Wednesday Film Review: AVT

AVT was one of the highest rated guards in football this week according to PFF. Let's take a look.

Good morning Jets fans and welcome to hump days edition of TJW. It’s a bittersweet week as we approach our final game of the 2021/22 season, bitter because for Jets fans football is about to disappear again for around 9 months, sweet because we approach a pivotal off-season in the reemergence of this franchise as a playoff contender. It’ll be year three for Joe Douglas and year two for Robert Saleh, Mike LaFleur, and Zach Wilson.

Over the coming months, we’ll turn our attention to free agency and the draft, and while I’m not sure if we’ll maintain 5 newsletters a week, we’re planning to offer the best off-season content you can find on the Jets. Before that, we still have some Jets football to talk about, so let’s get into it.

The Jets’ decision to move up in the 2021 NFL Draft to take USC’s Alijah Vera-Tucker wasn’t celebrated by all, some called it reckless for a team who needed so much to be “wasting” draft capital moving up for a non-premium position like a guard. Personally, I loved it. Alijah Vera-Tucker was one of my favorite prospects in the draft and the Jets needed to protect their new franchise QB, it was a logical decision.

The Jets gave up the 23rd, 66th, and 86th pick in the 2021 draft for the 14th and 143rd overall. It’s no exact science but that resulted in the Jets taking Vera-Tucker, Brandin Echols, Jason Pinnock, and Jonathan Marshall (they did a lot of trading), while the Vikings took Christian Darrisaw, Kellen Mond, and Wyatt Davis. It’s early, you can’t call a draft class after 17 games, but right now I’d say the Jets got the better end of that deal.

According to PFF, AVT is the 32nd best guard in all of football this season. He’s the 16th best run-blocking guard and the 50th best pass-blocking guard. He’s ranked as the 2nd best guard from the 2021 class, trailing only Kansas City’s Trey Smith. Considering that the best lines tend to have continuity and the Jets line has severely lacked that all season, I’d call that a very successful rookie campaign.

On Sunday against the Tampa Bay Bucs, a team that possesses one of the best defensive fronts in football, AVT put up one of his best, if not his best game of the season. He allowed just one pressure and led the way for the Jets to put up 150 rushing yards on the 3rd best run defense in football. With stat’s like that, I just had to take a look.

Trench Domination

This was early in the game and it stands out as one of my favourite reps of the entire game. AVT’s first two steps are absolutely lightning for a lineman, he’s out of his stance in a heartbeat and picks up his 2nd level defender with ease, he then takes him for a ride, and while Carter sneaks past as the defender turns back to the play, AVT has moved his defender 10-12 yards. This is a staple block of the MLF system and the Jets first round pick has been executing these all season. He even chips the one defender on the way through to the 2nd level, I love it, all of it.

While the result of this play is nothing to write home about, I love a guard that call pull block and find his target instantly, AVT’s speed across the line completely negates the edge defender, and while the Bucs do a good job of collapsing the A gaps and limiting the play, AVT does his job to perfection and again, he’s been doing this all season. MLF’s offensive system calls for pulling guards frequently, there’s another play below, so having someone like AVT just makes his job so much easier.

Countless times on Sunday, AVT was left one on one to block one of the Tampa defensive tackles. Whether that was #50 Vita Vea or #56 Rakeem Nunez-Roches, Vera-Tucker held up like a seasoned pro. On this rep he drops anchor and establishes position, using his length and hand placement before moving the big man past Wilson allowing the Jets QB the space to complete the pass to the checkdown.

This is just poetry in motion for anyone who enjoys watching offensive line play. The timing and execution of this from AVT is flawless, he stays in to not tip the hand of the play and then accelerates out to the linebacker, he instantly switches to secure the angle and his pure power combined with his footwork secures the edge for the RB. Devin White (#45) just doesn’t stand a chance and ends up 5-6 yards infield of the runner. If Cole secures outside leverage here this is likely a TD because the safety takes a bad angle to the ball carrier.

If you’re safety Mike Edwards (#32), what don’t you want to see racing towards you? The answer, a big athletic guard with a full head of steam. AVT sells the screen and then the pure athleticism to get out and block on the move is just beautiful, I mean Mona Lisa beautiful, I mean a sunset cruise down the river Nile beautiful…wow. I’ve been calling for the Jets to run more screens all year, and if we can do this, then I think we’ll see more next year. Lovely touch on the pass by Zach Wilson as well 😉

First of all let’s just appreciate that throw, stunner. Now let’s just take a look at the pass protection for AVT against a big man with very strong hands 🙌. Despite an attempted chop, AVT’s hands never leave the DT and his quick feet enable him to use the defenders momentum to guide him out of the play, the stutter step inside/outside doesn’t fool the Jets guard and he has the power to keep the pocket clean. Also Feeney and LDT serve up a nice pancake on Suh! There is so much to love on just this snap alone.

I’m not sure I need to say anything about this, just watch AVT and the flying mouthguard of the defender he hits. POW 💥 right in the kisser. A guard who plays with athleticism, speed and strength is a guard I want on my team. Andrew Golden pointed out the pure filth of this play design by Mike LaFleur, get your lineman playing power run and then use the sweep…had it down been for a bootstrap tackle this is going to the house and icing the game, fine margins.

Here’s the classic 50s schoolboy trip play 😜 First of all we have Vita Vea beating Dan Feeney all ends up, but just because you get planted on the ground with a quick swipe doesn’t mean you become useless. AVT uses the snoozing Feeney as the trip hazard as he sends William Gholston flying. File this under things I love to see when watching tape back.

Who ordered the pancakes 🥞? Anthony Nelson apparently. Enough said.