The New York Jets Have the Best Roster in the NFL: Film Breakdown

Intro [Music] the Jets have in my opinion the best and most complete roster in the NFL and despite not coming close to making the playoffs last year they're set up to be legitimate Super Bowl contenders in 20124 they have an elite defense a future Hall of Fame quarterback some really good weapons on the outside and in the back field they rebuilt their offensive line by assigning the top two available tackles one of those being Tyron Smith another future of Famer that's coming off his best season in several years and watching the Jets 2023 tape even though it wasn't a good team I kept coming away impressed by key role players that I wasn't expecting anything from and top to bottom I think the roster is very deep it's not a sure thing they are going to be relying on injury luck as much as anyone and we've only seen Aaron Rogers take three snaps in a Jet's uniform but on paper this is a roster that should be able to make a deep playoff run so in this video we're going to be taking an in-depth look at the roster breaking down every single player and how they compare to the rest of the league if you're new to this series I've given every player in the NFL a rating from 65 to 99 65 is a practice squad bottom of the roster type of player 99 is prime Revis and 75 is an average acceptable starter those numbers get normalized into ratings for each positional group and the positional ratings make up the offensive and defensive scores based on this waiting table and I let off the video saying that the Jets have the best roster in the NFL which I think they do you can see my NFL roster ratings here which ignores coaches and just looks at which team has the best players and looking at the before and after of when Joe Douglas was hired he's done a good job adding talent and building a competitive roster on paper which is the key word with this whole video he doesn't have a perfectly clean record by any means they ended up with essentially nothing from their first draft class in 2020 they drafted Zach Wilson the next year they signed Aaron roders but the rest of the 2022 offseason was a disaster with washed up receivers a terrible OC hire and a draft class that didn't return a ton of value in year one but in total they've hit on enough players through the draft and free agency to build a top tier roster the 2022 class is going to go down as a top three to four draft class ever and those players are entering their Prime New York's been one of the best teams at finding contributors in undrafted free agency under Joe Douglas and I don't agree with every move but the 2023 off season overall I thought was very good so they have the pieces to not just compete with anyone but to be a dominant 14 to 15 win team but the case isn't as open and shut as it might seem for a couple reasons I have the Jets fourth in my actual Power Rankings which factors in coaches so that drops them down three spots I think Jeff rri and Robert Salah are quality defensive coaches they have the eighth best defensive coordinator rating which includes the entire Brain Trust holistically but they're dead last and head coach and offensive coordinator Robert Salah has shown nothing that tells me he can elevate a roster with significant weaknesses or adapt when something like the Aaron Rogers injury happens and I'm not going to hold you to a very high standard when you have the 2023 Jets o line and Zack Wilson at quarterback but my faith in Nathaniel Hackett is basically non-existent so the coaching staff is the clear week link but I will say if given the option I'm taking players over coaches in a heart beat hacket and Salah aren't going to manufacture a good team with bad Personnel but with this roster it's pretty easy for them to just not get in the way that kind of leads me into my second caveat though which is that they're relying on a lot of high injury risk players Aaron roders Mike Williams and half of the o line are either coming off an injury or injury-prone historically so if enough key starters get knocked out the Jets don't have someone like Kevin stefansky that can patch together a competitive team now that we've gotten the disclaimer out of the way we can actually get into the preview and we're going to start with a quick review of the 2023 season statistically this was as extreme of a split between offense and defense as you could possibly have they ranked dead last in 10 out of the 12 key offensive metrics and as you would expect when we average it out they had the worst offense in the NFL but their defense ranked first and was completely dominant it wasn't enough to overcome the offense but the core pieces are still intact and with Aaron roders and improved proved o line this looks like a complete team on Quarterback both sides of the ball so breaking down the roster and starting with quarterback you can't overstate how much of an upgrade it is going from Zach Wilson Trevor Simeon and Tim Bole to Aaron roders you can debate between the Jets Falcons and Patriots who had the worst quarterback room in the NFL last year I would lean Atlanta just because their Supporting Cast was so much better but regardless this was a quarterback room that actively prevented the Jets offense from functioning and Aaron Rogers is a quarterback that can Elevate and at his best be the entire offense dropping him onto the field you're going up four to five tiers of quarterback play immediately depending on how you define it now I have the Jets ranked ninth which might seem low but the reason is that we just don't know which version of Aaron Rodgers the Jets are going to get his 2020 season was in my lifetime one of the peaks of NFL quarterback play firmly in the same tier as Brady momes Etc and their peaks but over the next couple years he gradually descended into the top 8 to 12 tier which is enough to make a deep playoff run with this roster but not someone that's going to carry you and coming off the Achilles injury I don't know exactly what to expect from Aaron Rodgers he could be the same player we saw in 2022 he could bounce back and re-enter the top tier of quarterbacks or he could continue to regress I think somewhere around the 12th to 14th best quarterback is probably his floor but having not seen him play in 2 years there is some uncertainty there but I love the Tyrod Taylor signing he would have comfortably been the Jets best healthy quarterback last year and I have him rated as the best backup in the NFL in 2023 he led quarterbacks with an 88.9% big-time throw rate according to PFF 2.6% higher than Matthew Stafford at second but he had a 1.2% turnover worthy play rate which was the lowest in the NFL it was only 224 dropbacks so the sample size is small but he's coming off a career season and he's the type of a quarterback that if Aaron roggers has to miss four games he can go two and two and then they took Jordan Travis in the fifth round as a developmental player I wasn't a huge fan of his tape compared to some other people but perfectly fine with that pick on day three I just think he has some serious ball placement issues that are insurmountable if he can't improve and he's an older player with average physical traits so it's hard to really Bank on that getting fixed but he reads the field really well he has borderline Elite touch and control over elevation and trajectory he does a lot of things at a high level so we'll see if he can turn into something and you look at the rest of the offense that's going to be surrounding Aaron Running Back roggers it's an extremely well-rounded group every positional group ranks in the top 20 and I have them with the third best running back room in the NFL that group is led by Bree Hall who's one of many players on the Jets offense that's better than their stats would indicate I didn't even realize until I opened his page just now he hasn't had a thousand yards rushing in a single season but for anyone that watches a Jets game or watches his tape there isn't much confusion as to why he hasn't been more productive the Jets offensive line struggles were not just limited to pass protection their running backs had pretty much no space to work with Bree Hall was hit before the line of scrimmage on 47% of his carries which was sixth highest in the NFL but he still managed to rank third in yards after contact sixth in forc Miss tackles he's really the complete package as a running back and a player that if you just give him not the worst run blocking in the NFL he can put up Elite production he has Breakaway speed he's 220 lbs so he can carry a full workload he doesn't just have the elite top speed he can gear up to that speed almost instantly so he can afford to Pace his runs to manipulate the flow of the linebackers and then turn on the Jets into the open space that he created he's elusive in open space or in the back field some of his most impressive runs are two to three yard gains where he's just dodging traffic he has a bouncy jump cut doesn't lose momentum when he's transitioning in and out of moves he has excellent vision and anticipation of how the defense is going to react and then he has the perfect balance of creativity when he has to make something happen without trying to do too much and gamble into negative plays he actually started out the season with two fumbles in the first three weeks but then didn't have a single fumble after week three dating back to college he's always had very good ball security so that's not a major concern and he actually was very productive as a pass catcher he had the second most receiv receiving yards out of running backs last year that's actually a number that I would want to see go down in 2024 I think for the most part Bree Hall targets were either a crutch for Nathaniel Hackett or a crutch for the Jets quarterback New York ran the fourth most screen passes to running backs last year it honestly felt like more than that that's one of the few plays they actually felt like they could execute because you know a slip screen you're supposed to let Defenders into the back field the Jets offensive line was very good at doing that so they called a ton of slip screens and he was also just a check down magnet for whoever the Jets had in at quarterback they either had to get rid of the ball quickly because the pressure was closing in or they had been conditioned to expect the pressure so they were moving off of reeds prematurely watching Garrett Wilson's tape who will get into it's so frustrating how many times he's getting open out of a break he should be the primary read if the quarterback can wait not even half a second but Zach Wilson or Trevor Simeon or whoever was just so paranoid that they moved off the progression prematurely so I have Bree Hall as tied for the second best running back with bejon Robinson and behind Christian mcaffrey but the rest of the running back room is incredibly deep they drafted brillan Allen in the fourth round pick 134 I actually had him at 134 on my board so nice coincidence there his 2023 tape was extremely underwhelming to me and throughout pretty much the entire draft process I just did not see the hype with brillan Allen but then like a week before the draft I think someone suggested it to me I went back and watched a couple games of his 2022 tape and I started to really see the vision I didn't end up changing my grade but if there's one player in this class that I could most easily see being wrong on it's brillan Allen they changed their offensive scheme and last year they had him running almost exclusively out of the shotgun which is not his game at all he was forced to try to be Le'Veon Bell and you know dance around sift through traffic he needs to be taking handoffs from under Center getting downhill and really using his power I put Israel abanikanda as the third running back but it's not really looking good for his future with the Jets they took him in the fifth round in 2023 and I thought he was a decent Prospect extremely fast perfect fit for an outside Zone scheme but really more of a big play threat that's going to have one carry for 60 yards and then like 18 carries for 20 yards and he barely got any playing time as a rookie I assume it's because of pass Pro that's almost always what it is with a running back so if that doesn't improv then he'll probably never see the field anywhere but I thought even on a very small number of carries you could see the limitations in his game as it is right now he's listed at 215 lbs but even back when he was a prospect I remember that just never really passed the eye test because he doesn't run with much power the contact balance the ability to drive his legs and move piles shrug off arm tackles has just never been there with Israel aananda so when he does run between the tackles he's not very effective but the actual result is that he just bounces everything outside the best way to break big runs on outside zone is not by hitting the designed SE Gap it's by finding the cut back Lane and hitting the open space and he kind of has blinders on for anything in between the tackles so he can't really spot those opportunities and the Jets actually kind of helped him lean into that tendency by not really forcing him to read things out almost onethird of his carries were crack toss and he averaged 5.1 yards per attempt on those runs on other plays he averaged 2.3 yards so you can really see the difference and Effectiveness running inside versus out the fact that they took two running backs in the 2024 draft shouldn't make you feel very confident about Aban cana's future and the player who I could easily see replacing him as the third running back is Isaiah Davis out of South Dakota State he's basically the inverse of Israel aananda he's not a great athlete but he's extremely powerful and probably has the best vision of any running back in this class watching him maneuver through traffic is just Mesmerizing the pace and Rhythm that he runs with is so aesthetically pleasing it's like I was saying with Bree Hall but to an even more extreme degree he can just Bounce Around zigzag in tight quarters he's got eyes on the back of his head so he can spot tackle attempts identify opening lanes and he's the king of running like 25 actual yards to get eight but it's all purposeful he's not just dancing around mindlessly the fact that he's not a great athlete does limit his upside as far as being you know top five to eight running back in the NFL but he's so good at the position it wouldn't surprise me at all if he can carve out some sort of role the Jets ranked 12th at receiver led by Garrett Wilson who is a very similar Wide Receiver story to Bree Hall out of every receiver that I've watched on tape from 20123 Garrett Wilson and then pop Douglas for the Patriots are the two receivers whose production was limited the most by their surroundings and Wilson is a clear one on that list he had just over a th000 receiving yards in 2023 three touchdowns for the 10th overall pick that's slightly underwhelming production but if you watch his tape and you look at some of the more advanced metrics it's obvious that he is so much better than his box score these separation plots from PFF that they have for receivers and Corners are my favorite stats for those positions I think they line up with the tape most frequently and you can see Garrett Wilson had the third highest separation grade that's not just looking at targeted reps that's every single route that he's run he was slightly below average in catch point and Yak grade which I'll get into in a second but that's still the one limitation to his game but purely as a route Runner I would put Garrett Wilson in my top top five and I could easily talk myself into top three there are more than three receivers that are more technically sound route Runners than Garrett Wilson someone like Cooper cup uh marari Cooper at this point in his career are more consistently efficient with their footwork Wilson's great in that area but you know he'll have three to four routes a game where he stumbles at the top of the route or kind of drifts in and out of a break but what puts Wilson in that top tier for me is just the raw natural ability to explode out of cuts at at extremely sharp angles Wilson and Justin Jefferson to me are in a tier of their own just in terms of being able to make extreme change of directions and accelerate out of their brakes if you give him off coverage it's pretty much automatic separation when he has space to read your leverage and technique you just have no chance of sticking with him he can sit down on a stop or a comeback in one to two throttle steps very efficient on the vertical plane and he's borderline Elite against press coverage he has a huge release pack P AG executes so many different things at a high level his tape is basically just him practicing every single release that's ever been used and Zach Wilson either getting sacked or not looking in his direction looking at his reception perception data he had an 81% success rate against press coverage in 2023 he had pretty much the same success rate last year that's 92 percentile across Matt Harmon's entire database and out of the receivers he's charted it ranked third in 2023 and then you can see on this table his last two season ranked 24th and 26th dating back to 2014 still about 3 to 4% behind Odell Beckham who's a God but he's in really good company here and he's about as good after the catch as you can be for a 195 lb receiver he has a superh human ability to anticipate tacklers behind him and have his back to the defense but still understand the layout of all the Defenders and then the rare change of Direction ability allows him to make the catch instantly spin out of the tackle and attack open space you can see on this play against Washington he sits down in between these two Defenders makes the catch squares up like he's about to run towards the logo but in his peripheral he can see the second Defender closing in and then he spins out to the left and avoids both Defenders right here he's running a quick out he's got the hook Defender trailing behind him but then when he makes the catch he identifies the flat Defender closing in on a dime he's able to reverse his path not run into that tackle the hook Defender tries to bring him down but he escapes that tackle attempt hits the open field this play against Houston he's running a dig route he's got the free safety crashing over the top the backside safety bracketing him from the left and when he makes the catch he's able to instantly stop his momentum so he doesn't drift off into traffic that breaks the free safety's ankles it avoids contact from the backside safety and then the hook Defender coming from behind to try to finish the tackle but he effortlessly transitions into a Juke and avoids that one as well so the route running is Elite the yak is really good especially for a player of his size is you know he doesn't have the power of someone like AJ brown but extremely elusive after the catch he's just not very good at winning through contact at the catch point and that was exacerbated by how Nathaniel Hackett used him he had just under a 30% contested catch rate last year and he led the NFL with 37 contested targets that's not because he can't create separation it's because he's running so many ISO routes down the sideline where unless the corner you're going up against is absolute cheeks if you're getting targeted it's going to be a contestant Target in 2023 he ran 92 fade routes which was the most in the NFL and the second most for a receiver since 2016 and if we look at fade route percentage the top three were all Jets receivers he's capable of making some jaw-dropping spectacular catches but he's 5'11 there's a limit to how effective he's going to be trying to High Point the ball through contact they've got him running the Devonte Parker route tree Garrett Wilson should be attacking space creating separation over the middle of the field that's where he has more space to work with as a route Runner and as a ball carrier so if they would just quit with the fade routes that would make this so much less pronounced of an issue but it is a reality at this point that he's kind of limited at the catch point and I do understand to a certain extent why they ran so many of these types of routes if you're trying to run any kind of downfield passing attack with the level of protection that the Jets had last year you can't really afford to wait for dig routes to develop if you're trying to get 15 yards down field it's a lot faster to just run directly to that point than to take a winding pass so you'll see a lot of offenses like the Jets last year that have just an unworkable offensive line their passing attack kind of reverts to screens quick game and fade routes because that's really all they have time to let develop with better protection hopefully they can give him a more Well Suited route tree but it could be that Nathaniel Hackett saw that insane catch week one and said this is all I want Garrett Wilson to do as their wide receiver to they signed Mike Williams from the charger his skill set and relative strengths and weaknesses complement what Garrett Wilson brings to the table perfectly he's a big X receiver that you can isolate have him work against press coverage he has Elite ball skills over a 50% contested catch rate and each of his Seven Seasons the other one was 48% and he had a bit of a drop rate early in his career but just one drop on 115 targets over the last 2 years he's a technically sound route Runner but not really an elite separator I think a lot of people think that Mike Williams is just some lumbering jump ball Target that can't get open at all that's not true he's a functional route Runner there aren't many wasted steps he's got decent salesmanship at the top of the route but at his size 64 65 there's just a limit to how explosive he can be out of his brakes compared to someone like Garrett Wilson for example he's someone you want running a vertical route tree with some stops and Slants mixed in there as a number two to Garrett Wilson he's a perfect fit so I love that addition on paper but the problem projecting to next year is that he tours ACL in week three of the 2023 season I don't adjust these ratings at all based on likelihood to get injured like if I think someone's injury-prone but I will make a slight downgrade for a player that's coming off of an injury I'm not just trying to evaluate them as players I'm trying to project what they're going to give you this next season and historically we've seen that players coming off an ACL they're usually at like 80% of full strength I would have Mike Williams at an 81 if he was guaranteed to be fully healthy but projecting some recovery time I've got him at a 79 they drafted Malachi Corley in the third round um definitely a player that I was lower on relative to consensus part of that's based on what I see is limitations in his skill set part of it's based on historically how these types of receivers have panned out in the NFL you can see on my Scouting Report the NFL comparisons it's Lisa Chenal Debo Samuel and Amari Rogers I don't do comparisons based on how good I think they are that's what the grades for comparisons are just play style so if you're skimming through the draft guide you can get a Vibe for what the players like and the reason that you see these types of receivers always get compared to Debo Samuel is because he's the only player of that archetype that's had notable success in the NFL so if you want to make a comp and not be disrespectful Debo is pretty much your only option I remember watching Lisa Chenal thinking he was going to be unstoppable in the NFL I remember watching Rond Del Moore thinking he was going to be really good I didn't watch Amari Rogers tape but I probably would have bought into that one too it's really hard for these types of receivers to translate in the NFL because they'll probably still be good after the catch but will it be good enough like it was in college to make it worth feeding them the football and with pretty much every data point that we have the answer to that is no that doesn't mean Malachi corly can't be good it just means that he has to develop his skill set so that he's more than just a yak guy I think he has the natural talent and athleticism to be a pretty good route Runner he's just really got to refine his technique and footwork work when he gets to the top of a dig or an out route he's initiating contact getting hung up by the corner his footwork is not very clean or efficient and he just takes too long to get in and out of breaks and then he also struggled with contested catches I thought his ball tracking was pretty underwhelming if he can develop into a capable route Runner I think he has a really high ceiling but in my opinion he's quite a ways away from reaching that based on his college tape and watching him at the Senior Bowl as far as like grading the pick though I don't have any problem with it wasn't a major reach based on my board I would project Xavier Gibson as their fourth receiver he was a udfa in 2023 he only had 229 receiving yards but I was actually kind of impressed with his tape to a much much lesser extent he's kind of like Garrett Wilson in the sense that he had a lot of production that was left on the field he's a slot only that also returns kicks and punts he had the walk-off touchdown return against Buffalo in week one they also gave him a lot of jet sweeps and end rounds I assume Malachi Corley will take most of those now but I was pleasantly surprised with what he can do as a route Runner I was really impressed with his ability to burst off the line of scrimmage and accelerate through his release create that immediate separation he's quick in and out of breaks but at his size he does kind of struggle with physical man coverage he loses a lot of burst out of his cuts when he's facing tight man he really needs some space to operate he's not overly physical at the catch point but he's got good focus and ball tracking I don't think he's anything special but I do view him as someone that can be on the on the field and produce at at least a moderate level Alan Lazard just put up one of the worst receiver Seasons that we've ever seen he's never been a great athlete or separator but he was at least somewhat reliable could win some contested catches but last year he led the NFL with an 18% drop rate was not effective winning through contact and he didn't have some magical transformation as a route Runner so the result was a completely ineffective receiver that was a healthy scratch at certain points last year I'm giving him some benefit of the out with the 68 rating that he'll at least bounce back and be mediocre but who knows what's going to happen with him Jason brownley was another udfa from last year's class he played in a few games did not look like a NFL caliber receiver to me and then for the seventh receiver I actually went with Irvin Charles who I had never heard of until I got into the tape from this past season he's a udfa from 2022 has zero career receptions but does everything else at a high level he seems like a dominant run blocker I first noticed him making a pancake 20 yards down the field he wasn't on my radar so I wasn't saving clips for him at that point but he just kept showing up in the Run game whenever he was on the field so I eventually had to start looking out for him and then he's also great on special teams he's the Gunner on punt coverage the safety that they got in the Falcons game that was set up by Irvin Charles Downing it at the one I don't know if he's going to make the roster this is my first time hearing of him but I really like him as a utility receiver that can do a little bit of everything except play receiver and probably the biggest pleasant Tight End surprise of anyone on the Jets roster was tight end Tyler Conklin he's a very well-rounded tight end kind of a jack of all trades master of none he isn't very big and he's not a great athlete so doesn't really fit the mold of a productive tight end but he's just an outstanding football player he pretty much runs the same two routes over and over again and nobody can stop him the first one is this option route over the middle of the field it's kind of like a choice route but it's really just an in breaker with the illusion of choice I hardly ever see him actually break this outside and he's just so crafty to create Separation on an in Breer against inside leverage so you see this play against the Broncos he's being covered by this linebacker who's playing with extremely heavy inside leverage he's shaded inside almost a full yard so he's trying to take away Slants digs any kind of in breing route so for Conklin to separate on an in Breer he has to pose a realistic threat that he's breaking his route to the outside he gets to the top of the route out throttles down starts swinging his arms he plants his right foot gives a head fake to the outside when Alex Singleton jumps the route he crosses over easy separation over the middle another one here against the Eagles again he's got extremely heavy inside leverage he shakes them at the top of the route gives a head fake swings his arms he gets cutting ham to widen out and then he breaks inside wide open sometimes the defender is just leveraged too far inside to create any kind of clean separation or he just doesn't fall for the bait that's where you really see Tyler Conlin contested catch skills come into play this play the defensive end forces him to widen out his release and Jawan Bentley's playing five yards leveraged inside he still does the shake at the top of the route breaks inside but he's tightly covered and Conklin has the strong hands excellent Focus to bring it in through contact this play niobe Dean barely falls for the route fake but it's the same story he's able to track it in tight quarters and make a really difficult catch so it's in breing Choice routes like that or it seems and he's equally effective at both he doesn't really have the speed of a traditional seam Runner so the linebacker is usually able to stick with him but again he's just so strong and poised at the catch point it's basically like an open Target I had never really watched Tyler Conlin that closely until a couple days ago so I'm not sure if it's a consistent thing year after year that I've been missing out on or if it's just a one-year Wonder but he's about as good of a 63 possession tight end that you're going to find and he's a phenomenal run blocker especially for a tight end that isn't a blocking specialist this play against Buffalo you see him relocate Taylor rrap off the line of scrimmage right here he climbs to the second level gets a knockdown against this Texans Defender you definitely want a bigger player on the line of scrimmage to block defensive ends but he's absolutely a capable run blocker one of the bright spots of the Jets run blocking last year and Jeremy Rucker seems like a capable second tight end they took him in the third round in 2022 and I probably don't see him living up to that draft Capital but he's an average to decent athlete good size barely used in the passing game so it's hard to really tell but he definitely showed some flashes last year and he was the Jet's best run blocking tight end in my opinion you see this play against the Falcons running the same route that we talked about with Tyler Conlin inside leverage fake outside break inside wide open he isn't the most explosive player but I could see him being a solid separator as he continues to develop his technique he also had a great catch on this slot fade against Kansas City really good job tracking it over his shoulder and then as a run blocker they'd put him on the line of scrimmage attached to the Y they put him in the back field he was really effective as an insert blocker or a lead Blocker on reverses and end rounds he was the one clearing open running Lanes on most of Xavier Gibson's carries he's so powerful with his initial contact and initial punch he can knock the defender off balance and set him up to finish the block Kenny ioa played in a couple games didn't flash at all as a receiver and he was a solid run blocker but nothing special and then Zack C the r Allstar didn't see the field as a rookie so that's what the 65 ratings for the Jets offensive line might be the single most Offensive Line improved unit heading into next season they're going to have three new starters and really four because Elijah verit Tucker missed most of last year and their one returning starter Center Joe titman is kind of like a new player because he was playing out of position last year and he's a second-year player so you can project some significant development but this unit is really led by the tackles it's one of the best tackle Duos in the NFL they're one of five teams where I have both tackles rated 80 or above and Tyron Smith heading into year 14 is still one of the League's Premier left tackles he was as good last year as I can ever remember him I've only been watching tape like this for four to five years so I didn't watch him early in his career but he's just a shutdown pass protector and makes it look as good as any tackle that you'll watch he has maxed out physical traits his hands are built Like Satellites but then he's got near perfect technique snap after snap if we're looking just at pass protection my top three tackles would be Lane Johnson laremy tunel and Tyron Smith he's a solid run blocker I can tell by looking at PFF grades early in his career he was grading out like above 85 almost every year nowadays he's more slightly above average but you know keeping Aaron Rogers upright is priority one two and three and Morgan Moses is a very solid right tackle extremely powerful both of the Jets offensive line editions from Baltimore fit this same kind of AR type powerful Gap scheme run blockers with a good anchor and pass Pro but not the most fluid moving laterally Moses is an extremely effective puller he had some dominant clothesline blocks out in space he can create movement at the point of attack he got a rare pancake on Nick Bosa and he's got enough pocket range to protect the outside he sometimes will struggle when pass rushers cross his face he can't really get depth and then redirect back inside as consistently but you look at his statistical profile from last year he he's in the green in most metrics he isn't a top tier pass protector but for his entire career he's been consistently above average in that second to third tier moving inside we'll stick with the Baltimore players and go over John Simpson I would expect Simpson to probably be the weak link on this offensive line if there is one like Moses he's extremely powerful he's explosive he's got a strong anchor really good puller he delivers a lot of knockout punches in the Run game his tape is pretty fun to watch but with Moses you know he's not the most fluid athlete but he makes it work and the result is solid tackle play with Simpson he has very poor balance and that really shows up as a liability at times he isn't very fluid or flexible so that makes his job more difficult but his footwork and technique don't do him any favors he struggles to mirror in pass Pro doesn't do a good job moving his feet so he resorts to lunging and leaning he's still an upgrade in pass Pro to any of the guards that they had playing last year outside of Elijah verit Tucker and Joe titman when he was in there but he's right on the cusp in my opinion of below average starter to high level backup and then Elijah verit Tucker at Right Guard I think was probably the most disappointing player from my watch through of the jet season I came away from his tape very underwhelmed based on my expectations he's definitely been put in a difficult spot playing every position across the offensive line except Center the fact that he can do that at at least a replacement level is fairly valuable and I think some of his losses in pass Pro can be explained Away by the fact that he's just not a natural fit to play tackle like the sack that he gave up to Nick Bonito where he got beat around the corner I can watch that and say okay if he's playing at guard that's not going to be an issue but to me the quality of pass protection was essentially the same whether he was playing tackle or guard I didn't really see the foot speed or hand timing of a high quality pass protector they picked up his fifth year option which I probably would have done especially given what the Jets have dealt with on the offensive line and I'm pretty sure most Jets fans are going to disagree with me I actually looked up a Reddit thread of when it was announced they picked up his option and everybody seems to like him and think he's a great player hopefully it improves playing a full season at one position but just reporting what I saw I really felt like he was a weak spot when he was out there but as a run blocker it's a completely different story I have pretty much no notes for Elijah Vera Tucker in that phase he has really good drive power on Gap scheme runs to uproot a defensive tackle move him out of a gap he can get out in space and connect to linebackers at the second level he's got the explosiveness to reach his landmarks but then very controlled mirroring and moving Target and then the Zone blocking is excellent he's got some teach tape backside cut offs from last year this one from the Patriots game is just perfect to be able to reach the playside shoulder and then flip your hips seal them off to the backside but the last thing I got to mention with elij Vera Tucker is that he's struggled to finish the season healthy the last two years he has hasn't been able to make it to week eight for that matter and both of his injuries actually happened at Mile High Stadium so good news is the Jets don't play the Broncos this year but a weird coincidence to have season ending injuries against the same opponent in back-to-back years and the final starter is Joe titman who they took in the second round last year he played the first few weeks at Right Guard and then moved back to his natural position at Center and I have similar thoughts about him as I do with Elija Vera Tucker I thought he was one of the few plus run blockers on the Jets offensive line last year excellent reach blocker to run outside Zone successfully you've got to have a center that can pull off those difficult reach blocks on a 2i he has pretty good control and Target location at the second level most of it was climbs on outside Zone if you go back to his college tape they pulled him a ton a lot more than you'll ever see for a center in the NFL besides Jason Kelce but with his power and StraightLine explosiveness I think that could be a way that you can feature Joe titman in the Run game and speaking of power Joe titman play strength for a rookie offensive lineman was incredible in both phases in the Run game he's got some serious Drive power he can bury a nose tackle one-on-one he's got the consistent hand placement into initial contact so he can really centralize his force and then the leg Drive once he latches on to create displacement just in terms of being able to move defensive lineman backwards I think the Jets offensive line Stacks up with anyone in the NFL and then in pass Pro he has a rock solid anchor watching and talking about so many rookie offensive linemen it gets repetitive because the scouting report for pretty much everyone is that they need to get stronger add play strength improve their anchor I don't think I ever saw Joe titman lose just straight up to a bull rush there were some plays where the pass rusher went speed to power kind of knocked him off balance and then they were able to win the edge or something but as far as just moving him backwards that did not happen at all from what I saw and a lot of times he was actually able to get underneath their paths and redirect the bull rush backwards but the rest of his pass Pro tape was very shaky and honestly the 75 rating that I'm giving him that's being pretty generous projecting development he was not a 75 last year based on my scale he doesn't really move his feet well at this point he's a habitual leaner into contact lunges into his punch consistently there's certain aspects of his game especially as a run blocker where it seems like he's got some good lateral fluidity but that doesn't show up in pass protection when a rusher starts to get the edge on either side Titan's instinct is to lean and basically like leave his feet and just lunge into contact he ends up on the ground way too often especially if you hit him with a bull rush initially he'll just lock into his anchor and not really expect you to get into a counter move so he'll plant his feet in the ground set his anchor when the defender crosses his face he's not ready to mirror them laterally so he has to give a last ditch effort leave his feet a lot of times he ends up grabbing the Jersey Hanging On by a thread and and has some borderline holding plays I think the main Achilles heel of this offensive line is going to be the mirror ability from Center to left guard if you hit Joe titman and John Simpson with a bunch of te stunts I just see them having a difficult time passing those off and staying in front of them hopefully it's a technical issue with Joe titman and he can get that fixed heading into year two but definitely need to see some improvement there and then if I was a Jets fan I would be waking up every day thankful that they took Olu fashanu in the first round the Brock Bowers pick that was rumored at certain times throughout the draft process like seriously that would have made me lose respect for Joe Douglas as a GM the responsible pick not only for next year but for the long term was to take a tackle regardless of what you did in free agency and they were able to get Olu fashanu out of Pinn State at pick 11 elite upside as a pass protector his lateral mobility and foot speed I think was best in this class he's not a player like so many tackles coming out that has no idea what to do with his hands I do think he needs to polish up his hand technique some occasionally he has a tendency to come in wide with his punch give rushers access to his frame and run blocking was definitely not a strength for him but it steadily improved over the course of his college career by the end of last season he was actually I would say an above average Zone blocker probably going to end up developing into more of a pass blocking specialist but I think he can at least be decent in the Run game he doesn't have to play as a rookie but he kind of gets the best of both worlds because Tyron Smith isn't going to practice so he's going to get all those reps but then he's not being thrown into the fire and you know lose his confidence or anything so fashu is really good depth I project him as the third best third tackle in the NFL the rest of the backups aren't great but no one really has offensive line depth but most of these guys started at some point last year um my favorite backup besides fashanu is probably Wes schwitzer not exactly sure how to pronounce his name but I thought he was probably the most steady presence of all of their backup interior players he's a decent Drive blocker he's got pretty good hand usage he's a lot bigger than Max Mitchell Jake Hansen Xavier Newman so he's naturally has a much better Anchor than them but there still were some times that he got launched and had some pretty embarrassing reps not a starting caliber player but not the worst thing in the world if he has to start one or two games they took Carter Warren in the fourth round last year he played some as a rookie especially down the stretch I don't think he was ready to play kind of similar to Joe titman he just has a bad habit of engaging with the block locking his arms stopping his feet and then if you give any kind of secondary Rush effort you're pretty much guaranteed to get late pressure because he really struggles to gear back up and protect the corner he has poor pad level as a run blocker struggles to get underneath Defenders and drive them back but I thought his anchor was actually naturally pretty solid he doesn't have great anchor technique but he has really good play strength so you don't see him lose to power that often I still think he has some upside but BAS based on what he put on tape last year not someone that you want seeing any kind of extended playing time Max Mitchell might have been the worst offensive lineman that played for the Jets last year if you take like all of the weaknesses that I've listed for the other offensive lineman and combine them that's Max Mitchell as a player he had some fun College tape against a really low level of competition but none of that dominance has translated to the NFL he's so out of control from a technical standpoint and doesn't have the physical traits to fall back on probably only talked about him for long enough to play a few Clips but just know that the clips that you've just seen I've got like 50 more of those loaded up Jake Hansen played about three and a half games for them at Right Guard he was okay at times he's a technically Sound Player overall he's just lacking the recovery skills and athleticism to be a starting caliber pass blocker and finally we've got Xavier Newman who's also a pretty technically Sound Player he's a much better athlete Than Jake Hansen but probably has the worst anchor of any of the backups he was a part of the disaster game against the Giants where Dexter Lawrence just wrecked everyone the rest of his tape was definitely better but he'll still lose to a bull rush two or three times every game also really seems to struggle with his protection assignments and picking up stunts and twists so ninth best offense but honestly a much better offensive roster the offensive coordinator rating is dragging down the overall score a little bit but regardless of how Aaron Edge Rusher roders plays who stays healthy I think the defense is still going to be the strength of this team I've got them with the second best defense in the NFL every unit outside of safety ranks in the top 13 and you could argue safety's the least important position The Edge rushers ranked 13th and the interior defensive line ranks 12th so pretty solid but I've got to say I disagree with how they handled those position groups in the off season I think choosing not to resign Bryce huff and then trading a third round pick for H reick who I view as a downgrade just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me and then replacing John Franklin Myers and Quinton Jefferson with Javon kinlaw and Ley fotu I think are downgrades in both instances but Germaine Johnson is another player that just lapped my expectations for him heading into his tape a couple games in I was fixated on Germaine Johnson as a budding star already a highquality starter but someone that could break out and be top 10 at his position his speed to power is lethal one of the best power rushing Edge defenders in the NFL already it's by far his most frequently used move but he has an incredibly High success rate with it he's a tall and long player so he can establish separation from the blocker's frame which is what you Need to Be an Effective power rusher but what a lot of players of his physical profile don't have is the flexibility and the ability to get low and create leverage maximize your displacement into the pocket his matchup with Jake Matthews the Falcons left tackle was a massacre Matthews is a very reliable quality starter but Germaine Johnson was walking him back into the pocket snap after snap after snap this play right here you see the effect of having two Elite power rushers adjacent to each other the way that it just compresses the pocket prevents the quarterback from having any space to step into but it wasn't just one matchup it was pretty much every week he was getting at least a couple wins with his speed to power the Jets really prioritize pocket pushers with their pass rushers and that has its pros and cons it's a much more consistent and reliable strategy to pressure the quarterback you're less reliant on mistakes from the offensive line if you've got a good bull rush it's kind of something that you can just go to over and over again and expect it to work but with speed to power you're getting a lot fewer clean wins so you're more likely to see those players have a lot of pressures and relatively few sacks that sort of dynamic plays out to I think a greater extent with Quinn and Williams which we'll talk about in more depth later but for Germaine Johnson the next step is going to be continuing to diversify his pass rushing plan honing in on ways to defeat the hands and get more quick wins I didn't chart it but if I had to estimate I would say 90% of pass rushing snaps Germaine Johnson's using speed to power he would go entire games without ever using a different move and there wasn't too much of a reason to go away from it because it was so effective but going forward you want to be able to win consistently with as many different methods as possible but for the most part I think it's a volume issue as opposed to a skill issue when he did try other moves he had an extremely high success rate he doesn't have a leite Bend which could slightly limit him as a highs side rusher but outside of that he has every trait and most of the skills that you look for he's got long arms he's explosive he's Twitchy he's quick with his hands there's always room to improve with your hand usage but he's at a really good starting point he was really effective on third down lining up over guards and beating them with crossface moves out on the edge he might not have as extreme of an athletic advantage but against a guard that they just can't really mirror him in open space this play he comes in late to a three- Tech alignment Quinn Miners gives him a two-hand punch Johnson quickly reacts gets into a double swipe wins The Edge gets into the pocket you do see on this play some stiffness at the top of the rush trying to finish this play against the Chargers he squares up evens out his leverage quick swipe to the outside hand gets into the pocket again can't finish the sack and then this play against the Giants he is being blocked by a tight end but he beats the outside hand this play he is able to turn the corner and finish the sack you can see he at least has functional Bend no one's going to mistake him for hisan reic but it's adequate at least but what really gets you excited is seeing him work these moves against offensive tackles like I said he doesn't have Hanan reic Bryce Huff type of burst and explosiveness he's not going to have a ton of success just using a speed rip attacking the outside shoulder but he does a really good job of threatening the inside rush to create a short corner for himself and kind of mask that limitation this rep against larmy tunel you can see his initial path is attacking the B Gap the inside half so tunel can't get early depth in his pass set and then he's really fluid transitioning into the cross chop beating the outside hand and once he wins that edge larmy tunel hasn't gotten any depth so it's an extremely short path to CJ strad same thing here against Terron Armstead initially he's rushing down the middle kind of threatening towards the inside Armstead can't really widen out to protect against the speed rush because he has to respect Germaine Johnson's speed to power but then Johnson can transition to the cross chop beat the outside hand attack all that space that Armstead left open for him and the key point with these plays is that week after week Germaine Johnson's putting out so many reps of good speed to power tape going into that matchup the tackles have to respect that move so they can't sell out at all to protect the outside and it's a small sample size of him actually trying to rush the outside but I mean he's getting high quality wins against larmy tunel Terron Armstead ran Slater I think if he just tried speed rushing more often he would have a lot of success and to complete his move set he's also able to use inside counters right here he beats the Patriots rookie tackle with an inside spin he can also transition into an inside secondary Rush effort when his first move fails you see this play against Philly he's trying the speed rush double swipes the outside hand but the tackle does a good job staying in front of it but he's leaning too far upfield Germaine Johnson sees the opportunity to pry open the inside shoulder he slices into the B Gap hits hits Jaylen Herz and ends up forcing an interception the thing with Germaine Johnson though that gets me so excited is that he's more than just a promising pass rusher to me he's like the Kyle Hamilton of edge rushers he's 260 265 really he plays the run like he's 280 he has an elite anchor he's able to set the edge so consistently overall I view him as one of the better run defending Edge rushers in the NFL these Edge setting reps are just disrespectful this play against the Dolphins he establishes early control on the right tackle Yanks him like he's starting a lawn mower makes the stop in the back field right here you can see how much knockback that initial punch creates completely stops The Tackle momentum Johnson sets The Edge holds his ground once the running back gets past him though he's able to disengage From the Block and then match the running back's speed and make the tackle out in the alley tight end blocks straight up do not work against him Durham SMI on this rep had no chance from the start another one here against the Chargers flattens the tight end explodes into the Gap and makes the stop and then this play he completely stands up this puller I mean from the point that they make contact Germaine Johnson doesn't move backwards one inch and then he's basically just two gapping like a nose tackle sheds the block once the running back enters his Gap he can chase down screens he can make plays in coverage he'll drop into the hook and play Man coverage on a tight end speaking of Kyle Hamilton they actually both had a pick six against the Browns on kind of similar looking plays and he even had special teams value he had a blocked punt against the commanders he's developing into one of these stat sheet stuffers that just impacts every single possible phase of the game still on his way to becoming a true number one as a pass rusher but definitely ahead of the curve and I'm confident he can get to that point Hassan reck like I said I think is a downgrade from Bryce huff and a pretty significant one if you're getting the Ric from a couple years ago maybe it's more of a lateral move but based on what we saw last season I thought there was a very noticeable slowing down of his pass rushing ability he's still going to be one of the best athletes on the line of scrimmage he's got a really good cross chop good inside counter spin move I think he's a really solid pass rusher in a vacuum it's just like man comparing him to Bryce Huff this defense could have been even more dominant I'll be kind of brief on Will McDonald because I did a full film breakdown on this channel if you want to check that out he didn't play much as a rookie there just weren't a lot of opportunities for snaps when he was on the field he was pretty efficient he had the second highest pass rush win rate of any of the rookie Edge Rush his speed rush and explosive first step and bend around the corner immediately translated you can see he's got really high potential as a highside rusher the inside spin was his primary counter at Iowa State only used it a few times in the NFL but you know it's such a small sample size I expect we'll see that more often next year he's just got to add weight so he can get better against the run and hopefully add some sort of power element as a pass rusher never have really seen him be able to win with speed to power at any level of competition maybe he did it in high school I don't know but for a player with his get off and his length like that's the perfect profile to be a speed to power rusher so I think he's a complimentary third DPR right now and then if he does add play strength the sky's the limit for him Michael Clemens is just a steady early down run Defender the pass rushing impact is negligible but he can set the edge hold the point they signed Tac McKinley who hasn't played in a while but I feel like he's better than a fifth Edge rusher and Braden McGregor is a udfa I was kind of Defensive Line lukewarm on him as a prospect so the edge rotation is extremely deep the defensive line comes in with a similar ranking but it's spread out a lot differently quinnon Williams I view as the third best defensive tackle in the NFL I've got Chris Jones and Dexter Lawrence at 1 and two and then quinnon Williams I think is a clear three and Williams is the anchor of this front seven he has the best bull rush in the NFL across any position he defends the run at an elite level I think he had the best season in run defense so far for his career the one thing that might give some people pause is that he doesn't have a ton of sack production he went through the first nine weeks of last season without a sack ended up finishing with six according to PFF and part of that's just statistical noise uh to a certain extent all you can do as a pass rusher is just try to win whether or not you actually convert that into a sack a lot of times has to do with whether or not the quarterback gets rid of the ball if there's someone open for him to throw it to if you watch pretty much any game of Quinn and Williams you're going to see a consistently effective pass rusher that last year just got sacks at a slightly lower rate there were some Miss sack opportunities that are on quinnon Williams he only missed two tackles through the first 13 weeks and then the last five he had seven Miss tackles and like we said with Germaine Johnson players that win more with power are going to convert pressures to sacks usually at a slightly lower rate as opposed to a player like Chris Jones who's getting a lot of quick wins with his hands where he's crossing the blocker's face winning an early Edge quinnon Williams is just relentlessly pushing the pocket most plays he ends up with his Blocker in the quarterback's lap and he's basically just funneling him towards the defensive ends he's essentially like a hydraulic press that's just going to slowly but inevitably work his way into the pocket and what's most impressive about his game is that there's no drop off in his Effectiveness based on competition whether it's a bottom tier guard or Joe Toney Landon Dickerson Trey Smith his power translates against any W and then like I said he took a major step forward I thought as a run defender in 2023 you're really starting to see the combination of elite play strength and physical traits with close to perfect technique he's got an immovable anchor he's great with his hands to deconstruct blocks he can flow with stretch runs chase down outside Zone to the sideline he truly is an elite athlete for his size and anytime he's a little bit out leveraged to make a tackle in the back field it seems like he's always able to fully extend and make up that Distance by a hair the rest of these players are backup caliber defensive lineman they signed Javon kinlaw who is the first round pick for San Francisco a few years ago that didn't really pan out he was still a rotational player last year but he more than doubled his pressures from his first three seasons as a pass rusher he has a lightning quick first step to get into the blocker's frame he's got the length to establish separation and decent Drive power you can still see the high-end traits and what made him a first round pick the bull rush isn't really effective at a high enough rate to make him you know a great pass rusher but he at least contributes but he is not a good run Defender he's got a high cut build and he plays with really high pad level he gets moved back consistently and is a decisive net negative in that phase they got Solomon Thomas coming back he's similar to Javon kinlaw in some ways he'll make some Splash plays as a pass rusher he wins more with quickness as opposed to Javon kinlaw's power but in the Run game he's a borderline liability based on watching a lot of offensive lineman I came into this film session with a much lower rating for Solomon Thomas I was so used to seeing him get pancak by like every offensive lineman that I watched he does offset that to a certain extent by generating some positive plays but still a weakness on early Downs they also signed Ley fotu who based on his size you would think is a good run Defender but pound-for-pound one of the worst run defenders in the NFL over the last four to five years I think he does a good job with his hands engaging with blocks and he does have pretty good natural play strength but his footwork gets him into so much trouble and he ends up on the ground way more often than a 330 pounder ever should and then he gives you absolutely nothing as a pass rusher he's never eclipsed seven pressures in a single season Leonard Taylor is a notable udfa someone with uh some really enticing physical traits never really put it all together and maximized his potential at Miami and then Jaylen Holmes is a journeyman veteran uh Linebacker noticed him in a couple Gam GES getting pancaked so I gave him a 65 but now we start to get into the real true strength of this defense and really this team the linebackers ranked second in the NFL to the 49ers a lot of teams don't even have one good linebacker but the Jets have two they're one of only four teams with two linebackers that I have rated above an 80 and I don't know if it's a hot take but I actually kind of view Quincy Williams as the better of the two it's really close but the explosive impact plays that he's able to create I I think just put him a slight Step Ahead he led NFL Defenders last year with 80 stops uh PFF defines a stop as a tackle that results in an unsuccessful play for the offense the next highest was Bobby Wagner at 71 and with Quincy Williams it seems like every tackle that he makes is the most dominant violent tackle that I've ever seen in my life his closing burst is next level and he just erases ball carriers into the ground so as a run Defender he makes a ton of plays but he is pretty undersized he's not really a stack and shed linebacker if he can't avoid or evade it he will get stuck to blocks occasionally get put on his back and over the second half of the season I started to notice a lot more Miss tackles the stats kind of bear that out with his Miss tackle rate and then in coverage his lack of size actually plays to his Advantage I think he's the best man cover linebacker in the league whether it's sticking with a seam or a wheel route running vertically or mirroring like a Texas route from the backfield you don't see many linebackers that can stick with running backs tight ends even occasionally a receiver the way that Quincy Williams can he isn't the most assignment secure in zone coverage there will be some occasional coverage bus but overall he's clearly a net positive in that phase 2023 was his best season by far so we'll see if he can maintain that level of play but based on what he showed last year he's an easy top 10 linebacker and not far behind him is CJ Mosley who I view is kind of a B+ player in every aspect he has the range and athleticism top tier physicality really good block shedding ability hit power he's more of a playmaker in coverage than a consistent lock down cover linebacker but again still the strength of his game especially when stuff's developing in front of him he's extremely instinctive playing routes in the quick game he just had a couple backbreaking dropped interceptions and the main thing holding him back from the elite tier is just consistency and I wouldn't even call him inconsistent he just has the occasional Misfit or M tackle or blown loone coverage assignment still a top 10 linebacker but I think players like Fred Warner or ran Smith are slightly more reliable and then also got to shout out Jamie and Sherwood another player that I was not familiar with um probably because he hadn't really played at all he was a fifth round pick back in 2021 never really been able to see the field and he only got 193 snaps last year but whenever they played him he played well and I think if one of their top two linebackers went down I would feel perfectly comfortable putting Jamie and would into the lineup he was a safety back at Auburn and uh he's still listed at 216 lbs he definitely doesn't weigh that now one of the clear strengths of his game is actually his ability to take on and play blocks he seems to be a pretty reliable uh technically sound tackler with a lot of stopping power and I saw him give up one play in coverage a 42 yard like deep over against uh the Raiders Devonte Adams but outside of that he looked pretty good getting into his hook Zone drops uh made a few plays on the screen game hard to really evaluate with such a small sample size but I really liked what I saw and the Cornerback Jets cornerback room is the best in the NFL there's no one that really comes close to matching what this top three gives you in coverage and going back to another separation plot from PFF you can see how dominant this Trio was s Gardner and Michael Carter had two of the best seasons of all time in terms of preventing separation and DJ Reed the quote unquote weak link was still about 70th percentile and they're led by S Gardner who I think is not only the best cornerback but has an argument for the best player in the NFL I'm a huge fan of patzer Tan's game I think he's clearly the second best corner but to me there's just no argument between him and S when you look at the consistency week after week and I've got s miles Garrett and Tyreek hill with a 97 rating tied for the three best players League wide I did a full video on S Gardner explaining why I think he's the best corner in the NFL so I'll keep this somewhat brief to me he does everything at an elite level except generate turnovers if he was able to convert a few more of his interception opportunities that's what would push him up to a 99 rating he's never going to be a high interception guy he's just too good in man coverage so he doesn't get targeted enough to have the volume of opportunities to some other Corners the classic s Gardener statline is like two Targets one reception for three yards but that makes converting the opportunities he does get even more important but outside of that he just has a complete game as a cover corner he can mug you at the line of scrimmage one of the best press Corners in the league but what people don't appreciate about SAU enough is his mirror ability and footwork he has this reputation of being a really grabby Corner if you watch a lot of Corners across the NFL he's not much grab than you know any of the other top ones I think from his rookie tape being grabby down the field is a somewhat valid criticism but at this point in his career he's actually one of the best corners at trusting his footwork and mirroring without making unne necessary contact he puts out so much teach tape on playing routes from off coverage playing soft shoe press where he's not even punching or using his hands I think it's a combination of people not really understanding the rules and bitterness from divisional Rivals but the idea that s Gardner is getting away with all these egregious penalties is one of the biggest misconceptions across the entire sport if he can just start getting you know two or three interceptions a year the SAU haters will really have nothing left can't be dropping those easy ones like the play against Dallas and yeah ultimately if s Gardner doesn't have any fans I have passed away DJ Reed is about as good as it gets for a quarterback to he's definitely less consistent in coverage than S but more consistent than a lot of teams number one I think his trump card Elite trait is his explosiveness gearing up from a standstill when a receiver releases and declares vertically or he gives up some early leverage on like a drag route he has instant start stop ability to recover short distances and eliminate a step or two of Separation a good portion of cornerback play comes down to how quickly can you close two to three yards of space and DJ Reed does that as well as anyone a couple examples just to show you what I'm talking about this play he's covering a drag route from Tyreek Hill across the middle of the field he's 5 yards off the line of scrimmage so Tyreek has about a 5 yard Head Start but once he identifies the route you see the explosiveness and closing bursts to eat up that cushion almost immediately and he undercuts the the route for the interception this play he's covering Stefon Diggs on a stop route from off coverage Diggs is threatening vertically and then he sits down cuts his route off at the sticks at the break point Reed does allow a little bit of Separation he's maybe a tick slow responding to the route break but again the recovery burst to close two yards of Separation in a split second turns this from a third down conversion to an incompletion I thought he was a little bit less consistent over the second half of the Season still a solid you know starting caliber corner just less discipline and coverage through the first eight weeks he allowed 161 yards over the second seven weeks he allowed 314 and two touchdowns in his defense though 38% of his yards allowed last season were to Jaylen waddle or Tyreek Hill and Michael Carter has an argument for being the most underrated player in the NFL if you pull the average NFL fan they either don't know who he is or think he's a former UNCC running back but he's the best cover Nickel in the game right now there are some others that give you more when you account for run support he's not a great run Defender he can shoot into the back field and make some plays but he's under size so really struggles at times to deal with contact but if I needed a slot corner to cover a receiver one-on-one for One Snap I'm taking Michael Carter they added Isaiah Oliver who's a backup caliber slot only solid depth but uh never really worked out in Atlanta Brandon Eckles who I could be mispronouncing is their main backup on the outside he had a nice pick six on a terrible pass against the Dolphins but not really a reliable cover player and he gets picked on when he's on the field and then the seventh corner I don't really think matters but I went with jerius Monroe out of two lane who I Safety didn't watch so I'm not sure how good he is and finally the weak spot of this defense is safety which ranks 25th not a strength but not bad enough that it's a liability I assume Tony Adams is going to be one of the starters he was a udfa in 2022 started all but a few games last here and he looks like a good find he's a converted corner so he is a bit undersized as a box safety when it comes to playing blocks he can get washed out of the play if a blocker makes contact but he also has the speed and closing burst that you would expect for a former corner and he's extremely physical not someone that shies away from contact at all he's overall a solid contributor and run support he can crash downhill makes a lot of plays in the back field another violent tackler which is not out of the ordinary for this defense but something he needs to improve prove is his open field tackling as the last line of defense he's kind of a one-speed player that just straight lines to the ball carrier and take some reckless Pursuit angles and when he does break down and come to balance he'll sometimes have issues regaining speed to stick with a jump cut in coverage he had three interceptions they were more on the lowquality end of the spectrum basically just thrown right to him but there weren't a lot of negative plays in coverage which is step one for a safety most of his bad plays were a result of him getting confused by motion I think he's a solid starter kind of the definition of a 75 rating on my scale he's still young so he could definitely improve like I probably would have said something similar about Michael Carter at some point in his career but we'll see what Tony Adams can develop into they got Chuck Clark who will probably be the other starter he signed last off season but then tour his ACL in June so we haven't seen him in a Jets uniform he's a pure box safety great run Defender not as confident in his ability and deep Zone coverage but somebody that you want on the field and Ashton Davis is a bit of a wild card or X Factor for this safety group for most of his career he was not really an impact as a safety after being a third round pick in 2020 but last year in a reserve role he made a handful of plays and coverage it felt like every other week he was getting an interception or a pass breakup uh he actually had three interceptions and four pass breakups on just 110 coverage snaps that could easily be a low sample size thing but maybe he has turned the corner in year four he resigned this offseason on a one-year deal so we'll see if he can carve out a starting role and really prove himself and that's going to do it for the Jets preview if you enjoy the video make sure to like and uh leave a comment to help the channel grow these team previews take a ton of time to complete so likes and comments are greatly appreciated and if you want to view my full power rankings and positional ratings I've got that as a web application that's Linked In the description it's a sortable table you can click on the row see the full team breakdown all the stats and Graphics that are in these videos [Music] [Music]