Ever since the Rodgers trade, which JD obviously lost big time, our trusted GM has done some very questionable things. Almost like he has been trying to sabotage the roster so the Jets have the least chance of winning. Four years later, and still no competent QB and and OL which plays like a clueless JV squad. Don't know what the deal is with Saleh, but he just sits there and puts up with these idiotic decisions from the Front Office. Jet fans: getting punked for 50 years and counting.
For all the optimism and all the hype, this team still looks like it will need luck to finish with eight or nine wins this year. For all the excitement over last year's draft (and I include myself in the number of people getting excited), this still look like a .500 (at best) team. The league has been transitioning to favour the offense for as long as I have been following the game, and yet we keep on putting the bulk of our resources into the defense. Quarterback and offensive line are the two most important parts of a football team in the modern game and we are bottom of the barrel in both areas. That HAS to reflect on JD now, after so long at the helm. We looked like a bad team on Sunday. The Monday before we looked like half a team. It's just not good enough.
AVT was a better tackle than any tackle we currently employ. The coaches can act all they want but the players suck, and that falls right on JD’s lap. This OL has declined from atrocious with the excuse of injuries to just plain atrocious with no excuse at all. JD has literally found a way to take over what was already one of the worst OL’s in NYJ history and somehow make it even worse.
There is no way you can claim to have a profession quality offensive line when two of your starters are Duane Brown and Mekhi Becton. This wasn't a bill of good. This was all-out delusion.
I’ve seen a lot of people suggest they just move Vera-Tucker to tackle and maybe you guys are right but IMO all it would mean is that the guard position sucks now. I also think Vera-Tucker is better as a guard than as a tackle, so you’d be trading a good guard for an average tackle by moving him. Is an average tackle- bad guard situation any better than bad tackle-good guard situation (which we have now) idk.. I’m so pissed at Joe Douglas for putting us in this spot
I think the idea, at least as I've seen it presented, would be that they could only do this if/when Tippman is ready to take over at either center or guard, so that either he or McGovern could fill a guard spot and AVT then takes over at tackle. If that were the case, it's obviously not an ideal situation by any stretch, but in theory it could make for an o-line that is more or less average to slightly less than average across the board rather than have one strong side (the right side, currently) and one side that's an absolute dumpster fire.
Tackles get QB’s killed. Duane Brown is straight up incapable right now. You roll an old, out of breath, terribly underperforming guy out there who put no work into the off-season due to his age and injuries while telling other players that hey have to work to earn their spots…. It sends a terrible message and will divide a locker room in no time. No respectable HC can possibly look at the tape of a guy that was literally the worst ranked OT in the last game and one of the worst in the first game and allow him to walk out as a starter again. Duane Brown was straight up gasping for breath between plays. Our offense was barely on the field and he’s literally acting like he just ran 40 flights of stairs. How does anyone employed in football see that and continue to allow him on the field?
The right side is not strong. Becton is a disaster over there. While Brown was the undisputed worst OT in the league so far, Becton has been right there with him in the bottom 5. All we have is one strong player in AVT, and frankly even he’s struggled this year which is understandable given the clown car cast of clowns he’s lining up with thanks to JD.
The Jets need to move all the weakness of the OL to one side, and have Zach Wilson roll out in the opposite direction. This is not smart football, but it sadly is the best option available.
It's been "strong" (definitely not the right word to use, you're right) by comparison to the absolute dumpster fire that Brown and the rest of the left side as been. We can at least gain yards to the right side, whereas the left just seems to be a black hole that nothing can escape.
I think the thing people get confused about is how much Johnson has meddled with the roster at this point. At the mid-end of the season when Mike White had pretty much won over the team, Johnson forced coaches to support Zach in spite of the fact he wasn't ready and it was clear the team didn't respect him. In the off-season, the team (coaches, players) wanted anyone else but Johnson refused to get a decent normal QB and instead wanted AR.AR is the downside of his career and was injured the year before. A good QB and one of the best, but when we didn't trade for Oline and we didn't draft any, it should have been clear to everyone that using Wilson as the backup meant he most assuredly was going to play again this year. Jets fans got bamboozled by the dumbest owner in the NFL. The Jets would be at the top of the division and still playoff bound had we signed Carr in his prime. This is not even close to a question, Johnson does not understand football. If you understand that, you understand how Johnson has sabotaged the team so he can look cool. If he stayed the hell out of the team's decision you would not be so confused by what the GM and Coach are doing. What they are doing is keeping their jobs by making the moron happy. Johnson after all these years, is no closer to understanding football culture than a hair-spray influencer.
Becton is a physically strong run blocker. His issues are with the pass rush. AVT is a good all around linemen. With our best blocking tight end we should be effective running to the right side. If Zach can develop chemistry with his receivers he needs to get better at throwing accurate short passes to keep defenses honest. Just make the easy look easy. With our defense that should be enough to compete.
It's safe to say things haven't gone as planned for the OL during JD's tenure. However, I have a hard time crucifying him for it. Since he took over, we've drafted 6 OL (Becton, Clark, AVT, Mitchell, Tippman, and Warren) and he's totally replaced everyone else with FAs (Fant, McGovern, Moses, Tomlinson, and Brown). Injuries have wreaked havoc on us for the last few years with Becton, Clark, AVT, Fant, and Brown all having differing injuries. These names have or have not worked out for us to varying degrees over that time. I guess what I'm trying to say is I give him credit for trying but ultimately that doesn't mean a whole lot. Which makes it all the more frustrating to see the rest of the roster be solid to very good. AVT, MC, MC2, Pinnock, Echols, Sauce, GW, JJ, Breece, Ruckert, Clemons have all been great picks by JD based on where they were drafted. DJ Reed, Whitehead, Kwon, Conklin, Rankins, Hardee, even Fant, Moses, and McGovern have all been good FA additions for their price points. I know a lot of people are crushing him for the OL and rightfully so, it's a shame it's in the state it's in considering the roster we have around it but I would caution people to not go overboard with it. We're talking about the same GM that drafted the OROY and DROY last year and you can call that luck if you want or say, "anyone would've draft Sauce and GW!!" which is just patently false. If that were the case, Houston would've drafted Sauce at 3 over Stingley and Atlanta would've drafted GW at 8 over London last year. No team will ever be perfect so I'm willing to see what he does over the next few months and into this offseason to improve the OL. If this OL continues to look as bad as it has the first 2 weeks, I wouldn't be surprised to see him make a move for an OT at the trade deadline.
Excellent post! For someone to claim that JD hasn't done anything to fix the OL is patently untrue. Due to injuries, it hasn't worked out, but as you pointed out so well, he has made a lot of moves to upgrade/fix the OL. He found great players at other positions in different rounds, why have few of the OL worked out? It's puzzling and odd. Ozzie Smith had problems finding a QB, and JD has had problems finding OL. Hopefully, the OL gels soon or JD will be able to swing a deal for one at the trade deadline.
Zach benched himself, if it wasn't for his dumb comments at the end of the Ne game he would of never been benched, as you see the whole organization fails to admit they made a mistake with Zach and still think he he will become the next Tom Brady or his idol Aaron Rodgers. They are great talent evaluators so gotta trust them what do us fans know?
For Johnson, Rodgers was a marketing coup, but where did you get the idea that Johnson had anything at all to do with removing White to support Wilson last year? And, more important, why?
