Keeping Tabs

The Jets will continue to focus on trying to improve their wide receiver room before the draft.

Good morning,

Welcome to another week of Jets football. We’re now officially one month out from the NFL draft and have a firm idea of how we’ll look heading into 2022.

Wide Receiver

One storyline that is guaranteed to dominate over the next month is Joe Douglas’s desire to add to the wide receiver room.

Normally the cards are kept close to the chest at one Jets Drive, but due to the public flirtation with Tyreek Hill, we know the Jets are looking to trade for an upgrade.

According to ESPN’s Rich Cimini, the Jets are keeping an eye on the situations in Tennessee, San Francisco, and Seattle with all of those teams having receivers who are going to want to get paid.

In Seattle it’s DK Metcalf who’s about to start the final year of his rookie deal, indications are he’s not available and will unlikely become available. Reports out of the west coast seem to indicate that GM John Schneider will reward DK with a new contract sooner rather than later.

In Tennessee, we’re talking about A.J. Brown, who played with Elijah Moore at Ole Miss and remains a close friends. But again, indications out of Tennessee are they’re going to pay him and keep him a Titan longterm

“Right now, we are just trying to get through this free agency period, seeing where we’ve landed cap-wise,” Robinson said, via Jim Wyatt of the team website. “A.J. is an important part of what we do. He’s a great teammate. He works hard. He’s about what we’re about. A.J. is a Titan, and we want to keep A.J. a Titan. And that’s part of our goal this offseason, or whenever that manifests itself, to come to an agreement to keep him around.”

Just in case you were wondering, Joe Douglas hasn’t made the call to Tennessee…nobody’s made a call to Tennessee about Brown

“We get calls about players all the time. That’s what GMs do,” Robinson said. “I haven’t received any of those calls (about Brown), and if they do call, our intention is . . . we are going to keep him in Nashville. He is an important part of our offense.”

Finally, it’s all about Deebo in San Francisco. If the last two seemed like long shots, I’d say this was even longer. Samuel is also heading into the last year of his deal with San Francisco and there is obviously some familiarity with Deebo and the Jets coaching staff. But why would San Francisco who basically designed their entire offense around him in 2021 not pay him long-term?

San Francisco only has around $2 million in cap space right now, but Jimmy G won’t be there long-term and that frees up a significant amount of cap space. GM John Lynch sees Deebo (and Nick Bosa) as foundational pieces of that 49’ers team:

"Well, it will certainly be a challenge, as good of players as those guys are," Lynch said. "But I do know this: Those guys are, in my mind, no absolutes, but those guys are going to be 49ers. They're foundational to what we do. On the field, their play is special. Off the field, in their own way, they've each become really big-time leaders for our team. They make their teammates better, and we realize all that value."

This is all good fun to chat about in the off-season, but it probably leaves us in the same boat we’ve always been in. Chances are if we want a star receiver, we’re going to have to draft one. Maybe one of those three guys shakes free, but I’d bet all three end up signing with their current team. If there’s one guy who I could potentially, maybe getting traded it’s A.J. Brown, but again it seems as though the motivation in Tennessee is to keep him around and happy.

Greg the Leg

The Jets did sign someone over the weekend when they announced they’d picked up kicker Greg Zuerlein.

“Greg the Leg” was released earlier this month by the Cowboys after missing 6 field goals, although that 82.9% accuracy was actually higher than his 82.2% career average.

Zuerlein is just a year removed from setting the Dallas Cowboys team record by kicking 34 field goals, although he did miss 7 that season as well (82.9%).

One problem last year for Zuerlein was his PAT attempts, he hit 42/48 for a success rate of 87.5%, the lowest mark of his career, although his touchback rate of 80% on kickoffs was excellent.

Greg’s best year was undoubtedly the 2017 season where he was named to both the Pro Bowl and the All-Pro team. While playing for the Rams Zuerlein his 38/40 field goals that season for a 95% accuracy rate, with a 95.7% accuracy on extra points as well.

The Jets kept 2021 kicker Eddy Pineiro around and both players will head into camp looking to win the starting job. I was never a fan of just handing Eddy the job so I’m all for this signing.

Zuerlein, also known as Legatron is 34 now, but if you look at guys like Robbie Gould (39), Nick Folk (37), Graham Gano (34), Matt Prater (37), Mason Crosby (37), etc… there’s reason to believe he could have a few more good seasons in him.

The Jets could do with some consistency in the kicking ranks. Ever since Chandler Catanzaro retired following Jason Myers leaving for Seattle, the Jets have hosted a kicking party at Metlife…and not a good party. Kaare Vedvik, Sam Ficken, Sergio Castillo, Chase McLaughlin, Matt Ammendola, Alex Kessman, and Eddy Pineiro have all rolled through at some point.

Monday Mock

Every Monday I’m going to pick out a mock draft from the MSM and take a look at the direction they have the Jets going. Today, it’s NFL.com’s Chad Reuter.

If you have us taking an edge that’s not Kayvon Thibodeaux with Kayvon Thibodeaux still on the board, chances are I’m not going to like it…and I don’t like it.

I like Travon, he has all the tools you could ever want…but his pass-rush win rate was also minuscule (10.1%) for the obvious talent.

If the Jets do decide to go with Walker then I’d be on board because the coaching staff will obviously believe they can get the most out of his talent, but in this scenario I hate this pick.

Chad then has the Jets trading down with the Eagles to grad Sauce Gardner

This for me is a home run pick, I’m not sure Sauce lasts to #10 let alone #15, but if he did and we got the best corner in the draft here, I’d be delighted.

The AFC is absolutely stacked this year and the AFC East with Stephon Diggs and Tyreek Hill is a murderer’s row, especially if you add in that I think Waddle will become one of the better receivers in the too.

Adding Sauce whose college statistics are mind-bogglingly good, and you’re giving yourself a fighting chance. Sauce and Reed on the outside with Hall, Echols and MC2? Yeah, I like the sounds of that.

Chad then has the Jets trading up with the Bucs

Another pick that I absolutely love and a move I love as well. Don’t sit and wait for a guy at #35, if you want someone then use that draft capital to move up and get him.

Olave is my WR2 in this draft, so getting that guy at pick #27 is ideal. Olave is the best route-runner in the class, it’s an artform to him and you can easily see how he’s going to win on Sundays.

He can play inside or out and has one of the best releases for a WR I’ve seen. There’s a good chance he goes earlier than people expect, but I love this move.

Overall

Swap in Kayvon Thibodeaux for Travon Walker and this is a home-run draft.