Let's Talk About Vinny Curry
Let's Talk About Vinny Curry
Edition #136: Why I think the pass-rusher is underrated.
🌟 Good morning!
If there is one thing I hate above all else about the NFL, it’s the length of the off-season. We’re now officially into the calm before the storm and talking points are few and far between. If you’re still reading an NFL daily newsletter in the middle of May you’re a diehard, and I appreciate all of you.
Today I wanted to touch on Vinny Curry, the veteran edge who’s back with the Jets for another year.
1️⃣ The Jets’ first-round pick, Jermaine Johnson has signed his rookie contract. It’s a four-year $13.08 million fully guaranteed with a fifth-year option.
🙌 Here’s a positive, the Jets rank dead last in dead money owed for the 2022 season with just $2.08 million on the books according to Over The Cap. The Jets had the third-most dead money over the last previous three seasons with $117 million spread over, another hat tip to the work that Joe Douglas has done.
🏈 Connecticut native, Cheshire Academy graduate and New York Jets wide receiver Tarik Black hosted a skills camp at his alma mater this past weekend. Love seeing any Jets player give back to the community: “It's just crazy, it's surreal seeing all of these kids came out... I see some of myself in some of these kids and so I just wanted to be able to give them the knowledge and the things that they need to make it,".
🙏 The late Greg Knapp has been selected as the 2022 Paul "Dr. Z" Zimmerman Award winner (along with Leslie Frazier) by the Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA). Knapp had just started his 26th season as an NFL assistant coach when he was killed in a bicycle accident in July 2021 after he had joined the New York Jets as passing game coordinator. The Dr. Z Award is given for lifetime achievement as an assistant coach in the NFL. The award is named for Zimmerman, who covered the NFL for 29 years as Sports Illustrated's lead pro football writer. Well deserved and a great honor for a man like Greg and his family.
2️⃣0️⃣ It looks as though Sauce Gardner isn’t the only rookie to change his number from the one originally announced. Sauce has taken the #1, which opened up the #20. Hall was pictured wearing #20 at voluntary workouts yesterday indicating that he’s taken on that number.
I’ve always liked Vinny Curry, from his time at Marshall to his early years in Philadelphia. So when the Jets signed him to a deal in the 2021 off-season I was pretty happy. He offered a veteran presence to a very young defensive unit in year one of a foreign system.
Unfortunately for Vinny and the Jets, he never made it to the regular season. In August he was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder that required the removal of his spleen. He then had issues with blood clots and was ruled out for the entire season.
After missing the entire season he was made a free agent in January, and after testing the open market decided to return to the Jets in April, signing a one-year deal worth $1.12 million. A bit of a steal if you ask me.
2022 will be Curry’s 11th year in the league and over the course of his career, he’s put up some good numbers. He’s recorded 295 total pressures and 37 sacks on 2,316 pass-rush snaps, good for a sack every 63 snaps and a pressure every 8 snaps.
The last time he saw meaningful minutes as a situational pass-rusher in Philadelphia was 2020, a year where he ended up with 4 sacks and 25 pressures on just 178 pass-rushing stats. That’s higher than his career average on a per pass-rush snap basis, that’s a sack every 44.5 pass-rush snaps and a pressure every 7 snaps.
So there is reason to believe that Curry isn’t really slowing down, he’s just taking on more of a rotational and situational role.
I dove into the numbers for both 2020 and 2021 to see how his sack numbers matched up in relation to pass-rush snaps.
In 2021 there were 118 players in the NFL who had 4 sacks or more, and there were only 35 who had a sack at a better rate than Curry’s 44.5 in 2020. In 2020 there were 112 NFL players in the NFL who had 4 sacks and more, and again only 35 did it at a better rate.
I’m not sitting here saying that Vinny Curry is going to lead the league in sacks in 2022, but I am saying that as far as situational pass-rushers go…he still has a lot to offer.
The Jet’s pass-rush did flounder last year because of the injury to Carl Lawson, but they also lost Vinny and while that wasn’t as big as a loss in terms of talent and financials, it was still pretty huge. Curry is here to play the mentor role, especially with rookies Jermaine Johnson and Micheal Clemons on board, but he’s not just making up the numbers, he’s here based on his talent as well.
Injuries completely derailed the Jets’ pass-rush last season, and Joe Douglas has taken steps to ensure that doesn’t happen again. Lawson, Johnson, Clemons, and Huff will all be in the rotation with Vinny Curry, and there are guys like Bradlee Anae and Hamilcar who could push for time with impressive training camp performances.
🤕 INJURIES: The Vinny Curry section leads me perfectly into injuries and the issues the Jets have faced recently staying healthy. We can blame it on the Metlife turf, which has taken its fair share of victims…but the Jets seem to experience their fair share of injuries wherever they are.
At the end of the 2021 regular season, it was revealed that the Jets had the 4th highest # of games missed by players at 296. I don’t need to point out that that is a huge number and if we experience the same thing in 2022, we’ll find it hard to stay competitive.
That 296 number ranked behind only the New York Giants (356), Baltimore Ravens (343), and Tennessee Titans (336). That’s the second year in a row that the Jets have been towards the top of an unwanted list. Here’s another, they finished #1 in terms of cap ending on IR, by the end of the season we had $68.3 million on IR, so not only were we getting a lot of injuries, they were high-impact valuable players.
Washington was the 2nd team in $$ ending on IR at $59 million and the most money tied up on IR for a playoff team was $27 million for the Buccaneers. Showing that most teams who get to the post-season do tend to avoid major injuries to big-time players.
During his post-season press conference, Joe Douglas made a point to prioritize player health in the off-season. “It’s hard to consistently win games when you’re banged up, It’s been a frustrating thing. “Overall, we’ve lost far too many guys to injuries,” Douglas said. “We have to be better.”
The Jets are trying to be better. Last off-season we created an Athletic Care and Performance department to try and limit injuries, the Jets had fewer ACL and hamstring issues in 2022, but they lost Carl Lawson, Marcus Maye, and Jamien Sherwood to Achillies injuries and now the department will be diving in to see if they can find out why.
Robert Saleh already help his draft picks out of large portions of rookie minicamp, instead choosing to have the likes of Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson working with the strength and conditioning coach. He referenced the desire to avoid injuries as one of the main motivations in that decision:
“Their schedules over the last month have been rigorous with regards to travel, the lack of working out they’ve been able to fit in. Very spotted,” Saleh said. “Wasn’t worth bringing them in here and injuring them or risking injury. Let them go off to the side and let’s get a great weekend of work in for them”
Injuries can’t always be helped, no amount of new departments could prevent Becton from getting rolled up on, but it’s clear that injury prevention is a key focus for the organization heading into a key 2022 season.
What’s in a play?
🏆 As we continue to grind our way through the offseason I’m going to start introducing different features, including today’s little snippet.
This is a key play from the Jets Super Bowl victory and one used my conspiracy nuts to claim that the game was rigged.
Colts QB Earl Morrall tries a good old flea-flicker handing the ball off to HB Tom Matte before receiving it back. He has split end Jimmy Orr streaking free down the field, but somehow doesn’t see him and instead tries to find Hill on the slant and Jets safety Jim Hudson jumps the route and grabs the pick.
One of my favorite explanations for this is that Morrall didn’t see Orr because the Baltimore Colts marching band was getting ready to come onto the field from that end zone and they were wearing a similar blue and white uniform to the one that the Colts were using, let’s hope they gave a good halftime performance.
For what it’s worth Jets coach Walt Michaels thought that credit should have been given to his cornerback Randy Beverly ‘People say that Jimmy Orr was wide open…There were about five ifs, If Earl was smart enough. If he would have seen it. If he had that much time. Nobody wants to give my cornerback, Randy Beverly any credit for the fact he could run a 4.3 and probably would have been back in time’
If you’re not following NYJ_Matt on Twitter you’re just doing social media wrong. Famed for breaking the Adam Gase to Lincoln HS blockbuster deal, Matt is a funny follow, and let’s be honest, as Jets fans all we’ve had is humor over the last few years. He’s quick on everything and his Jets 2021 Key & Peele season recap is still one of the best things on Twitter.
Thanks for another great read, David. I will also follow NYJ Matt.
JD’s overall CAP management is excellent, Dead money numbers show what Douglas has had to overcome financially, and how heathy the Jets are now. Speaking of health , the Health Care and Performance Center is an innovative initiative that coordinates Health services for the player , to see the players needs as a whole , to maximize the players potential. Great job Joe, hope it works. If the Jets keep 10 Defensive Lineman , is there a spot for Vinny ? Who do you cut ? A plethora of talented Lineman.