kickoffs, kick return, and kick block teams are all definitely being phased out unfortunately, so i agree to an extent. you still need a good place kicker, good punting/coverage, and a good punt returner tho.. i'm not too confident we have that.
Quigley is awful. I'm not sure if I'm the only one who as noticed. His net average is good because sometimes his shanks get a good roll. He's one of the worst punters I've seen IMO. I can't believe we haven't brought in any sort of competition for him. His bad punts can really swing the momentum in the game. When we're punting from our 40 and they get the ball on their own 40 I cringe. A huge confidence booster for an offense. I miss Ben Graham. He wasn't consistent but yoh knew the 6'4" Aussie had 60 yard boomers in him from time to time.
I would disagree with that statement almost universally across the board: 1) Regarding kickoffs, in an era where there are a ton of touchbacks, being a team that doesnt have a kicker capable of consistently getting touchbacks and forcing the opponent to go 80 yards puts you at a pretty big disafvantage. The jets were 31st in the NFL last year in touchbacks (https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/kickoff-touchback-pct) at 28.38%. meaning we were rarely forcing opponents to go 80 yards and putting a bigger emphasis on kickoff coverage. If we were at the top, in the 60-70% range we would have a pretty sizeable field position advantage to go with a stout defense. we dont. 2) Elite punt returners arent easy to come by... that doesnt mean you dont need them if you are subscribing to the formula of defense+rungame + game manager to win games. you need your special teams to create field position and offense. likewise, your coverage needs to be there as well. you cant look at any defense+run+game manager team and not point to several enormous plays special teasm made to get them where they got. and thats not just regular season. ravens got multipel special teasm scores when they won it all. bears got multiple hester scores and big plays in the playoffs and even to start the superbowl. jets got kick returns from brad smith and a long kick return from cromartie to set up the GW vs. the colts. its not a small thing. its enormous. You arent winning on the back of your defense and run game without good to elite special teams. especially today when even the best defense are going to give up yards/scores at times.
No doubt we suck at touchbacks..why have we done nothing about it? Do the Jets really think we have a better chance stopping the returner inside the 20 than we do just letting them start there?
we could really use two things on specials: 1) a big leg Punter who can double down on kickoff duties 2) a dynamic Punt Returner, where teams will sacrifice field just to avoid them. there was a big difference even having Cribbs back there. i doubt we find #1 unfortunately, as guys like that typically don't get cut. for point 2, keep an eye on Arenas. i like him more than just picking up a return specialist (who typically are available after cuts), as Arenas knows the D and can play FS or CB in a pinch.
Vilma was dead on about how special teams is becoming less and less important because it is. By the way, touchbacks are meaningless. I could care less about Folk not being able to get touchbacks consistently as long as he's not missing FGs and taking points off the board. At 82% he's good there. Touchback stats only are meaningless in a sense that you get some flawed statistics.... some teams kick off way more than others, some like our Jets kick off way less , situationally teams will pooch, onside kick, etc.. some teams play in fancy domes vs. the elements, etc. it becomes an especially flawed statistic when you focus on the (percentage)of those kickoffs that become touchbacks. you get huge discrepancies in the data like the 60-70% vs. the 28.3% range in your list. It doesn't begin to tell the story. Its something you hassle your kicker about in practice but its not at all relevant big picture. What is really the story is the opponents average starting field position Line of Scrimmage (LOS) drive start. The Jets, undoubtedly affected by both kickoffs & punts but probably more so by Geno Smith giving the ball to the other team anywhere on the field were 25th in the league with opponents on average starting field position at the 28.67 yard line. http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/drivestats if you really want to see how virtually unimportant touchbacks are that statistic tells it all. The difference between the team with the very worst opponents starting field position (chicago at the 32.47 yard line) and the team with the very best (seattle at the 25.25) yard line is just barely over 7 yards. So even if you have the league's greatest touchback specialist or the league's worst... over the course of the season we are talking about that making up only a percentage of what amounts to 7 yards difference in field position. ---- special teams obviously has some value but theres a large gap in the value between offense and defense and special teams. a large, large gap. and the NFL in recent years has made that gap larger. too many teams suffer from overvaluing it at the expense of the other positions. Having a dynamic punt returner here would be great but I wouldn't pay too much money for that. I read where Rex Ryan in Buffalo is seriously considering giving up a roster spot for example for a "kickoff specialist" you got to have the most back ass-wards, out of date thinking to consider that as even an option! especially in today's NFL. as long as your special teams is at least average - its effective and unimportant. These Jets have strengths and weaknesses there on specials but overall its pretty average and that's fine because they aren't paying more than average money for it. And I strongly, STRONGLY disagree that you aren't winning without good to elite special teams. hell teams win just as much with poor special teams in this league which goes to show how unimportant it is. facets of the game in order of importance IMO: offense defense (gap) turnovers/penalties (large gap) special teams
Lol... how can yall say ANYBODY is better than a 24 YEAR OLD QB that has all the tools to be a GOOD QB in this league going into only his THIRD season in which his camp performances have been almost flawless and finally having an actual decent NFL caliber offense for once and a brand new coaching staff with a BEAST in Brandon Marshall that PREFERS Geno throw the ball??? Like how does that not excite you as a Jet fan ?? Oh and to add to that, Geno killed it in december 2014... seriously.. how does that not make you want to give the kid one last chance? He's showing progression and he's still very young with upside.. but we're going to try our hardest to believe that this wooly face 7th round pick from Harvard is going to answer our problems? As if we haven't destroyed this man in buffalo for years!! lol OKAY!!!.. I really think Geno should be our QB for 1 or 2 more years with Fitz as the back up until Bryce Petty is ready to go.. I don't think Geno will ever be GREAT but i do think he can be good.. i think Petty can be GREAT and not even being a homer i thought that way before draft day.. big fan of BRyce
When you say he has "all the tools" you realize he may be lacking the most important tool of all, right? _
No not really. I think there is a learning curve but some QBs have a high football IQ and some do not and I don't think it's something you learn. I saw Winston do things last night I've never seen Geno do. Teddy's football IQ is on a different chart than Geno's. I just don't think he's a smart guy and no amount of arm talent and athleticism and dumbed down schemes is ever going to make him an elite QB. And that's what I want. A guy who consistently wins games for us, not a guy "we can win with". I think Petty has a high football IQ. and all the rest of the stuff. _
Would you agree Geno' s style of play was a mismatch with the west coast offenses we've been running the last few years? Because i sure as hell think he was used terribly wrong. Not even trying to make excuses for Geno, when we drafted him I didn't really get how we would use him and it just turns out it didn't work. But now we have a system where it's alot more similar to what he did back at WVU, and a lot like what Bryce was doing at Baylor. I don't think it's a coincidence that Geno had this miraculous performance in TC, i think he's met his match in an Offensive coordinator. I do agree on the petty part though, and since he's the new regime's QB it's almost a definite that he'll be starting in a year or 2
Geno's entire career at WVU was a mirage. We don't have anyone that he can do shovel passes to that will take them 80 yards for TDs. _
come on he did terrific in WVU our defense just sucked lol. I'll say this though, people knocked his leadership skills and work ethic after he left but when he was there they praised it lol. Seems like he's still having the same issues here.
The only time you can believe what someone says about someone is after they are gone. It's hard to be truthfully critical when the dude is right there. _
Btw I didn't say he wasn't terrific when he was there. I just didn't see a smart QB. Ryan Nassib was terrific for us but I don't want him QBing my NFL team. _
I've come to the conclusion that Geno isn't going to be our franchise QB, esp. after the IK thing, but i do think he deserves one more season, one more fair shot. Maybe that's just me. I'm just not ok with giving up on QB's prematurely, bad enough we threw the kid in the fire prematurely and in NY, that's just a set up for disaster. I just don't want to be the next Browns with a new QB every damn year for the next 15 years
Here's the thing. The general principle you refer to of "not giving up on QB' prematurely" implies that what is or is not premature has something to do with some number of seasons of general application. As in you NEVER give up on one until three or more - how many more? - seasons have gone by. That's not the way it should work. It should depend on what the prospect has or has not shown along the way that determines when it is no longer premature to make a decision In Smith's case we have already seen enough negative and too little that is positive to come to a conclusion that he is likely, or more accurately likely enough, to become a successful NFL Qb. We have instead good reason to think he is not likely to do that. I would in fact say the chances of eventual success are minimal. So for him, two seasons and this off season are more than enough to reach a conclusion, and that is he is not going to make it.
It has been a while since we had three different QBs on our roster that you could make a strong case for as a starter with the ability to get us a win in week 16.
