Wanting Moore
Edition #246
Good afternoon Jets fans.
So this is what happens when I try and take a vacation. For the first time in a year I decided to have a break from the daily newsletters to enjoy some family time in 🇫🇷.
This morning I woke up and avoided my phone, I didn't want to know the Rangers score until I had a chance to watch it. As I was getting over the disappointment of that 3-2 OT loss to San Jose of all teams, I flipped my phone over to a host of notifications.
Something had happened and it had nothing to do with British politics, something I won't bore you with.
Elijah Moore had requested a trade. I had heard on Thursday evening that the situation was unraveling quickly, someone I trust messaged me yesterday afternoon to say Moore was furious with the Jets and that it was all a powderkeg waiting to explode.
Well 💣💥🤯
It's easy to understand why Elijah Moore is frustrated with his current role within the offense. It's hard to understand why Elijah decided to ask for a trade less than two years into his NFL career.
Sunday's game should have been a time to celebrate. The Jets, a team that has been historically ridiculed went into Lambeau Field and beat a future Hall of Fame QB by 17 points. It pushed them to the 3rd best record in the conference and gave them their 3rd win a row.
This was a team that won 4 games over the entire 2021 season. Everyone should have been enjoying the moment, football is a team game and winning in Lambeau takes the entire roster pulling together.
But one player wasn't happy, one player wanted more as an individual. It wasn't enough that the team were riding high, Moore wanted more. More targets, more involvement and more opportunities to contribute. That in a nut shell is fine, you should want to contribute to the best of your abilities. But how you communicate that dissatisfaction goes a long way.
Moore was only targeted once against Green Bay, but due to a penalty negating the play the official box score shows 0 targets. But the frustration for Moore goes beyond that game. Over the last two weeks he's seen his offensive snap count decrease considerably as the Jets have used more 12 personnel getting Uzomah and Conklin on the fod together.
Here is his snap count % so far this season.
Week one: Baltimore (89%)
Week two: Cleveland (87%)
Week three: Bengals (94%)
Week four: Steelers (90%)
Week five: Miami (66%)
Week six: Green Bay (58%)
Moore wants to be on the field and seeing the field on only 58% of snaps this weekend upset him. Especially as it was on the back of a 66% game against Miami.
I need to go back and watch the Green Bay game, but a good friend of mine who evaluates the games for another publication messaged me to say that Moore was running “very lazy routes” - as I've been on holiday I haven't had the chance to go through and watch the game again, but if that is the case I'm not surprised to see his snap counts cut. If there is one thing we know about this offensive staff it's that effort is the minimum requirement.
In terms of targets through the first six weeks of the season, only Garrett Wilson is receiving noticeably more attention with 48 targets, a lot of which came with Joe Flacco at QB and the Jets playing behind. Corey Davis is 2nd on the team with 33 and Moore is 5th with 29. So it's basically Garrett Wilson and then everyone else.
This is new for Moore though, he only had 3 or fewer targets in one game last year which was the game against Atlanta in London. Whereas he had 8 or more targets in 5 games. It may be too simplistic to say Moore prefers to get blown out every week but get his personal stats over team success, but in light of what's happened over the last 24 hours I understand the animosity. But for a man who talks about overcoming adversity he's certainly not showing that strength of character and Sauce took a subtle jab at this by quoting the Bible, something Moore does often on Twitter.
When you compare Moore's 2021 and 2022 alignments in terms of slot Vs wide, it's not wildly different. Last year Moore spent 28.3% of his time in the slot and this year he's spent 25%. A big difference is how he's being used as the X receiver, a large portion of his routes are go routes, often used to clear out the middle of the field by dragging a safety over or clearing out the flat by forcing the corner deeper down the field. Corey Davis is asked to do it a lot and he does it well.
The problem with playing that position is it leads to contested catches, Moore has caught just one of 4 contested balls, it's simply not his game. 22.2% oh his targets in 2022 have come 20+ yards down the field which is actually less than the 27% he saw in 2021.
The big difference is he's not getting the manufactured touches we saw last year. During his rookie season he was targeted 13 times behind the line of scrimmage, that was 17.6% of all targets. This season he has yet to record a single target behind the line of scrimmage.
There is something to be said for MLF flipping the roles of Moore and Wilson, and asking Wilson to run more Go Routes as an outside X receiver, clearing out space for Moore to use his route running in the middle of the field. Wilson is the better contested catcher and would have a better chance of winning those 1v1 matchups on the outside.
The problem here is that Moore has given so little time to the coaches to work through the personnel deployment. At the first sign of adversity you can't just pack up your gear and run. The Jets have a coaching staff going into their second year, MLF has been given several new weapons and it's understandable to presume that he's still working out how best to utilize all their skill sets. The fact Moore has had two games where his targets have dipped and decided that's it is the biggest disappointment, for a man who tweets about overcoming adversity, he's certainly not showing the ability to do so.
According to multiple sources of the Beat, it all came to a head Thursday morning when Moore got into a heated argument with offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur. It for so heated Moore was asked to leave the facility, it was after being asked to leave that Moore requested a trade through his agent. This points to a young man making a rash decision because things weren't going his way.
The Jets have said that Moore will be inactive on Sunday because it wouldn't be fair to ask him to play considering where his heads at. He won't be in any meetings and will work with conditioning staff over the coming days. He won't travel to Denver but he will rejoin the first team on Monday.
Instead, Denzel Mims will be active for the first time this year. Moore's immaturity will open the door for Mims and while I wouldn't expect him to play 60-80% of snaps like we'd expect from Moore, Saleh did say he's ready to play.
Mims requested a trade himself over the off-season but that one made more sense. Mims was entering the third year of his rookie deal, has worked hard all off-season and found himself down the depth chart. By all accounts his attitude has been exceptional since the trade request, with him being active in meetings and a hard worker in sessions. A lot can be said about how a player responds in certain situations.
All is not lost with Moore. Coach Saleh has said that the Jets won't entertain trading Moore, and that makes sense. He still has a lot to prove in this league, but we saw last year that he has plenty of potential. Over the course of his rookie year he caught 43 passes for 538 yards and 5 touchdowns with only 2 drops. You don't trade those guys, especially when they are on a rookie contract. Whether Moore likes it or not, the Jets have his rights for another two and a half years, which makes the trade request even stranger.
Over the last two weeks the Jets have been able to play with the lead. That allows you to control the clock with the run game. Opportunities have been sparse for everyone, that's just the flow of the game. Chances are the Jets will be playing from behind in games coming up with a visit to Gillette and the Bills in town. You can't throw your toys out the pram because things don't go your way for a couple of weeks, look up immaturity in the dictionary and I imagine you'll see something like that.
Michael Carter has seen Breece Hall dominate touches over the last couple of weeks but you haven't heard a peep out of him. He appreciates that he still has a huge role to play in this offense and Moore does too.
There's nothing wrong with Moore being frustrated. That makes sense, he wants to contribute. But mouthing off on social, starting heated confrontations with your coordinator and requesting a trade in the middle of a three game winning streak shouts a “me” first guy. That's not the culture the Jets are building and not only will it be viewed in a dim light at one Jets Drive, it'll be viewed negatively across league circles.
It also wasn't just the lead that limited targets. Conditions were sloppy - wet ball. And ZW is gradually getting back in the flow. That adds up to less throws.
I do think MLF should scheme up touches, mix him into the slot more often, and take advantage of his elusive route running.
The kid definitely seems to have a legitimate grip, but the way he's voicing his frustration is the real issue. As you say, MLF could design more plays to get him the ball in space. Beyond Moore, the team needs to maximize ALL of its weapons to be a real contender. Hopefully Saleh, MLF, and Moore can get this sorted out behind closed doors.