One More Step

Edition #202

Good Morning,

The Jets took a day off yesterday as they get ready for the joint practices against the Atlanta Falcons this weekend. Joint practices always make me nervous, but maybe that’s just because of what happened to Carl Lawson last year. Hopefully, we escape without any setbacks.

• The big news for the Jets yesterday revolved around Joe Klecko who was named as a Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2023 finalist, alongside Super Bowl MVP Chuck Howley and All-Pro cornerback Ken Riley. Klecko earnedPro Bowl honors at nose tackle, defensive tackle, and defensive end. He spoke to ESPN after hearing he’d been named a finalist: "A tremendous honor," Klecko told Rich Cimini. "I didn't want to raise my expectations because of the past. I was hoping for the best, expecting the worst. When I got the call, I got emotional about it. My wife, she's usually reserved, but she was in the background, screaming." The three players were selected from 12 finalists and Klecko must receive 80% of votes from the full committee in January to be enshrined, although many consider this a formality.

• Jets running back coach Taylor Embree had a funny comment this week when he said “I was describing it to my wife, I feel like it’s Pokémon and you’re just sending out your next Pokémon” when trying to describe his running back rotation. The Jets are in a fortunate position where they have Breece Hall, Micheal Carter, and more to call on. It’s largely expected that Hall and Carter will get the vast majority of carries, but the Jets have depth if either misses time.

• The Saints picked up former Jets offensive lineman Derrick Kelly off waivers yesterday. Kelly was part of the initial roster cut-down by the Jets being released on Tuesday as teams were forced to trim their squad to 85 players. Kelly didn’t have to wait long to find a new home. The Jets will need to cut 5 more players on Tuesday as teams need to be at 80 players by 4 PM EST.

As mentioned in the opening blurb, the Atlanta Falcons are riding into New York this weekend to hold joint practices with the Jets, the teams will then play their 2nd pre-season game on Monday night.

There comes a time in camp when players just need to face something different, they need to hit other players. We’ve seen an escalation in scuffles over the last week, which is usually a good indicator that it’s time to switch things up.

Overall the priority should be to come through the sessions without any major injuries. But it’s also an opportunity to see some matchups and benchmark your own players against opposing teams. In that vein, here are some things I’m looking forward to seeing.

How do the Jets matchup with Kyle Pitts

Pitts is a wide receiver in a tight end’s body, and I can’t remember the last time the Jets were able to defend the tight end position. The Jets gave up 8 touchdowns to tight ends last season and an average of 12 yards per reception. The Jets rotated a lot of players in at safety last season and I’ll be keen to see how the likes of Joyner/Pinnock/Davis match up with him if they are given the opportunity. I would love to see Pitts split out wide and matchup with Sauce Gardner because he’s arguably the most suited player to defend him.

Jets Pass Rush

The Jets have been getting home on a regular basis through camp, but they’ve also spent a lot of time going against rookie Max Mitchell and Chuma Edoga. The Falcons didn’t allow a single sack in their first pre-season game, but I wouldn’t say they possess a stellar offensive line. Jake Matthews is a good left tackle, he allowed 3 sacks on 660 pass-blocking snaps last year, so it’ll be interesting to see if Carl Lawson has success against him. On the other side Kaleb McGary is a lot more vulnerable and the likes of Jermaine Johnson could have some real success, McGary allowed 9 sacks last season and 41 pressures…He’s the kind of guy you want to see us beat up a little bit.

Defending Cordarelle Patterson

When the Jets faced off against the Falcons last season, Patterson hurt us to the tune of 7 catches for 60 yards, defending receiving running backs is an issue for the Jets, and with the linebacking unit looking very similar, it’s going to be interesting to see if we’ve made any progress. Patterson is one of the better receiving backs in football and he had just 1 drop on 69 targets last season. Kwon Alexander has been brought in for several reasons, but being a better coverage linebacker is certainly one of them. I also want to see how much progress Quincy Williams has made in terms of his coverage ability, and Patterson will certainly test that.

Facing a 3-4

I see the Jets as having an offense with huge potential, but so far the Jet’s defense has dominated large portions of camp. The Jets run a base 4-3 defense and the offense has got used to facing that formation, they had their best practice of camp with Joe Flacco throwing 5-6 touchdowns earlier this week. Now the Jets will get to face a 3-4 defense in the Falcons, across the defensive line you have Grady Jarrett, Anthony Rush, and Ta'Quon Graham. Jarrett may have only had one sack last year but he led the Falcons in 36 pressures too. Pressure comes from multiple locations in a 3-4 and it’ll be a great test for the Jet’s defensive line.

A.J Terrell

The Jets receivers have been tested already having to face the likes of Sauce Gardner and DJ Reed, but Terrell made a huge jump in year two last season with an 85.6 coverage grade, allowing just 43.9% of passes to be completed into his coverage with 3 interceptions. He had 13 games last season with less than 20 yards allowed, and now he needs to deal with the multiple threats presented by the likes of Elijah Moore and Garrett Wilson. It’ll be a great test for Terrell, but it’ll be a great test for the Jets receivers to see where they really are.

Breece Hall vs Run Defense

The Falcons were poor against the run last year and they haven’t done a great deal to change that. They allowed 131.9 yards per game and they brought in Rashaan Evans who is slated to start at linebacker according to their latest depth chart, Evans had a run defense grade of 41.3 last year while with Tennessee. We are yet to see how much the likes of Arnold Ebiketie, Troy Andersen, and DeAngelo Malone can bring to the team as rookies. Breece Hall should have success against this defense and I’m looking forward to seeing what that looks like.

Las Angeles Chargers Derwin James signed a four-year $76.5 million extension yesterday, which makes him the highest-paid safety in NFL history.

Aaron Rodgers hasn’t been happy with the performance of his wide receivers in camp and he wasn’t slow to let them know saying “We’ve got to be way more consistent. A lot of drops, a lot of bad route decisions, running the wrong route. We’ve got to get better in that area”

The Panthers and Patriots have had an extremely heated joint practice with fights breaking out regularly. Multiple players have been ejected over the past two days, and both coaches are trying to get a handle on it to avoid injuries.

Matthew Stafford has been missing time recently with elbow issues, but all indications are pointing to him being ready in week one.