New York Jets Stock Report 📈
Who doesn't love a new tradition? Introducing the weekly stock report.
🗽 Good morning Jets fans. Apparently, it’s the first of December tomorrow, so I’ll be busy today getting my daughter’s advent sorted and digging deep into the attic alcoves to try and find all those Christmas decorations. In January you can’t be bothered to put them away neatly and in December you hate yourself for not having wrapped the lights properly.
Anyway, today I’m introducing something slightly different. Monday we do the recap and Wednesday we get into the film. Tuesday is a little bit of an odd day in terms of the newsletter, so I’ve decided to introduce a Jets stock report.
Every week we’re going to look at 5 guys whose stock is up 📈, and 5 guys whose stock is down 📉, based on their previous game performance. Ready? Let’s go.
John Franklin-Myers 📈
One sack in his last six games. That was the stat line for JFM heading into his homecoming game against the Texans. JFM spent his youth in Greenville Texas, a few hours north of Houston. A lot of his friends and family were in attendance on Sunday to see him break out of his slumber.
There’s been a lot of talk about him not having that edge now he got paid. The Jets signed JFM to a new 4-year contract worth $55 million on October 7th, he’d had just one sack since. It wasn’t for a lack of effort, anyone who watches can see that Franklin-Myers goes all out, it just wasn’t falling for him…until Sunday.
2 sacks and 1 INT later, the good feeling is back. JFM was constantly beating the Houston defensive line and on another day he probably has more than 2 sacks. His stock is skyrocketing again, if he can maintain this down the stretch, the thought of Lawson joining JFM and Huff on the line is a very appealing one for the Jets.
Game Stats: 63% of defensive snaps, 3 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 INT
Zach Wilson 📉
I spoke at length about Wilson in yesterday’s newsletter and in the preview to the game. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a statement game from Wilson.
He did some things well. His read-option rushing TD was a nice play and he showed some toughness to fight through the tackles and dive for the end-zone. He made a couple of nice plays to Moore over the middle of the field and he only threw one INT.
The issue for me is the Jets won the game in spite of Zach Wilson, not because of him. He still held the ball for too long. He still missed easy completions. He still shows no touch on his passes, rocketing them in and making it extremely hard for his receivers. His pitch to Johnson which led to the INT was bad, his fumble could have been catastrophic in terms of the game outcome, and he missed Moore on a slant which likely leads to a TD. When you have all those things go wrong, your stock is down.
He’s a rookie, it’s a learning curve, but we’re seeing some worrying signs from Zach. Long way to go and I hope he can get back on track against an underwhelming Eagles team next Sunday.
Game stats: 14/24 for 145 yards. 0 TD, 1 INT. 1 Rushing TD, 1 Fumble. 9.8 QBR.
Quincy Williams 📈
I don’t think there is a single fan out there who doesn’t love the way that Quincy Williams plays the game. He plays a fast and physical style that coaches love, that fans love and that opponents hate.
Once again he was the Jets leading tackler and he got in on the sack party showing his closing speed to bring down Taylor. The Jets are a much better team when Quincy Williams is starting next to CJ. There is no question about it.
Quincy may have been in his older brother Quinnen’s shadow (it’s a pretty big shadow), but he’s slowly starting to carve out a good reputation that is thoroughly deserved.
The Jaguars drafted him in the 3rd round back in 2019 and then gave up on him before the 2021 season, their loss is the Jets gain.
Game stats: 70% of defensive snaps, 7 tackles, 1 sack
Matt Ammendola 📉
After missing two field goals against the Dolphins last week, and with the Jets having signed kicker Alex Kessman to the practice squad, Ammendola can count himself lucky that he was given the chance to kick in Houston.
If he survives to kick again against the Eagles next week, I’ll be amazed.
For the second week in a row, Ammendola missed a FG that you expect NFL kickers to make, and for the second week in a row, it was obvious that Coach Saleh’s confidence in him wilted the longer the game went on.
The Jets got away with it yesterday because Houston is an awful football team. They didn’t get away with it against the Dolphins and they won’t get away with it against the Eagles, you can’t leave points on the field.
Ammendola is now hitting less than 70% of his kicker on the season. He’s just 2-8 on kicks over 40 yards. At this level, that’s simply not good enough. Not only is Matt’s stock down, but it should also be off the trading floor by the end of the week.
Game Stats: 1/1 on extra points. 2-3 on FG’s (66.7%), missed a 42 yarder.
Austin Walter 📈
Walter is such a great story, it’s impossible to not share in his joy at rushing for his first career NFL touchdown.
After going undrafted out of Rice back in 2019, he was picked up by the San Fransico 49’ers. He was waived just before the season and signed with the Giants, before getting cut shortly after. He was drafted by the XFL’s Dallas Renegades before having his contract terminated due to the league disbanding. He was signed and waived by the 49ers again before the Jets signed him, waived him and then signed him again. Did you follow all that?
With Michael Carter out, that opened up a few opportunities for another running back to come in and take advantage of the holes the offensive line were opening up. Walter came in and showed a good combination of speed and vision, and he was rewarded for getting the Jets into the end-zone with a HB dive over the goal-line.
I’d be lying if I said I’ve seen a lot of Walter. But after yesterday, I’d like to see a little more while we wait for Carter to return.
Game stats: 9 rushes for 38 yards (4.2 average), 1 TD
La’Michael Perine 📉
This is the other side of the Austin Walter coin, the Jets decided to go with Walter over 2020 4th round draft pick La’Mical Perine. That alone speaks volumes about how the staff view Perine who’s had 1 rush for 3 yards all season.
He had 64 carries last year but it seems as though he’s buried on the depth chart behind Michael Carter, Ty Johnson, Tevin Coleman and now Austin Walter. His future in New York doesn’t look overly promising, and it also makes Joe Douglas’s 2020 draft class look even worse.
Game Stats: Healthy scratch
Javelin Guidry 📈
Guidry was targeted twice yesterday and he allowed 0 receptions with one pass break-up.
In the end, the 2020 UDFA from Utah played 57 snaps, including 34 in coverage. So to not allow a single reception and to only be targeted twice shows that he offered some excellent coverage.
I think with Michael Carter II’s development in 2021, taking over the slot corner responsibilities, it’s easy to forget that Guidry was one of the more impressive performers last season.
He’s active, he plays physically for his style and he does make plays on the football. His stock is certainly up from Sunday.
Game stats: Targets 2, receptions allowed 0
Morgan Moses 📉
Moses has been a good pick-up for the Jets, especially with George Fant having to slide over to left tackle following Becton’s injury, but recently his form has slipped a little bit.
He got a little banged up yesterday on a play, but that didn’t prevent him from playing 100% of the snaps.
Saying that, he did get beat around the outside a couple of times and in total he gave up 4 pressures, which consisted of 1 sack, 1 hit and 2 hurries.
Maybe the injury had something to do with it, but he wasn’t at his best yesterday. For that reason, I have his stock down.
Game stats: 4 pressures, 1 sack, 1 hit and 2 hurries
Connor McGovern 📈
The Jets center is quietly having a very good season for Gang Green.
McGovern had another game where he didn’t allow a single pressure, no sacks, no hits and no hurries. He stood up the pass-rush well and played with a good anchor giving Wilson space in front of him.
In the run-game he was opening holes regularly along with AVT and LDT, the interior of the offensive line was a huge plus for the Jets on Sunday and those three are starting to form a good partnership. He opened up the lane for Walters big run that set up the TD.
Game stats: 0 pressures, 0 hits, 0 sacks.
Braden Mann 📉
Mann was very unlucky on one punt which went into the end-zone for a touchback. Hardee got to the ball at the one-yard line and he’ll be the first to say he should have downed it, but overall it was a pretty poor display for Mann.
He had 4 punts with his yards per attempt at a lowly 39 yards with a net yardage of 32.3. Both of those marks would rank among the worst in the league in terms of season average. His hang time was lower than it usually is at 4.26 and two of his kicks went out of bounds short.
I like Mann but at the moment he’s not kicking to his potential.
That will do it for today. Thank you as always for reading and if you’re yet to subscribe please do hit that subscribe button and share the newsletter with friends and family.