Honestly, besides Mangold (who has bounced back so far this year), this offensive line has been very frustrating, especially in pass protection. It's starting to feel like 2011 all over again. Colon was a total penalty machine last week, Winters fucked up big time yesterday, particularly on that interception. Brick sucked last year and has been meh so far. The pass protection has been poor in both games and they did very poorly for the run yesterday against a defense that was absolutely shredded by Lynch and the Seahawks. From ProFootballFocus.com: https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/09/15/refo-jets-packers-week-2/ "Smith went 8-of-13 with a 103.4 QB rating on drop-backs that took 2.5 seconds or less compared to 8-19 with a 37.2 QB rating on drop-backs that took 2.6 seconds or more. Signature Stats: Smith was 4-of-14 under pressure with a QB rating of 40.2 and a grade of -2.1."
Without going by the PFF Grades and only from the eye test, I thought Winters was absolute garbage. Either Dozier or Abushi better be able to step in this year, or that number one pick next year goes towards a G.
Winters was for the most part chopped liver. Getting beat is one thing but whiffing and getting beat off your inside shoulder is OG-poison. Winters was also responsible for the Geno-to-Sudfeld pick (yes Sudfeld should've come back to the ball to break it up).
Haven't seen anything wrong with Brick to be honest through 2 weeks. Both of the guards suck. Breno has been a decent surprise for us.
Mangold brick and breno are all playing solid. I would say colon is playing like he always has; strong push and limited pass protection ability. Winters seems better than last year but still making mistakes that are costing the team. I would say overall though the line is not bad. Geno hasnt been under siege and he usuay has a pocket to step into or a lane to slide out. A handful of bad plays will always stick out but its nowhere near as bad as 2011
Strangely enough, I thought OL was the number one need this off-season but they have held up reasonably well (mediocre rather than hot garbage). The thing that stuck out to me about Sunday's game (I need to watch it again) was how ineffective CJ2k was - not sure this was the OL not providing lanes or Johnson just being poor.
I don't think you can sit here and say Mangold has been the only solid one. Brick has been very solid so far and the line itself has been solid. Don't confuse the offensive line struggles with the struggles of Winters. The line allowed us to rush for over 200 yards against Oakland and the line played excellent for this first half of football against Green Bay. It all fell apart when Winters let his man humiliate him and nail Geno which led to an interception. I agree, this line needs to get better but let's not confuse this.
Chris Johnson is not a great back when running in between the tackles. He is a guy who thrives off perimeter runs and screen passes. Our between the lines back is Ivory which is exactly why he is top 5 in the league in ypc right now. The problem with Johnson against Green Bay was the play calling. Marty needs to dial up more perimeter runs and more screens to make Chris Johnson effective. If he plans on running him between the tackles on a consistent basis, you aren't going to get much out of him unless he breaks a hole.
They ran him up the middle all day long. We knew when we signed him that his main weakness was between the tackles. The thing that stuck out to me the most was the total lack of anything resembling a screen game. Or even much misdirection. It was an extremely vanilla use of runningbacks from the 2nd quarter on.
My bad, I thought the play-calling had mixed it up a bit. It's on MM then. It was like watching Greeneforthree all over again, only 2 yards less.
Ivory needs to be the guy the pounds the ball up the middle. Let Johnson be the outside runner catching screen passes. He's best in open space. His speed and agility are what he thrives on. Ivory is a bruiser. A lot like Marshawn Lynch. Can take hits and keep going.
It's hard to pass over offensive tackles in the first round to take guards. Usually there are some top quality tackle prospects available in the 1st round, and to pass over them for a guard he has to be pretty special. We also have great need at wide receiver (despite Decker & Kerley) and corner (Milliner is always hurt and might not be good, and the good man coverage corners are extremely expensive in free agency.) I'd prefer to see the Jets take a mediocre or better guard in free agency. It just seems like the Jets can't develop their own guards in the Rex Ryan era. A big part of that might be our preference for trying to convert 2nd and 3rd round tackles into guards. It just hasn't been working out. A natural guard in the second or third round guard? I wouldn't hate that. But stop trying to convert tackles to guards, because it's obvious that we don't have the kind of coaching staff that is capable of pulling that off.
Nice post.... The one thing that I would like to add is this, it's very difficult to establish the running game when you have your qb in the shotgun formation 90% of the time, that formation is limited with regards to the runs that can be called.
I think our offensive line as a whole isn't that bad. Mangold is playing well, and I haven't seen Brick or Gianconmini much, which means they are doing their job. Winters is the biggest problem, and we might need to try Aboushi or Dozier there sooner rather than later. Colon gets a lot of penalties, but other than that, I think he is alright. We are not going to draft a guard in the first round, that's just not done. Guards are just physically strong dudes with limited athleticism (since they are surrounded on both sides by other O-Linemen, they dont need to have the lateral movement/quickness of a tackle), so they have less value than tackles/centers. I wouldn't draft a guard before 3rd round, and like someone mentioned, it might be best to just sign a decent veteran guard for a good deal, since they usually don't command large contracts. I think the Jets drafting Brick and Mangold in the first round was one of the best moves this team has done recently. It addressed the two most valuable positions on the O-Line and set it up for (at least relative) success for a decade to come. I think that's the right way to go about it, draft Left Tackle and Center high when you need them, to set up the foundation of the O-Line, and then sign budget veterans or use lower picks for the two guard sports and right tackle.
I'm talking prospects like Jonathon Cooper, or that giant from Alabama. Still cant remember his name. I get that you can get guards in later rounds, but you can get most positions in later rounds. I am of the mindset that CB will be addressed in Free Agency, and WR and OLine will be drafted in the first and second round. Getting someone like Warford would have been awesome, but if there is a "lock" (or as close as you can get) at G, I wouldnt think twice.
Comparing the line 2011 is a misnomer. The 2011 line was very good and one of best pass protecting lines in the league in 2011. In 2011 the line gave up the 5th least amount of QB hits and 12th least amount of pressures. The problem that year was the QB. Our QB ranked dead last out of 39 QBs under pressure an also took sacks at an alarming rate of 24% of the time he was pressured. A better comparison would be the 2013 OL which was one of the worst in pass protection in the league game after game. When we foolishly did not resign Slausson and let Moore retire our OL took a huge turn for the worse. Look at the Saints game, Bengals game and many others to see how bad it was. While this years line has not improved in paper over last year I would expect them to do better. Winters will have to improve. mangold will be healthier. Hopefully Ferguson will have a bounce back year. Geno should be able to make faster decisions and find his target faster. And we do not play the of defensive fronts we played last year.
No. The OL is okay minus Winters. The Packers really loaded the box to stop the run. And we didn't respond. If Winters had been solid our pass protection would have been okay too. Geno takes longer than Ken O'Brien to get rid of the ball.
I felt like they should have used Powell more. They've talked about how they're going to play the hot hand, and Powell looked like he was having the most success. But the CJ sweeps and screens should be a cornerstone of the offense, not just Decker Decker Decker since he'll get hurt (overuse was why he had the hamstring injury.) I think once the Jets went up 21-3, the order probably came down that they had to start protecting the lead, and suddenly the O and D just weren't effective anymore. By the time they decided to start being aggressive again it was too little, too late. I hope the coaches actually learn something from this game and realize that you can't let up. When you have a big lead early in the game, IMO you have to play like you're down by 3.
I feel the same way, I would have loved to see more of Powell. Like so many declarations in front of the press by the coaching staff, I knew it was nothing but lip service.
