The negotiations will only get complicated is if it comes down to franchise tagging him. Hopefully it doesn't come down to that.
Rex values flexibility highly in his players that help him disguise what he's doing. With a player like AA who could play CB, Safety & LB, I don't see him making AA into a full-time CB. He's going to be switching positions to help the jets disguise their coverages. Also, the better fit for AA is SS, given how well he covers TEs and the better fit for pryor is FS, because that allows him to be a true enforcer and clock receivers catching deep patterns. They both have the flexibility to play either position (and I think Rex would be flipping them back and forth anyway).
I don't get what the problem is. This is a Rex Ryan Defense, people are not pegged into firm slots as far as players go. Can you tell me who our FS and SS are? For our defense it is more just a safety position rather than a designated SS and FS. Coples takes snaps at OLB, then can have his hand in the dirt at DE, then the next snap he can be split out wide at CB playing press. Wilkerson takes snaps at both the 5 gap, 3 gap, and hell sometimes he even lines up at the 0 gap as a DT. Sometimes none of our D-linemen even line up at the line, giving the "amoeba" look. Hakim, our ST ace, took snaps as a pure blitzing DB position. Hell, back in 2010 Braylon Edwards took a snaps at FS during the game against the Texans. tl;dr, as long as Rex Ryan is running the defense, it is important not to "label" players based on their roster listing. I have full confidence that Rex Ryan does not look at these people as FS's and DE's and LB's, but simply as football players. If Rex thinks AA can make the most impact playing a few snaps at CB, then lining up as a linebacker in the Big Safety package, so be it. AA does not have to spend all his time either learning a designated position, but instead he is learning how to be a piece in Rex Ryan's puzzle. In all honesty it would likely be better off that way for us when it comes to resigning him, as it's expensive to resign an good SS, FS or CB, but it is cheaper when such a player is tailored for your specific system alone.
This is what I was most impressed about all game -- no broken tackles. If teams challenge the secondary down the field who knows but if they keep plays in front of them they were really solid.
Tackling ..fundamentals... Looks like a nice approach... and 100% agree with Droppings. Said that before, in a Rex defense you can throw out what a 3-4/4-3 Safety, LB etc.. position is. Rex is not about labels.
Do not forget the '10 AFC Championship game. We couldn't tackle a twinkie. We snuff them a few more times in the 1st half and we win that game. Some people try to find things in this game that don't exist but football is only two things - blocking and tackling. -Vincent Lombardi
Good write up. Must be hard for a guy like Pryor or AA coming in, overloaded with being a rookie, trying to figure out the playbook and what he needs to do back there, only to have Rex line him up in a completely different role on the opposite side of the field. And then the next day a new role again. Rex has those rookie's heads spinning when they come into camp.
Allen clearly gives the defense great flexibility. A versatile DB can help disguise coverages and blitzes, and Rex is the right guy to take advantage of that.
sucked man. I blame Bart Scott more so than Cromartie. We already knew Cro couldnt tackle, but Bart just didn't show up.
The open field tackling was great on Sunday. Just a couple years ago, missed tackles was one of the biggest issues we had. Allen and Pryor bring a lot to the table in that department. Aaron Rodgers will be the true test. The defense was decent but they seemed to always give up the really big plays.
While Rex juggles a lot of players and often uses them in unorthodox ways, the Jets are often playing a cover 1 defense, so there is usually one deep safety and one safety closer to the line of scrimmage (often covering TEs if they're playing a team with a good receiving TE). I think you'd say the deep safety is the FS and the shallower safety is the SS. Landy has generally played the deep cover 1 safety, at least until Ed Reed joined last year, and AA has generally played the safety closer to the line of scrimmage and covered the TEs or you could say he was the SS. Rex also likes using 3 safeties, but he doesn't generally use the additional safety as most other teams would (by playing zone or a cover 3 defense), he uses the additional safety often as a blitzer, to cover for a blitzing CB or sometimes as a linebacker. AA because of his flexibility is the perfect player for Rex's 3 safety alignments. Using safeties this way is why Rex liked Eric Smith so much because he could move Smith between safety and linebacker, even though he was a very limited player. AA is a much better player who can play safety very well, can cover receivers like a CB, has the size to cover TEs like a good cover safety and can flip to linebacker as needed. While AA is a very good safety he would have nowhere near the value to someone else that he has for the jets because other teams wouldn't use him as Rex will. Consider how the patriots have played the jets recently. They've generally put in multiple receiving TEs (e.g., gronk and hernandez) and then seen how the jets respond with their personnel. If the jets went with extra DBs then they would run and if they went with their traditional 7 man front then they would split out their TEs and pass expecting that the Jets LBs wouldn't be able to cover their TEs. They drafted Davis with the hope that because of his speed he would be able to cover TEs and the jets could neutralize this type of attack. Unfortunately, while Davis has been a good ILB, he hasn't really been great at covering TEs. AA is the player the jets would use to counter this strategy now - they would go with a 3 safety set with AA acting initially as a LB and then if the TEs are split out he would become a CB or Safety covering the split-out TEs. While Millner is out, AA will be a starting CB with Pryor as SS and Landry as FS. I expect that once Millner comes back, assuming they are comfortable starting walls, that AA will flip back to strong safety, Pryor will be the FS in their base alignment (although Pryor is a really good blitzer so sometimes AA would be the deep cover safety). However, when they go to their nickel alignment, rather than bringing in wilson, they will often bring in Landry, who will move to deep cover 1 safety, Pryor will flip to SS and AA will become the nickel CB. This should result in Wilson dropping to the dime alignment, barring injury.
