Are #Jets AFC East Favorites? F/ Jason McCourty

what's going on everybody welcome back to toj talks I'm your host will Parkinson at willp 11 on Twitter Instagram Tik Tok YouTube we just had an earthquake here in uh the New York area New York New Jersey Connecticut Boston wherever apparently Fe felt in Philly uh that was wild I thought there was I don't know what was going on but um happy to be joined second time I think on the Pod hosting good morning football 13 years in the league if I'm not mistaken uh Jason McCord good morning football Jason how you doing man I'm doing good man appreciate you yeah I saw somebody tweet like the Northeast shows you how close we are the fact that this earthquake was felt in so many different states at the same time where everybody's tweeting about so yeah it was it's kind of crazy yeah I uh it's been a totally normal week in New York you know we wind every day I feel like my house is going to fall over it's it's a good time um obviously you know A lot's occurred in the NFL I want to quickly we're going to talk some Jets obviously we're going to talk a little bit of kind of the AFC East one thing that happened um that because of kind of the current situation of the show you didn't get to really talk too much about Stefan digs got moved uh I guess yesterday two days ago already reworked the deal which there was no chance he was ever playing on a one-year 18 million deal um what are your thoughts on just that overall and then we'll talk some Jets but obviously it affects the Jets a little bit he's probably the best receiver in the division is now uh is now in the AFC South yeah kind of crazy just the buildup too obviously last off season I think it was mini camp where it was Diggs was in the building and he wasn't in the building and everybody was making a big to do about him and Josh Allen's relationship and it was like no no no none of that's going on and then obviously his production towards the end of last season not only did it drop Target wise it didn't look like he was as involved in the offense so you fast forward to I remember everybody yes the other day they were talking about somebody tweeted like did Josh Allen need a Stefon Diggs to be great and he was like you sure and then next you know the next day he goes to Houston so I look at it for Buffalo as you look at their wide receiver room right now there's question marks you pick up Cur Samuel you still have uh Shakir there KH Shakir who's had a really strong end of the season and they picked up M Holland so you're looking at him like all right well Diggs is gone who's going to be the guy to step up I would assume they get somebody in the draft but from a Josh Allen standpoint he's a guy that you look at what Mahomes has been able to do when he left lost Tyreek Hill is Josh Allen GNA be able to weather that type of storm and be able to use those guys now having dton con Dawson knocks that lessons to blow a ton and maybe even opens offense to get more 12 personnel and do some other things but people will say like all right Stefan Dick's production went down but what sometimes you fail to realize is do other teams feel as though Stephan Diggs his level of play has gone down because if I go into a game and I don't want to leave my corner oneone with Stefon digs that just opened up something else for the offense so whether he's getting the ball every single play and putting up huge numbers he impacts the way a defense treats the offense which also opens up for other people for Houston I mean this is huge GM there Nick cerio I mean they're going all in you hit on your quarterback you move up to get Will Anderson you guys end up making a play you blow you blow out the Cleveland Browns and obviously you fall short to Baltimore and now you double down denil Hunter and you get Joe Mixon in the trade now you add a guy like Stefan Diggs and to your point you reworked the contract where now it's a one-year deal he's getting paid probably what he feel he's worth but also like now I got to go prove to doubters that I'm still him I'm still that guy so you're to get the best Fon Diggs with a CJ stra the AFC South just got a lot more interesting I think Tennessee Titans got better adding Calvin Ridley but Houston I mean they're obviously the clear cut favored in that Division and they're they're going to make noise in the AFC how much has yet to be determined yeah look I think of the two games I think the Jets open with like they're both I think they'll open at home because they're going to want the ratings but it might be the bills the Jets played the Texans again this year and TJ strads won game last year where I thought he looked horrible was the Jets made him look like really really bad and there's some really cool teach tap from a DB perspective on some of the things the Jets were doing nio Collins got hurt and it was like it as much as I love Robert Woods um post ACL Robert Woods against sauce is not really a fun match up for the Texans and that could be one of those games where it digs and sauce and the whole thing um I agree with you I don't know how much worse it makes the bills but it certainly doesn't help them and they're not exactly in a spot where look we've seen receivers go in the 20s and beat very good year one we've seen it a bunch but I've SE a lot of bills oh we'll trade up and get romad dun like buddy um getting from 28 to 7 or six is you're gonna need to give two or three first round picks like you're trading up for a quarterback and does that one rookie receiver take you to a Super Bowl I'm not so sure so um I think it's more likely they maybe trade up to the teens for Brian Thomas or something like that that's maybe more of a realistic possibility as you mentioned with Houston all due respect to Adam rank I I hope it was a troll to like NFL team should copy the Texans and and get a rookie quarterback and go all in like yeah that's usually the r if the rookie quarterback hits like yeah that cool the Jets have tried that nine times since I've been alive and I'm not 30 yet so um I sure um but I guess in in terms of how it affects the Jets obviously um like I think Buffalo is a team they match up well with and you know Miami obviously they had a lot of injuries last year they kept their quarterback healthy though so um I guess what do you think of their off season as a whole so far they've made a lot of one or twoyear commitments to guys I think the only guys that have gotten two-year deals are John Simpson got a minor two-year deal and then the kicker and the punter so everybody else yeah Morad he said he wants to play seven more years which um I hope he does awesome uh awesome dude but what do you make of their offseason as a whole they've added some big names they've added some guys who you know they've got a lot of former all Pros on that team it's a matter of staying healthy I guess and how much those guys have left no doubt and when you say a matter of staying healthy as starts at the quarterback position you bring in Aaron roders we had we went through the whole Hard Knocks and all of that and in four plays the look on everybody's face in that Stadium season was over at that point so when you talk about the off season the fact that Morgan Mosen Simpson Tyron Smith the fact that you went and shorted up the offensive line the entire Hard Knock season it felt like you were continuing to talk about McKai beckon and can Dwayne Brown stay healthy and you're talking about the offensive line well the one thing that we may say may be the Achilles heels or the jetes so this offseason they say you know what we're going to invest out and we're going to go get offensive linemen that we feel like are going to help get us there help keep Aaron roders healthy now obviously getting Mike Williams on the outside he's still coming off an ACL but getting somebody to pair with a Garrett Wilson is huge but I think the offensive line is the biggest thing because without it we we need to see the best version of Aaron roders and now he's 40 and he's coming off in ailles and as great as Rogers is and as much as Robert Sol and everybody wants to say like I would never doubt Aaron Rogers he's still 40 coming off in Achilles so you want to do everything you can around him to make sure he can perform at highest level I think one of the biggest things that probably a lot of people aren't talking about as much is Bree hall now will be healthy from the very beginning of the season last year as you're watching it we got got they went out and got dvin cook and it was like all right we got cook we got it didn't work but Bree Hall was on a pitch count early in the season and you saw the Glimpse and now from GetGo he's going to be there and you got a better offensive line so there was games where you're just like you have no idea how Bree is able to come up with 95 yards or doing some of these things they can open up more holes and get him going I think that's a huge deal for them so having him healthy from week one is going to be a big deal yeah like if you told me this is probably slightly embellished but if you told me next year Bree Hall is a top five finisher for offensive player of the year like I wouldn't be shocked he had 1,500 total yards last year um behind the worst offensive line and the worst quarterback in the league like that you know what I mean like it should only get better and he's a guy who early in the year like as good as he was week one right away I think he was like five carries for 120 yards whatever he probably scores on two or three of those if he's even 10% healthier um you know and I know he's I've I've come off uh major surgery before that first time actually having to Sprint 90 yards is it's hor it's horrible your legs get so tired I feel like brick so um no I I think you make a good point there this defense is something that's is super interesting because you know number one in EPA per play the last two years um and they lose huff and there was just a lot of frustration I think of hey he's a 25y old homegrown dude first guy with 10 plus sacks is an edge rusher in 15 years for the Jets and like really well- loved this Underdog Story everything undersized all all the KN I guess he's undersized but and then they let him walk to Philly and and for like a pretty reasonable number um humble said he was going to get three for 51 in October it's he got three for 51 and you're like damn like they go sign Javon kinlaw sure like exciting former first round guy was underwhelmed a bunch in another talented group and they're good and they're still gonna be good but like thean reck's trade kind of came out of nowhere and in a vacuum like getting reic over Clowny probably is is a much more you know advantageous move for them uh what do you make of Hanan the player because I feel like he's one of those guys Jersey dude I think he's Temple guy as well and like we don't talk about him a lot but like lowkey was a top four finisher and defensive player of the year 24 months ago and had 16 sacks five four fumbles like that's really goddamn impressive I don't know why we don't talk about him as much but other than Miles Garrett he's the only guy with 10 plus sacks in four straight years in the league so pretty good player for a third round pick in in 2026 exactly and what you just said double digit sacks in four straight Seasons so you're talking about somebody when you put on the edge and now you're putting him next to quinnon Williams and the other side of John Johns so like now you're adding him to an already deep offensive defensive line and to your point I felt like a year ago we were talking about him because that Philly team was setting the NFL record for sacks and they're knocking quarterbacks out of title game so we're we're talking about Hassan reic the player and I still think to your point as great as it is to have a Hassan reic as a fan as a member of the organization no different than Squan Barkley a little bit down the street where it's just like when you draft a guy or you bring a guy in this is the first place he's in and he hits and he develops especially saquan totally different because he was a high ground pick as soon as you brought him in a guy like Bryce Huff you bring him in and it's three sacks and it's five sacks and then next thing you know like you're seeing the progression year by year like that's the guy you try to almost pay in year three with the anticipation that by the time year four comes we already see what's going to happened because we've watched it and we've developed it so as a fan you're like those are the guys we want to keep here especially the ones that good locker room guys set an example because when the next guy comes in that's who we point to we're like no no like go talk to Bryce Huff like when he first got here he didn't see the field and then he did these things that and but at the same time that's just the way this business works as a general manager as Personnel people you have to look at a player and say we feel like he is at this level when the numbers surpassed that then you're like all right like we love him we wish him the best and give them credit for going out making a Hassan reic trade because we've heard for a long time all right Hassan reck's on the trading block Philly's trying to get rid of him and as soon as they signed Bryce H was like all right well he's probably gonna be the first one out the door so now you're getting a guy not only with his production on the field but now you're getting a guy who played in the Super Bowl a year ago so now he knows what it looks like from a team uh standpoint and he's a veteran where he's been around the league he's been on multiple teams so you're adding somebody a veteran to the locker room that's been through things and has gotten to the level that we want to get to be able to uh give off that advice and be in the locker room yeah and plus it's a jersey guys so Jersey football extremely underrated um Loki like a lot of dogs you know no not present company included but um no like reck's a guy you mentioned knocking quarterbacks at title game he knocked Brock py out of the title game um you know a year and a half ago and I just think that he's one of those guys that also always durable and again I'm sure knock and well but like the Jets a lot of the offseason moves um the two things I think we've talked about the Jets a lot is like they've done a really good job of getting assets for guys that were you know Sam Darnell and Jamal Adams and we you know we keep praising Joe Douglas on that that 2022 draft and we should um the other thing they've done a lot this off season they good moves but a lot of those guys have injury questions right Tyron Smith um you know Mike Williams in in vacuum like this roster is sick but s reck is like proven player that's still in his 20s and oh by the way has missed one game due to having Co his entire career like that actually matters and um you know we talked a lot about when you were on the show last year how good could this defensive back you know room be for the Jets I still think they're probably a body L at safety um I still think they probably could add look I I don't know if they'll be able to do it but quandre digs or Justin Simmons and this defense and saying like f it like we're in a title window we might as well go really be in one would be would be special um but even that corner room um Michael Carter's probably a top five nickel is not better he's the guy who as you mentioned he should be extended this year because his price is only going to go up um he's another guy who day three pick has worked his way up you know played as a rookie and it was like whatever and then obviously DJ Reid another guy and we just saw we just saw teron Johnson I was just gonna say we've seen these guys getting paid like SL slot DBS just hit they there reset in the market again yeah you got you want to be ahead of it not behind it and then obviously sauce I think it this the discourse around sauce is really weird for me and I wanted to ask your kind of opinion on this is like do you think it's like is it I don't know is it jealousy from other people what is it because he kind of seems like he's generally speaking doing the right stuff all the time his play is awesome to watch he's like a humble dude who came in he's been a first team All Pro both years but he gets so much hate from around the league and I don't really understand why I like I know he likes to talk and like that's fine but every DB talk I don't really understand why that's a problem um I guess kind of talk about this cornerback room but specifically what discour around SAU is just weird and I don't really know what to make of it because every interaction I've had with him in person like literally the nicest dude possible yeah well so I saw like the Sant Samuel stuff with him and I felt like but that's a Sante I feel like he yeah it's like the classic like the 90s basketball guys versus the 2010 guys like that's what it felt like a little bit and Asante the way he looks at the game Asante was unbelievable at taking the ball away and there is a form of Defense defense where that's not you can't replace that like a guy that can you can line up there and somehow or another he comes up with two interceptions Force F whatever it is asan Samy was a ball mag and so when he looks at the importance of the DB position the cornerback position I mean he's gone at Rivas like I don't know that I've seen a quarterback play better football than derell Rivas I would rival that with the 2019 Stefon Gilmore which I got a chance to see up close which was unbelievable like you go get him their best player who they want to throw the ball to 15 to 20 times a game and like we'll see you after the game I'm not saying that you guys didn't team win that Super Bowl but like Stefan Gilmore was like this dude's the best player on the field and that's sharing the field with Aaron Donald who might be the best defensive player ever when you design when you design your defense around a cornerback like that says something when we're playing the Green Bay Packers in 18 and it's just all right you got Devonte Adams and like we're all just going to go play defense you just got Devonte and oh yeah when we want to double team Devonte you go get somebody else cuz we don't need to take you up on double teaming a Gody like that's and and that's like Gilmore wanted that like he would look at me I'd be on the other side and we call the defense in the Huddle and it'd be like one double 17 and he'd be like Jay you you go to the double I'm going away like that that was his demeanor and I look at saon although he doesn't always match up he's a guy that when you come in the league as a rookie as a cornerback that is tough like you can be as good as you want want you get in there and you're now going against a guy where you're probably playing against the best quarterbacks you've ever played against so I used tell people all the time like receivers are good at every single level like they're fast they get in out of cuts all of those things when there's a dog at quarterback when you're going against Ben rensburg and he's throwing the ball to AB 20 times a game and 10 of those times is going to be an 8sec play it's hard to cover him so for SS to come in as a rookie and go all pro and you can talk about interceptions all all you want and yes that's something that he want you're going to want to see him improve on because he is one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL like we need those takeaways like when the ball hits your hands we got to have them but at the same time if I can match you up on a wide receiver who is a huge part of their offense and like he's shut down you can't replace that like now we can roll coverage over another guy we can commit to the Run there's so many different things as a coordinator that we can do so not only s but when you look at their run I don't think DJ Reed played as well as he played a year ago but when you look at their room and there Michael car and when you can just play manto man and feel great about your matchups on the outside that changes things a third down especially you get to when it's winning time in a two-minute drill and you feel like your guys out there can handle it and you go manto man and send pressure at a quarterback uh like they I said it before the season they have one of the best quarterback rooms in the NFL with those three guys that they line up and it's different because they play man like yeah Play Zone but they go up there and they press and they get in your face and they cover you up and I feel like to win at a high level in this league you got to have guys that can play manto man yeah there was a couple times last year people got pissed you know SAU wasn't traveling and stuff like that like against Keenan Allen on on Monday night like that game was one of the weirder games I think all year like Justin Herbert had 90 yards and got sacked a million times and they still won by 20 like made no sense but um shout out Zach Wilson baby and but regardless like I just feel like SAU was traveling on third downs and when you have such a good room sometimes it's like you just trust your guys and just like we're going to play what we're going to play and like you're not going to beat us they've given up one 300 yard pass in the last 40 games like we're in the NFL where 300 people you know Zack Wilson Mike White like Trevor Sim are thrown for 250 300 yards and like this isn't the early you know 2000s late 90s where you know Kurt Warner putting up 280 yards a game was like yeah this is change in the NFL like this is I don't know you know we we've seen some 5,000 new yor passers in the last couple years that I I'm aren't exactly going to stroll into Ken so um I want to ask you a little bit before we kind of just move to like some of the bigger picture looking forward stuff you know reic there was a report Out of Philly I guess yesterday two days ago hey you know they thought he was chasing sacks I want to the only other guy I've seen do that he's amazing he's a first battle Hall fam JJ wat did that a little bit at the end in Houston and it was really obvious and like I think everyone around the league kind of knew it and I'm sure JJ Watt would ad he would he's he was doing it maybe if you got him a couple beers in um I don't I didn't see that on tape last year I don't really know where that came from and like can you just explain what that means to people who might not understand what that means then B um it looked like fangio whoever kind of mentioned Bryce Hoff has like a three four outside linebacker type standup where reic wanted to put his hand in the dirt if that's the case like the Jets don't have they play that wide nine like they're not guy's not dropping in the coverage like you you were bending the edge so reck's a perfect fit there you can kind of just mention what chasing sacks means are guys that chase interceptions I think we hear more of that Trayvon Diggs and these other guys where it's like you might want to jump around Dr Bland did that a lot last year it works out sometimes in other games in the Seattle game you get cooked um you just kind of explaining I guess what that means for like more in like layman's terms yeah the interceptions is funny I had a a veteran when I first came in the league Nick Harper and he used to talk about a Sante that well he said as a cornerback Asante knew you might double move him and score a touchdown but he's going to get a pick six he going to get a second interception because he understood route concept the whole Chas and Sachs thing philosophy wise is interesting to me because when I first came in the league in Tennessee we had a dline coach by the name of Jim wasburn who was a terrific dline coach in NFL for a very long time one of his says used to say will tackle the run on the way to the quarterback we played with wide NES and he wanted all his guys to be disruptive and it was all about getting the hell up the field and go for sacks go get the quarterback if the quarterback back hands the ball off hopefully we can get an arm on a running back and bring him down there was a lot of discourse around that of people saying like all we got guys especially sometimes we get where there would be no wide receiver and you just have a tight end set on the Nubs side and I'm the cornerback there and I have the gap between the tight end and Tackle my end runs up the field and the running back Cuts up now I'm one-on-one with Maurice Jones dro the hole he's knocking my helmet off so like as a DB there's times where you want your guys to say hey like don't rush up the field but I think sometimes from the Viewpoint of now like Crossing into the media becoming a fan we watch him and say oh he's chasing saxs you have no idea what he's taught on that play it could be we're bringing pressure and he has the boot on the play so he's getting up the field to contain the quarterback so I think when you start to say things like that like we're just guessing because everything is just falling as and Philly so now we got to find different people to blame and we're poking holes at what this guy's not doing and then also the fact that stuff is falling fall apart in Philly last year maybe you do have whether it's Assan reic whether it's Josh W maybe you do have guys saying like yo I got to make a play because we were just 10 and one and next thing you know we're just losing game after game so we have to figure those things out but I think the chasing sacks thing I if unless you're coaching a player and you know exactly what he's being taught you can't determine whether he's chasing a sack or not because even from the JJ Watt standpoint I remember we had a guy Jerell Casey when I was in Tennessee we literally will put defenses in where he was allowed to do whatever he wanted and the linebacker knew it might be whatever the call was 99 and he didn't have to control his Gap he could if he saw something or sent something he can get up the field you will put calls in that because you have guys that are special at certain positions that you want to give them the freedom so they don't do it on a play where you need them to be in a certain Gap and they jump out but I I look at it to your point of more of a fit standpoint Hassan reic a guy that's been in the league for a while that's had success and if I've had success putting my hand in the dirt hell you talking about coming here and I'm going to be a three four outside like like cuz then I'm going to go out there and I'm going to have six sacks I'm not going to be as productive I'm G to get beat in coverage and then a year from now you're going to say hey we're going to need you to take a pay cut because when we turn the film on you didn't play as well as you did from the years prior it's like of course I have I'm not because I'm playing out of position so no like send me to a place where I feel like I can thrive in that well you're talking about a Bryce Huff who's 25 and you've only known one system so now you're like well hell I'll try it let me see how I can do at that that may unlock something different for me where Hassan reic might be like no I've gone through that so I think from a scheme fit standpoint that's the most important thing get a guy in the right scheme and let him use the god-given Ability that he's been blessed with and that's where you get the production yeah look if you look at reck's first three years the Cardinals wanted him to be a weak side linebacker and he had