The Laken Tomlinson Question

Edition #581

Good morning ☕

Next Monday we’ll be turning our attention to the NFL scouting combine as the off-season program starts to heat up. Once the dust has settled on the combine, NFL free agency is here, then once all the big names have signed we turn our focus to the draft. It’s about to get a lot busier, so enjoy the tranquillity of silence. I spend this time enjoying some of my other teams, and with the Rangers 🏒 having won 8 in a row, it's been enjoyable. It’s a chance to put the ill feelings from 2023 to bed for the Jets and look to 2024 with optimism. After all, we’re all in first place right now.

🟩 Yesterday the NFL franchise tag window opened and it runs through 4 p.m. ET on March 5th. If a player gets tagged a contract extension needs to be agreed between agent/team by mid-July, otherwise, the player has to play on the one-year tag number. This happened last year with Saquon Barkley and Josh Jacobs. It’s very unlikely the Jets use the tag on anyone, with Bryce Huff the only candidate even worth considering. But there are bound to be some free-agent targets who get tagged by their current team, I’m mainly looking at the wide receivers here.

⬜ Jets QB coach Rob Calabrese is leaving the team to be an offensive assistant for the Rams. I don't think many people will be losing sleep over this one.

🟩 Tweet - According to Connor Huges via Dov Kleiman, the Jets like Sam Howell as a potential backup candidate for Aaron Rodgers. Howell completed 63.4% of his passes this year for 3,946 yards, 21 touchdowns and 21 interceptions.

⬜ Dan Parr of NFL.com released his first mock draft of the season this week. He had the Jets trading down with the Las Vegas Raiders (who moved up to #10 to take Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy), and with the #13 pick he had the Jets taking…you guessed it, Taliese Fuaga: “The Jets recoup some draft capital after trading for Aaron Rodgers last year, and they get some much-needed help up front for the QB with the selection of the ultra-tough Fuaga.”

🟩 The Jets backup QB situation seems to be in the spotlight right now. CBS Sports had five potential options for 2024 - From worst to best (according to their rankings). Tyrod Taylor, Joshua Dobbs, Jacoby Brissett, Tyler Huntley, Sam Howell. Not sure how Gardner Minshew has not made that list, but there you go. Plenty of smoke around that Sam Howell connection.

⬜ Former Jets RB coach Taylor Embree who joined the Jets in 2021 as Saleh put together his first coaching staff has joined the New England Patriots as RB coach. The Jets hired former Tennessee Titans assistant coach Tony Dews to fill the RB coach role this season.

🟩 Tweet: Reports out of Tampa Bay indicate that the Bucs and Mike Evans remain far apart on a new contract and that the likely scenario is that Evans tests free agency. Now, for me personally…Mike Evans is exactly what we need to complete Garrett Wilson and if we somehow got him and say, Tyron Smith…I’d be back on the SB wagon and looking to book me some tickets to New Orleans. It seems as though Sauce Gardner feels the same

🟢⚪ Last week I made a mistake. Going on my perception I made the comment that Laken Tomlinson had a much better year in 2023. I didn’t check the stats, that was based on how I remembered the season and how I remembered 2022. In my mind, he’d gone from being absolutely abysmal to being bad, and that was progress. AS picked up on it and questioned it and he was absolutely right. I went back to have a look at the stats, and they told a completely different story.

Just to refresh our memories, as obviously, mine needs to be kickstarted back into gear. Here are Laken Tomlinson’s stats from 2022, his first year in NY after coming over from San Francisco in free agency.