It's Arrived!

Edition #915: It's officially game week. Time to look ahead to Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, a difficult start to the season.

Good morning ☕

It’s been 239 days since the Jets left the field victorious against the Miami Dolphins, the NFL has one of the longest off-seasons in professional sports yet manages to stay relevant throughout, hats off to the commissioner.

This week we’re going full throttle on previewing the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. There are a number of key matchups to watch and I’m going to do my best to not talk about Aaron Rodgers too much. We’ll get into all that tomorrow.

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NEWS & NOTES

• According to Connor Hughes the Jets were very interested in adding recently released Giants QB Tommy DeVito to their practice squad, but the New England Patriots put in a waiver claim making him their de-facto QB2 on the season. The 27-year-old holds a 3-5 record completing 65.3% of his passes with 8 TD to 3 INT and is renowned for his arm. I’d have liked to have seen DeVito but I’m also not going to get too upset about this either.

• According to Chiefs Digest, Kansas City offered the Browns a 6th round pick for DT Jowon Briggs, the same offer they accepted from the Jets. Even the most optimistic of Jets fans probably doesn’t expect NY to have a better record than Kansas City, which is exactly why the Browns went with the Jets proposal.

• Rich Cimini had an interesting note on Harrison Phillips first meeting with Quinnen Williams: "The first thing he said was, 'I have to keep you clean,'" Williams said. "So he's talking my language already.". There’s a good chance that Quinnen has a career year, Phillips is arguable the most talented player that Quinnen has ever had alongside him at DT.

• The Jets held another players only practice with the captains calling the plays. No assistant coaches just Aaron Glenn - "It gives the coordinators a chance to see what we like to run or what we're more comfortable playing in and stuff.”

• Cimini also notes that Aaron Rodgers could have had a hand in the Jets trading up to take Malachi Corley. Rodgers identified him as his favourite receiver in the draft and shared that with Douglas and co. We all know how much the last regime wanted to bend over backwards for Rodgers.

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Korie Black joins Jets Practice Squad

Last week the Giants cut Korie Black with the expectation that they’d be able to add him back to the practice squad. Black made the 53 but had to be cut to make room for waiver claims Beau Brade and Rico Payton and that decision has cost the Giants one of the better development prospects they had at a position that’s extremely thin on the blue side of New York.

Payton is due to be out for a few weeks after being waived injured by the Saints so Joe Schoen pounced with the intention of signing him, moving him to IR and then re-adding Black. Well things don’t always go to plan.

I’m looking at this as a little payback for the Giants stealing Jason Pinnock from us in 2023, a move that still frustrates me to this day.

Black only played a handful of snaps on defense in one game this pre-season (against the Jets) due to some struggles with injuries but he was being looked at as a special teams contributor down to his excellent speed.

While in college Black played over 350 special teams snaps and over 2000 snaps on defense, mostly as an outside corner.

Over 5 years at Oklahoma state (3 as a starter), he allowed just 53% of passes to be completed into his coverage (88-166) for 11 touchdowns, 4 interceptions and 19 pass defenses. 3 of those interceptions came last season, a year where he was named a team captain with the Cowboys.

Black is only 6’0 but he has a big 6' 5 1/2" wingspan, so size really isn’t an issue. It’s sometimes difficult to separate the part from the whole and Oklahoma State had an awful defense last season, and when I say awful, I mean awful. They allowed over 500 yards a game but Black had a career year. 3 interceptions and 9 pass break-ups while allowing 55.4% of passes to be completed is a shining star.

Black brings a lot to the team, not only does he have sticky coverage and a nose for the football, but he’s as physical as they come. He’s never afraid to stick his nose in and deliver a hit, the kind of player that Aaron Glenn will love

I’ve spent a couple of hours this weekend looking into Black and his game and the more I watched, the more I liked. He’s not perfect, he can bite on play-action, doesn’t have elite lateral movement and plays very physical, maybe a little too physical for the NFL standards these days. But he also has excellent recognition, good change of direction and the click and close speed that you need at this level. I’m not saying he’s going to be a starter anytime soon, but he has a lot to like and the Jets have stolen him from their cross-town neighbours.