Victory Mondays

Quick thoughts on yesterday's victory.

🗽 Good morning Jets fans and welcome to the abbreviated Jets Way newsletter. I hope you're all enjoying your Christmas break, and enjoyed waking up this morning to a Jets victory.

Things in the Wyatt-Hupton household are a touch hectic to start the week but I thought I’d just put down some thoughts on yesterday’s game. A nice quick read with your Monday morning coffee.

Quick Hits 🤯

• If you’re upset that the Jets won then I don’t know what to tell you. I think DJ said it best when he said where we end up in the draft this year really won’t matter if Zach turns into a franchise QB.

• How nice was it to see Zach Wilson use his legs yesterday. His athleticism is a part of his game we really haven’t seen. His 52 yard TD run was an outstanding play which showed awareness, intelligence and toughness.

• The Jets rushed for 272 yards with Dan Feeney and Greg Van Roten on the line, I mean that’s quite incredible, give those big men up front a lot of credit for the job they did. They also only allowed a single sack which is one of the best marks all season.

• Braxton is a free agent and the Jets absolutely have to do their best to bring him back. We let Roberts go let’s not make the same mistake with Berrios. His return ability alone is worth bringing back, but he also brought down some big catches yesterday as well. #BringBraxtonBack.

• How much did we miss Quinnen and JFM yesterday? Seemed like Trevor had all the time in the world to throw. While we’re talking about Trevor, I thought he looked pretty good until he got into the red-zone. He does have an elongated release which limits him but you can see his ability to read and diagnose.

• Credit to Parks as well, signed this week and I thought he looked pretty good considering the circumstances, his tackling was sound and that's all you really want to see from some of these guys.

Zach Wilson

We wanted to see progress and we saw progress. He may have only thrown for 102 yards but when you can run at will, why would you try and push the ball through the air. His ability to pull the ball down and take off looked more natural, his decision making was sound and it was obvious his internal clock was working.

On the touchdown run, I love him running through tackles and making people miss. His desire to get into the end zone was in stark contrast to Lawrence at the end of the game who elected to go out of bounds at the 5 instead of use his frame to force his way into the end zone. May not sound like a big deal, but having that competitive nature is key for football and if I were a Jags fan this morning I’d be pretty frustrated with Lawrence.

Zach’s short area accuracy continued to improve. He had one miss on a throw to Kroft, but outside of that he his his receivers in the hands and in stride. Jeff Smith had a drop, but considering who he was working with it was a good performance. We have 2 big weeks coming up for Zach, continue this trajectory and everyone will feel better about the off-season.

Free Denzel Mims? 😬⁉️

What can you say about this that hasn’t already been said? On a day where Zach was missing so many weapons, Denzel had the opportunity to make a statement…instead he caught 0 passes on 2 targets.

He looked completely out of the game, and we're now seeing why the coaching staff weren't playing him early. This situation is a key reminder that we as fans only see a small portion of the story and as much as we like a guy, there’s usually a reason they're not seeing the field.

I think it's best for Denzel and the Jets to part ways this summer. We had some interest at the trade deadline, but Joe Douglas decided to hold on and that’s now looking like a mistake. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, but if we can get anything for Denzel I'd take it at this point.

Big man touchdown. With Connor McDermott scoring a TD, the Jets 3rd string tackle now has more career touchdown catches than Mims. That says everything you need to know.

Michael Carter 😎

There were a lot of fans of Michael Carter during the draft process and it’s clear why. The Jets absolutely stole him in the 4th round, most people (myself included) had a 2nd round grade on the North Carolina prospect.

With his 124 yards from scrimmage yesterday, MC became the first rookie Jets RB to have three games with 100+ scrimmage yards since Leon Washington in 2006. That’s a great start to what looks to be a budding career. Everything about Michael Carter says 1000 yard rusher to me. I haven’t said that about a Jets RB for a while. I know the system we run likes to utilise multiple backs and rotate. But, it’s key for the development of MC and the Jets to ensure he gets the touches required.

MC is now at 448 yards rushing and 310 yards receiving, and he’s missed multiple games through injury. Get excited about his potential.

Draft Talk

I know some people had a real problem with us winning that game yesterday for draft purposes but this is a cycle we need to get out of. We haven't seen success for so long that we obsess over draft prospects to the extent that we root against our current players for the sake of players who may or may not be Jets.

Whatever happens the Jets are going to have two top 15 picks in the draft. They are set to have 5 picks inside the top 70, that’s more than enough draft capital to work with. Two of the more impressive rookies for the Jets this year were picked outside the first round, Elijah Moore in the 2nd and Michael Carter in the 4th. The media hype up these top talents and chances are they will be special, but don’t make the mistake of believing you can only get top talent in the top 3 picks. Yeah, we probably aon’t get a Kayvon or Hutchinson but we may end up with someone like Ojabo who turns out to be elite.

Maxx Crosby has been one of the most dominant edge players this year and he was taken in the 4th round. There are examples of this throughout history. So if you woke up angry this morning, I feel for you. I’m not going to tell you how to be a fan but for me you enjoy the victories, let the rest take care of itself.

I’m going to wrap this up here, I have a bored little girl who wants to head to the park on her new bike. I’ll be reviewing the game on the Jets UK Podcast, make sure you follow the account and subscribe, click here to see where you can do that.