I think the following evaluation is pretty accurate. The one thing I don't like is when he talks about the Jets having the opportunity to fix some of the defensive shortcomings with high picks in the draft. He seems to ignore the fact that the Jets need a serious talent upgrade on the offense. He does say that they will address that in FA, but as we know, adding a FA QB isn't really what they need to do to achieve long term stability and success, and the options for upgrading the OL in FA are limited pretty much to C and OG. I also don't think there's any RB aside from Leveon Bell that would significantly help the offense. With such a deep, strong RB class in the 2018 draft, the Jets would be insane not to draft one. If Mac doesn't get both a QB and RB in the 2018 draft. I think he should be fired immediately following the draft. http://turnonthejets.com/2018/01/new-york-jets-staff-evaluations-coordinator-edition/ Daniel Essien with an evaluation of coordinators Kacy Rodgers and John Morton for the New York Jets… When it comes to a coordinator’s value, stats are important but there’s more to it. Like every other coach it’s also about strategy, creativity, and most importantly maximizing your players’ abilities. Vic Fangio, for example, has been very effective in his role as defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears. Young players like Leonard Floyd, Kyle Fuller, Prince Amukamara have thrived under Fangio. As a result of that and good in-game strategy from Fangio, despite the Bears’ struggles overall, the Bears have improved from the 15th to the 10th best defense in the NFL. The best coordinators can match significant player development with sound strategy. With that, let’s look at the Jets coordinators. Kacy Rodgers Kacy Rodgers has had a really tumultuous time as defensive coordinator for the Jets. Many questioned the Jets retaining him after last season. The hardest question to answer with Rodgers is how much say and control he really has over the defense. But more importantly, has the Jets defense improved at all under Rodgers? Player development The Jets have invested a good amount of high value draft picks in their defense since Rodgers arrival in 2015. Leonard Williams in his first year, Darron Lee in 2016, and Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye in 2017. Because of this, the development of these players is integral to the team’s future. Leonard Williams has the potential to be star but he hasn’t made any significant strides since last year. Darron Lee has flashed his skills at times this season but he’s still making many of the same mistakes that haunted him in his rookie season. Maye and Adams have transitioned well into the NFL this year but next year they’ll be expected to make a leap and its fair to say we haven’t seen anyone really do that on this team with Rodgers in place. His main success story in 2017 has been Demario Davis but there’s been a good amount left to desire. Weaknesses exposed We covered some of the Jets poor decisions with in-game defensive strategy in our Todd Bowles evaluation earlier but its worth repeating. One noticeable strategic downfall was that the Jets often failed to adjust when team’s identified and attacked their weaknesses. It seems much of their defensive breakdowns followed a pattern. The Jets defensive scheme relies heavily on blitzing but it often gets them in trouble. The Jets had a terrible pass rush this season (28th in sacks). As a result, opponents seemed to often take advantage of Demario Davis or Darron Lee isolated in coverage or their corners in man to man with no help over the top. The Jets knew what their weaknesses were this season but they didn’t seem to protect well against them. Premium holes Statistically, the Jets had the 4th best defense in 2015 but it has progressively gotten worse the last two seasons. This is a bad reflection on Kacy Rodgers. However, that regression is also largely due to the holes that have persisted in their defensive roster. Other than 2015 Revis, they haven’t had a reliable shutdown corner or an elite pass rusher (defensive line or edge) during Kacy Rodgers’ tenure. The Jets have enough projects at CB and OLB (Dylan Donahue, Freddie Bishop, Daryl Roberts, Rashard Robinson, Derrick Jones, Jeremy Clark) they need more proven talent. For comparison’s sake, 3 of the top 5 defenses this season have either one or both. The Vikings have Everson Griffen and Xavier Rhodes. The Broncos have Von Miller, Chris Harris, and Aqib Talib. The Jaguars have Jalen Ramsey and Yannick Ngakoue (honorable mention: Dante Fowler Jr). The other two had the type dominant front the Jets thought they’d have with Lee, Wilkerson, Richardson, and Williams: the Steelers (Heyward, Tuitt, Watt, Shazier) who led the NFL in sacks; and the Eagles (Cox, Graham, Long) who had the best run defense in the NFL. Time to deliver With the mountain of money the Jets will have in cap space in the coming offseason, and some quality defensive players at the top of the draft, the Jets will have an opportunity to address their needs much like they tried to do in 2015. Unless Maccagnan completely botches addressing those needs, expectations should be very high for Kacy Rodgers’ Jets defense next season. No more hiding behind the rebuild. John Morton John Morton just completed his first season as offensive coordinator of the Jets after taking over for Chan Gailey last offseason. Overall opinions have been mixed on his first season. It’s hard to make a snap judgment because of his short tenure but there are some observations worth discussing. Player development One of the smartest personnel decisions the Jets did made season was hanging on to McCown as the starter until he got hurt. Morton was able to get possibly the most significant player development this season from Robby Anderson. Anderson nearly doubled his yardage total last season (587), racking up 941 yards on 63 catches. The Jets also saw encouraging contributions from Austin Seferian-Jenkins this past season, particularly in the red zone. However, there remains the mystery of ArDarius Stewart and Chad Hansen, the Jets 3rd and 4th round draft picks in 2017. Both had very limited playing time in their rookie seasons and its unclear whether that was because they weren’t ready to contribute or Morton just preferred veterans. Judging by how he handled the QB situation, though, the former seems more likely. But its worry that he preferred Jojo Natson to Stewart and Hansen. If they were that unprepared that’s a bad reflection on Maccagnan. But if Morton simply didn’t want to play them, that lands squarely on him. There’s nothing more valuable than in-game reps. Good start, bad finish Morton’s offense seemed to consistently have decent starts and bad finishes throughout the season. Usually an offense starts off each game with a script. Then eventually the offensive coordinator has to deviate and react to the defense. Morton seemed to struggle to counter defensive adjustments from Jets’ opponents. His play calling was predictable at times and he struggled to manufacture any offense when opponents shut down the Jets’ run game. His ability to gameplan well should encourage every Jets fan, particularly with what he had to work with on offense. However, part of growing into his role (much like it was/is with Bowles) has to be becoming a better in game decision maker. Second season leap After the Jon Gruden went in another direction for his offensive coordinator, it’s confirmed Morton will be back in 2018 and there’s a reason to be somewhat optimistic. The Jets 2016 breakout star, Quincy Enunwa, who was out injured for all of 2017, will be returning. In addition, the Jets will likely be making upgrades at QB, RB and along the offensive line in free agency (with the aforementioned mountain of cash) and in the draft. The most significant of those potential upgrades, obviously, will be at QB. While Morton was able to get a decent season out of Josh McCown as the Jets starter, there were a good amount of big plays that were left on the field. If the Jets finally get QB right, it’s interesting to see how much of a leap Morton’s offense will make in year two. As the Jets 5-11 record would indicate, they were ranked near the bottom of the league both offensively and defensively in 2017. Bowles and Morton may have had the excuse of the deconstructed roster this past season but next season they have to improve on the 25th ranked defense and the 28th ranked offense respectively. If they fail to do so, it’s likely ownership won’t be as positive and forward thinking as they were this season.
If the Jets draft a QB at 6, I don't feel very confident that they can get any type of contribution in the 1st year , knowing how they handled Bryce and Hack. All the QB's in this years draft will need time to develop. Rosen, is probably the only one that may possibly step right in. I don't like Mayfield in many ways and I am pretty sure that Mac will not draft a 5'11" QB. That being said,if the Jets want an immediate fix to their offense and defensive, the FA route is their best bet + drafting the BPA at 6. Still not sold on Rogers, the defense has regressed significantly.
Special Teams Coordinator - I don't actually know who it is but out ST sucks year after year so they get an F from me.
This is the group of coaches and coordinators you get when the good ones like Holmgren and Quinn plus a host of other Coordinators that are very good say no to working with J and J Install a VP of Football Operations with years of experience and it might change
AGREED. The phrases "put up or shut up time", "shit or get off the pot time", "make or break off season", all come to mind for me about this off season. I cannot emphasize enough, his leash is getting shorter. He only got 2 additional years which really amounts to ONE year. Mac must get a QB, RB, and OL. I would add OL to paramount importance needs. Maybe Chris doesn't care about the playoffs in 2018, but if Mac and toilet do not at least get them VERY close to the playoffs, they'll more than likely get canned. I just can't see them getting any more mulligans.
How they handled Bryce and Hack? They both are terrible, I've yet to see any coach turn shit into good, Petty shouldn't even be in the league.
Morton and Rodgers do not adjust worth a shit. In Mortons defense, without a decent line there is no running game. Without winning the line of scrimmage, there is no balance. With no balance and the lack of weapons it's no wonder we struggled in late game situations. Defensive lines regularly put heavy pressure on McCown. No QB can move this offense under those circumstances. We should draft line and a RB, or pick up both in FA before considering QB. There isn't a QB in this draft that can help this team without the running game and protection. Our O-line sucks in a major way. The college game is light years behind the pro game in so many ways, but the speed of the game is the most obvious, especially for QB's. With Mortons inexperience, there isn't much hope of him and Bates developing a rookie QB that will make this offense competitive enough to put our team in the playoffs. Nacho's first two years in the league were great examples of a situation to show how to acclimate college QB's to the pro game. The problem was, he sucked even in a good situation. He had an above average line, a top 5 RB (even though he was old and the best part of Thomas Jones was behind him/ same with Tomlinson), decent WR's, but not much of a TE which is a great security blanket for QB's making the transition to the NFL from college. Not to mention the other side of the ball, which keeps the game close while young QB's figure out what it takes to move the ball and win. Rex was a defense first coach, but it helped Nacho to be on a team with a defense like what we had. Any QB we draft if that's the route management takes for this rebuild, won't have any of that. Peyton Manning was drafted by a team that wasn't as bad as we are right now. Brady was on a defense first team, and Belicheat was a defense first guy. Brady didn't hit the field throwing like manning. He managed the game, and had a good offensive coaching staff that made game plans that he could manage and succeed in. We need lots of pieces in place before we go for that FQB, even though there are a herd of people on this board who disagree. Some even want to trade our draft away to get one. There isn't a QB in this draft that is worthy. Keep McCown if we cant find us a big name in free agency. Having an experienced QB is more important to the team, especially Morton at this point, than hope for a rookie QB one day being our every day starter. Since Morton is coming back, add more pieces and let him develope this offense further. I just don't have faith in Morton at this point. He is very inexperienced and he showed us that regularly this season. Maybe when he grows up he will be ok. If we can hire someone more experienced and better next year, do so, rather than waiting for the biggest part of a decade while he completes his on the job training at our teams expense. How many times did we run into a line that was pushed back this year? 1st down, 2nd down, 3rd down? Morton tried to run, and I understand you must show it for balance sake even though you won't be successful most of the time. What gets me is when he chose to run in certain situations. When we passed first, ran second, we had success at times. It's like a pitcher in baseball pitching backwards, off speed to lead, fastball when it favors the pitcher. We were always predictable by our formation and personnel. You could guess with 80% accuracy a run play all year, based on those two aspects of our offense. Our passing game was also predictable, but McCown made the most of what he could. 3rd and long, especially in late game situations had no chance. Again in Mortons defense, play makers make offense easier for a QB to manage. Instead of a 2yard screen to Anderson on 1st down, it's a 5 yard gain if McCown is throwing to Julio Jones...... Etc... As an example in Mortons defense. Rodgers and Bowles didn't agree with Rex's type of defense and tried to purge the roster from day one. Playing Richardson at LB should prove that they are both clueless. Rex had Richardson playing at a pro bowl level. Todd and Kacy can't get our linemen to do anything, no doubt they are the reason for the entire decline of our defense. Which brings me to a major point relating to both of them. Rather than using the available personnel and a scheme that best suited the players, Rodgers chose his scheme over the players on hand. In essence they chose the long way around it. That shows inexperience and a lack of overall defensive football knowledge. In defense of both Rodgers and Bowles, this defense had holes from the get go. Pressuring the QB has always been priority one in defending the pass since the forward pass began. Without it CB's and LB's have to cover pass catchers for 3-6 seconds, which is not possible within the rules of the current NFL. Zones do not work either within the 3-6 seconds a QB has to view the field and find the open guy. Without that top shelf rusher, any secondary would be exposed, but ours is picked on pretty regularly since T&K took over. Personnel does matter, and ours lacks, but a lot of what I've seen in the 3 years is scheme related. Playing off, soft bump and run, misaligned zones, lack of communication on hand offs, and the wrong defensive call at the wrong friggin time. I've seen this crap since the beginning. Basic tackling has gotten worse since Rex moved on, and at times his team's were not good at it either. We can't stop the run, nor the pass when we need to at critical times of a game and that is on the coaches. They study film (at least Todd says they plan to watch film, "I haven't seen the tape yet!), they have so much info on opponents tendencies they must have an idea what the other team is going to do a certain percentage of time, given a certain situation down and distance. Then adjustments....... My lord if a team throws you something they haven't shown you yet, figure out what you can change to stop it. Is this concept too hard for T&K? Must be, because it happens every game. The game plan has to change as the other team changes its game plan to favor its situation. Darron Lee has a ways to go, I get that. He is a D-QB in a way, as is Adams, and Maye. I'm afraid as Kacy learns on the Job, our young defensive talent is suffering for lack of knowledge. Not to mention our defensive line is slowly being rebuilt, rather than being reprogrammed. This hurts the LB's and secondary's development for the long haul. I do think Kevin Greene can help our LB's long term. Excellent player, had good coaches teach him, lots of experience. Maybe he can learn more as a coach and be something bigger one day.....D-coordinator? Who knows. Special teams? Catanzaro and Edwards are average maybe better. Returns and coverage teams? Suck for the most part. Anyone reading know an upgrade out there we can hire? Anybody wanna add something I missed, or show me something I obviously don't know? I'm all ears.
You make many very good points. Not going to pick apart any single one except to say that the Colts were 3-13 when they drafted Peyton and along with Edgerin James, I think were the most important factors in turning that team around immediately as they went 13-3 the following year. My thought is with this in mind , it's obvious the Jets won't be drafting a Manning caliber QB. IMO, they can easily become a winning team in 2018 by signing a coveted FA QB and fixing some holes in OL/DL( pass rusher) and DB. A full time RB would certainly help also. Key would be which QB to sign and that would be another discussion too long to detail here. Jets are not far - they beat 2 wild card playoff teams and one of them already advanced to the next round.
of course you do. but there is absolutely 0 chance of him getting fired for not selecting any certain position so putting these thoughts out there are just the infantile temper tantrums i referred to in another thread. you know, like stating you are done if bowles is retained.
it's truly amazing how quick fans turn on someone. Especially when they defended them to the ends of the earth, just a year before. Mac was the best thing since sliced bread, now if he doesn't address 2 positions he should be fired?
No he should be tarred, feathered and sent on a shame parade throughout the swamps of MetLife if he doesn't draft a QB. Then you can fire him out of a cannon all the way to Miami.
I agree, and believe this approach is necessary for the rebuild to be successful. We lost a few games by one possession, which does say a lot considering the many roster holes we have. If we go all in and draft some young kid, it will delay the process to a degree of time that the current leadership cannot with stand. I'm sure there is a ton of things behind the scenes that non of us on this board are aware of, but job suicide isn't one that Mac and Todd will move toward. I'm almost certain most of the people on this site will be pissed when Mac and Todd decide against drafting a QB in the first round. The way Mac spoke of Hackenburg almost justifies my beliefs. After the FA period and draft is over we are going to know how serious Mac and Todd are about getting us in the playoffs as quick as possible.
We need a new defensive coordinator (which won't happen unless Rodgers leaves on his own) and we also need a new ST coordinator. Our special teams have sucked since Westhoff left. A part of that is because the back end talent of our roster is lacking, but in terms of coaching, none of our ST coaches have done anything meaningful. We need a ST guru that can actually find a legitimate returner cause we haven't had one since Brad Smith.
SMH The idea shouldn't be getting to the playoffs as quickly as possible, but rather being able to STAY THERE once they get there. Signing Cousins or a FA QB is counter-productive and is just kicking the problem down the road where it will be harder to solve. Y I agree with many of your comments regarding Bowles, Rodgers, the D and Morton, but your comments about the QBs are ridiculous! You don't draft a QB for just his rookie season. QBs take a year or two to develop and hit their stride. The team can continue to upgrade/fix the OL (the only thing we agree on here) while that QB is learning and developing. They can easily fix/upgrade the C position in FA, and probably the LG spot as well. The Jets have two good RBs already. There are a TON of excellent RB prospects in the 2018 draft. The Jets should have a very solid RB corps for the 2018 season, so your comment about not having a rushing attack is nonsense. The Jets have a lot of good young pieces on D already. The major problem with the D is Bowles and Rodgers, and the lack of a stud edge rusher. Once the Jets get all the other pieces in place, they'll be so good that they won't be able to get even remotely close to being able to draft a FQB. FQBs are the hardest piece to get, and you take them when you can. The Jets can upgrade the OL in FA and the draft. They'll still have McCown that they can trot out there to start if they're worried about the rookie taking a pounding. Your logic is an epic fail. There isn't a QB in the draft who is worthy? ROFLMAO!!! Unbelievable! Listen, I understand your doubts concerning Morton. I have some too. He may not even be here in 2019. He could easily be gone along with Bowles, Rodgers and maybe Mac. Having a great young QB prospect would certainly help the Jets attract better quality HC and OC prospects than having a JAG at QB. The only way the Jets will complete the rebuild and achieve sustainable success is by drafting and developing a FQB.
Imagine if we took Vic Beasley and McKinley instead of Williams and Adams. Our defense would have sack artists instead of lumbering waste .
If Morton has absolutely any input in the QB drafting decisions he just recently worked with a highly successful QB named Drew Brees who is 6 ft tall nearly identical to Mayfield at 5"11.
