tillery got me thinking about Sheldon Rankins. Tillery was the 28th overall selection by the Las Angeles Chargers in the 2019 NFL draft, earlier this season they declined his 5th-year option which put the writing on the wall and 5 days ago they released him. 8 teams in total placed a claim on Tillery including the Jets, but he was awarded to the Raiders thanks to the waiver priority order.

Tillery may not have worked out as the Chargers hoped, but he’s far from a bust. When you think of defensive busts as a Jets fan you think of Vernon Gholston who never recorded an NFL Sack. Tillery has 10.5 sacks, 106 tackles, and 12 tackles for a loss over four seasons where he started 29 games, appearing in 54 in total.

He would have been a nice addition to the defensive line considering what we currently have at our disposal in week 11.

Tillery is very similar to someone like John Franklin-Myers. He has inside/out versatility and has played all across the line for the Chargers. For example, take his 2021 season and snap counts by position:

Defensive line snaps: 855
Defensive Left Tackle: 121
Defensive Right Tackle: 231
Left Defensive End: 147
Right Defensive End: 226

He then has a number of snaps at other positions like a nose tackle and stand-up defensive end. This is a guy who’s 6’6 and pushing nearly 300 lbs. When he was coming out of Notre Dame I always looked at him as either a 4-3 defensive tackle or a 3-4 defensive end. I know what you’re thinking, why are we spending so much time talking about a guy the Jets didn’t get? Well, it’s the fact they attempted to get him that caught my interest.

Sheldon Rankins is set to miss 4-6 weeks with a dislocated elbow. We touched on this when it happened but didn’t really dive any deeper. I also have an apology to make to Rankins as earlier in the off-season process I said I thought Rankins may be a high-profile cut of the Jets considering his underwhelming performance last year. I was wrong. If you’re reading this Sheldon, my apologies sir. (I’m sure he doesn’t read)

What’s been lost in Quinnen William’s explosion into the elite defensive tackle category, is just how well Rankins has played. He’s noticeably improved against the run, and he’s registered 3 sacks and 14 total pressures through 9 games, he’s also made 15 defensive stops that constituted an offensive failure, which is only 3 behind Quinnen. He hasn’t been an all-pro by any standard, but he has been a positive influence on this team and will be difficult to replace.

So how will the Jets try and replace Sheldon going forward?

Nathan Shepherd

Shepherd hasn’t always been top of Jets fans Christmas cards, but he’s actually having a relatively solid season in 2022 in a rotation role. He’s played 192 snaps this year split largely evenly between pass-rush and run defense and has generated 1 sack and 8 pressures. He still has an issue with his tackling and he can be moved at times in the run game so I’m not sure the Jets will want to double his snap count. If he were to move up into Rankins role someone would need to take his snaps and that someone would likely be Tanzel Smart or Jonathan Marshall who are both on the practice squad.

I’ve heard people suggest that Smart or Marshall could just vault up and fill that gap left by Rankins, but if the Jets saw them as better options to Shepherd they’d already be playing. So Shepherd moving up and opening up rotational snaps for Smart and Marshall is more likely.

Solomon Thomas

So far through 9 games, Thomas has actually out-snapped Marshall 205 to 192, but he’s had less impact. I have to admit that when I watch the games, I rarely notice Thomas is playing. He’s the lowest-graded run defender for the Jet’s defensive tackle group, but I never trust PFF and I can’t say I remember too many times where I’ve noticed him being blown off the ball or out of place against the run. He’s failed to record a sack so far this year and has just 2 QB pressures compared to the 8 that Marshall has generated. Despite this, he’s out-snapped Marshall in every single game so far this season, so it’s not as though a lack of production has led to a decrease in snaps. That says to me he’s doing more for the team than meets the eye.

Like with Shepherd, it’s likely that if anyone is going to take over Rankins's snaps it’ll be Thomas.

John Franklin-Myers

One suggestion is that the Jets will move JFM inside, but I don’t think they want to do that. With him generating 3 sacks and 25 pressures from the outside while offering good containment, I’m not sure the Jets are going to want to change a winning formula. He’s also only spent 17 of his 352 snaps this year playing inside at tackle, the Jets love him on the edge and they paid him to be an edge player in this league.

The one positive of moving JFM inside is that it would open up opportunities for the likes of Bryce Huff and Jermaine Johnson, both have shown a ton of potential so far this year, and making sure they’re getting the playing time to enable them to develop will be a key factor in the second half.

With that said I still feel as though the Jets will keep JFM outside, but I’ve been wrong before.

Micheal Clemons

During a press conference in June, Jets defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton said that Clemons had inside-out versatility and the impression he gave was that we’d see the rookie moved around as the season went on. But has that been the case through 9 games? So far Clemons has played 151 snaps on the defensive line and only 5 of those have come inside at tackle. However, Clemons 83.1 PFF run defense grade is the 6th best mark in football for a defensive lineman (tackles and edges) so there is certainly a world where we see Clemons move inside on early downs to offer some run support next to Quinnen Williams.

If Clemons can generate some snaps on the interior, this also opens up pass-rush snaps at the edge position for Huff and Johnson. Clemons averages around 9 pass-rush snaps a game. Certainly worth considering.

New York Jets Center Connor McGovern is teaming up with Mount Olive High School to provide an inclusive physical education experience.

McGovern and TNT Kid’s Fitness, an organization founded in Connor’s hometown of Fargo, ND will lead an active movement day for over 40 students with special needs and their peers. McGovern will guide the students through a series of exercises that build and strengthen functional movement patterns.

The program ABLE in School™ - Vocation Fitness, a Physical Education Course, is a joint creation of McGovern and TNT Kids’ Fitness, which encourages diversity, equity, and inclusion supported by a physical education curriculum for all children.

McGovern and TNT first launched ABLE Games, an annual groundbreaking competition that hosts 150 plus athletes of all abilities. Together, TNT and McGovern have made history as the region’s first all-inclusive functional fitness program.