Quinton Jefferson/Al Woods vs Nathan Shepherd/Sheldon Rankins

Edition #412

Good morning. ☕

The interesting thing about living in the UK is that I often miss out on certain conversations that happen on Jets Twitter, the conversation rages as I’m fast asleep. I wake up to a load of notifications, but it’s often too late to join in. It’s either fizzled out, or the participants have blocked each other after a spate of name-calling.

Yesterday I woke up to an interesting debate centred around whether the Jets had improved or got worse at defensive tackle, based on adding Quinton Jefferson and Al Woods and losing Sheldon Rankins and Nathan Shepherd. So I thought I'd explore that question today.

📈 Former Jets QB Boomer Esiason is a big believer in Aaron Rodgers, so much so he’s predicting some big numbers for the soon-to-be 40-year-old QB in his debut season in New York: “You got a quarterback that has a major chip on his shoulder, you have an offensive coordinator who has to have a major chip on his shoulder. I’m thinking, if Aaron Rodgers stays healthy, he’s gonna have 50 touchdown passes this season, minimum. He may set the touchdown pass record this year. I’m telling you,”

🫡 Yesterday I shared a quote from Will Blackmon, well today I’m sharing another, a better one. Here’s what he had to say about his former teammate Aaron Rodgers: "Just overall as a player, the cool thing about him is … when I evaluate a quarterback, we could look at the arm, we could look at his smarts, or whatever it is," Blackmon explained. "But when I’m in the huddle and we need something, we need help, can I look at that guy and be like, 'He got us.' And Aaron is one of those quarterbacks where you look at him, you’re like, 'He’s gonna do something eventually.'"

🏀 Aaron Rodgers headed back to California this week with the Jets giving their players extra time to rest and recuperate, but he was right back to working out, this time with Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant.

So I’ll admit I’m cheating slightly here. The debate was actually centred on Quinton Jefferson vs Sheldon Rankins, but I don’t think that makes a lot of sense.

The Jets rotate their defensive line more than most other teams in football and it’s clear that their plan this year is to replace Sheldon Rankins with not one but two players. Al Woods is very comparable to Sheldon in terms of his ability against the run, and Quinton Jefferson is a better pass rusher by almost every single metric.

Let’s dive straight into the numbers: