The Denver Five

Edition #708

Good morning! ☕

My plans for today’s newsletter were scuppered by the team over at the official Jets website. My plan today was to talk about the third down offence. Considering the Jets are ranked #1 and I haven’t seen a third down offence as clinical as this in green and white, I thought it would be a fitting newsletter before heading into the game preview tomorrow, capping off a nice little week.

Then I saw this article on the official channel, and well it’s outstanding. So I’ve changed my mind and will instead cover something else. But If you’ve got a few minutes then make sure you read that piece, it’s a good’un.

🟢 DL Solomon Thomas, LB Quincy Williams and P Thomas Morstead visited children at the Atlantic Health System's Goryeb Children's Hospital and invited five special guests to be the honorary captains for this year's "Crucial Catch" game against the Denver Broncos on September 29th.

⚪ Morgan Moses won’t be heading to IR which would require him to miss four games. Saleh confirmed that the expectation is that Morgan will miss just a couple of weeks, which is putting him on course to return for that Buffalo Bills game, which will be a pivotal battle for the AFC East crown. "He's been getting a lot of reps," Saleh said of Fashanu. "We got him a lot of reps in the second half of camp at right tackle. He got more comfortable as camp went on. We have a lot of faith in Olu to go out and execute."

🟢 C.J. Mosley was not practising yesterday and Saleh confirmed that they will be taking a cautious approach to his recovery. I think Jamien Sherwood’s performances against Tennessee and New England have given the Jets the confidence to take it slow with Mosley. There is no point putting him out there less than 100%, that would be detrimental to the team.

⚪ Aaron Rodgers compared Olu Fashanu to D’Brickashaw Ferguson yesterday and with Ferguson being one of my favourite Jets of all-time, I’m all for that. If Fashanu turns into half the player that Brick was, we’ll be in a good spot.

🟢 Rodgers has also been talking about Garrett Wilson and the need for the third year pro to be patient, especially this week: "You try to put him in situations where he can be the No. 1 in the progression, which he is a lot, and then mix up the looks," Rodgers said of the third-year wideout. "We have to do a lot of things to give him a chance to get moving and we'd like to get the ball to him early, but it's just a process. He has to be patient, we have to be patient and we can't force it. Pat is a phenomenal player, but Garrett is, too. It's going to be a good matchup with those two guys."

⚪ Saleh doesn’t mind teams trying to take Garrett away as it just opens up space for others, as we saw against New England - "They're daring us to go somewhere else with the football and that's why I think we had so much success everywhere else against New England … If you're putting two over one, somebody is getting a one-on-one and we feel good about our guys having the chance to go win. When those one-on-ones do happen, I know we're trying to get him the ball and take advantage of those situations. Once that starts to click, it'll be pretty cool."

With the greatest respect to the Denver Broncos, this is a game the Jets absolutely have to win if they hope to push for a playoff spot and more this season.

Anytime a team comes to town with a rookie QB calling the shots, you need to take care of business, especially when you have a future hall of famer at QB.

But just because you should take care of business, doesn’t mean you will. And it doesn’t come without risk either. Denver are 1-2, but saved their best performance for Tampa Bay and there is talent on this Broncos roster. So let’s take a look at five of the best players and who the Jets will need to be wary of.

Patrick Surtain II - Cornerback

We spoke about him briefly yesterday, but Patrick Surtain is one of the very best in the game and he completely shut down Mike Evans last week. Only Seattle have tested Surtain, and in that game he gave up five catches and three first downs.

Surtain does tend to travel with teams best receivers, in week one he covered DK Metcalf on 90% of Denver’s defensive plays, but it’s not always the case. In week two he gave away a big play when he was called for defensive pass interference, but travelled with George Pickens on just 50% of snaps, yet Pickens still only had 2 receptions for 29 yards.

This week I expect he’ll travel with Garrett like he did DK Metcalf, and as such the Jets will need to pick their moments to target their star man. Surtain is great, but he’s not prime Revis, at least not yet. Through his first three years he allowed 10 touchdowns and over 1,650 yards. Last year he allowed a season career high 701 yards, so while I respect the hell out of his game, he can be beaten.