One question mark about his performance is we trailed by 2-3 scores the whole time. Not all of it was garbage time, but close to garbage time. Even Fields looked better when we trailed by 3 scores.
Just watching the game live I thought we pretty much sucked in all phases Offense - I won’t bag on a third string undrafted QB being thrown into the fire without practice as QB1, so it is what it is…he had a rough day but I think the smartest play here would be for Glenn to just start him the rest of the year as the #1 and see how he does…the receivers as a whole had a bunch of drops and that’s been a problem for some time now…Metchie and Mitchell have shown flashes but it is starting to feel like this is pretty much what they are, which is why we got them for peanuts…all the speed and separation in the world won’t do shit if you can’t catch the ball consistently…they are not the only receivers to drop passes and as I’m watching all of the games on NFL+, feels like there were plenty of dropped passes around the league this week (AJ Brown had a bad one where it went through his hands and resulted in a pick), but these two guys specifically I think have to show improvement to justify coming back next year…I still think we need to draft a legit WR2 and I’d probably try and draft another WR as well if the board falls that way unless these guys show major improvement the rest of the way. The OL looked pretty sketchy as well. Just a poor performance all the way around on offense. Defense - in a word, disgusting. The lack of hustle and the so-called “tackling” was among the worst they’ve shown this year. We were hugging RBs and letting them plow on like they were allergic. It was god-awful. This continued inability to get takeaways is so strange…other teams punch the ball out, make picks…we don’t know what that means…this is an historically bad performance with only 2 takeaways all year and one was on special teams with a muffed punt so this defense only has one. An NFL record for sure is on the way…we gave up 21 points before we even got a first down, and yes, one was on a short field after a turnover by the offense but still…would be nice to see our defense actually make a stand once in a while. This game was over as soon as it was 14-0 halfway through the first quarter, but once that third TD was scored, it was kaput. The whole team just collapsed. So much for players playing hard for AG, so much for the supposed improvement in penalties…I think a lot of that mirage was just due to playing shit teams like the Browns, Bengals, and Falcons. This was a rude slap in the face back to reality. I think this roster is poor no question, but I think a HUGE problem, especially on D, is that the coaching is fucking clueless…these coaches are NOT maximizing player potential and performance. Salah did a MUCH better job of it, and that’s a sad statement. Woody won’t fire AG after this year, but it would be well deserved if he did…
Fields in general looked better early in the season, and then got worse and worse to the point he is not playable at all any longer. Cook didn't even have a practice yet with the ones nor his first NFL start. I expect he would get better. How much better, we will see, but would be good if by the end of the season he looks like an OK back-up. That's one hole plugged. And if not, nothing lost.
Sure, but I mean its kind of hard to judge when your playing a defense that has a 3 score lead. Things slow down and soften up a little.
The only point where I would slightly disagree is AD. He only had one drop upon further review, and it would have been a pretty tough catch. He was also open a decent amount and Cook missed him completely or underthrew him or threw behind him. I do agree that he is not #2 yet, but as a #3, he is a pretty good option, pending further review of course. Metchie as #4/5 is also not bad. On this regime, I like Mooge and Banjio but I do not have any confidence in Glenn or Wilks. Tanner has shown flashes, but B-/C+ level for me. I just don't buy the idea that ships take a while to turn. Looks at Liam Coen, he was a rookie coach with 1 year coordinator experience, and his DC no coordinator experience. How come they won 9 games? How come it didn't take a while for them to turn, they picked higher than us last year. And I get the point about the QB, but our defense sucks too with the former DC as a coach. Their DEFENSE is better than ours. Which brings us back to the QB. Yes, AG will stay in 2026, but we need to solve the QB problem. A good QB transcends bad regimes. Look at Maye, he is on a new regime and is doing better than ever. Same with Caleb. I want to do well next year, but if we don't make play-offs again, and say win 6 games, then what? I think AG will be gone. But if we get a good QB, he will stay. And a good QB actually could attract a better coach too. The bottom line is, #1, #2, #3 priority should be getting a good young QB.
Let’s see what happens with the Jags next year. Nice season this year. The Commanders had a nice year last year too after a quick turnaround and look like they’re going to be a mess of a franchise for the foreseeable future. They looked that way before Daniels got hurt too. I do agree with you though. Turnarounds should be quick. I think next year is really a make or break year regardless of who the QB is. We’ll infuse four top 50ish players to the roster and have a war chest available in FA. No excuses to not be in playoff contention in December next year.
I agree on the QB As to Mitchell…look, we can keep making excuses for him…well that was a bad ball, well that was a hard catch to make, well he got hit right as he caught it…whatever. I don’t care. You are an NFL receiver…catch the fucking ball more often than you drop it. If we have to keep watching and analyzing and trying to make excuses or justify that the drops “aren’t that bad”, there’s a fucking problem. Those guys won’t help us win. Not saying cut the guy, but if he plays like this the rest of the way, I would be prioritizing WR2 and WR3 much higher on my list and let him and Metchie battle for WR 5. I actually like Isaiah Williams more so far…he is a great punt returner so he has a place on this roster, but he’s shown some flashes at receiver as well
If you look at most stats sites, they gave AD either 1 drop for this game or 0 drops. So, it is not excuses, it's just fair analysis of what actually happened. And this is what you would expect from a solid WR3: sometimes you can put up a 100+ yard game, sometimes you go quiet if your QB did not play well and could not find you when you were open or get a drop. He will help us win with a better QB. Again, not saying we need to pencil him as #2, but so far I definitely see a #3, and yes, we do need to see how it goes the rest of the way. I like Williams too, but to be fair, he had a far more egregious drop than AD in the same game. I do want him back though.
Eh at some point I agree with 79. Catch the ball. It’s not always going to be easy. I’ll echo the great Keenan Allen quote here. I get when balls are thrown behind and what not, but the ball being thrown “too hard” is an excuse IMO. The first throw you referenced is definitely behind him. It’s not really a “drop” but it’s not an impossible catch as you alluded to.
How to catch that? I just looked at it again. I don't have the youtube video, but go to 2:22 left in the 1st. AD is WIDE ASS open running at speed towards Brady's left, Brady throws a bullet behind him, and AD trying to contort is just able to touch the ball with his left elbow. He couldn't even put one hand on that ball. I would like to see a WR who can catch that, but this is just a bad ball as simple as that. Nothing AD could do there. That definitely wasn't a drop and no one is catching that pass. In general the reason why it appeared there was a lot of drops is because Cook came close quite a few times. He put some balls right outside the range, where you can't really catch it, but enough to touch the ball. AND there were some actual drops too, don't take me wrong. But his 1st pass wasn't one of them. That's why I am thinking there is some potential there, where if he is just a bit more accurate on some of these throws and puts better touch, maybe he could improve. The INTs were very concerning though, both really same plays, underthrown balls on the go route in the endzone. You need to place these better if you want to give your WR at least a 50/50 shot.
I don’t know…we can analyze, we can look at the stats, all fair and good At the end of the day, I’m just watching games and the eye test is telling me we drop too many passes. I’m tired of excuses and rationalizing away. We were doing the same thing for Fields earlier in the season when I would hear excuses for him as well…bullshit like “well if you add these drops his stats would look better” or similar type stuff. But if you just watch the games, I come away saying our receivers can’t catch consistently. Sure not all their fault all the time, but at some point, you want to be a receiver you need to catch bad balls. Agree that so far Mitchel and Metchie have shown some nice flashes and made some bad drops…I have no issue playing them the rest of the way and see if they can improve, but if their play continues like this, I’d hate to rely on them next year for anything more than like WR4/WR5/WR6 type roles…they are in now way consistent enough to play at WR2, and even relying on them for WR3 to me isn’t great…we may have to, but so far, I think WR2 is one of our top needs along with QB and DE
Sorry…this just sounds like too much excuse making to me…not too different from the excuses we were making for Fields earlier in the year about how he was showing “potential” or just missing out due to drops, or whatever other excuses we had… Just catch the ball…it won’t always be perfectly dropped in your hands … and we’ve dropped way too many of those as well anyway.
Well, hopefully those in charge won't be fooled into wasting all our picks too trade up for a QB, If Moore drops to us then I would be interested enough to kick the tyres but we need all of those picks across the whole team to waste them trading up.
Eh dude there are a lot of plays every week that guys make that are harder to make than a 12 yard crosser that gets on him really fast and is thrown to the back hip. I’m not killing him for it but again, it wasn’t an impossible play as you are insinuating. I’ll look and see if I can find similar plays but I just did a real quick search and “shitty thrown crossing catches” aren’t at the top of the YouTube algorithm lol.
This has nothing to do with Fields though. When Fields had good moments, I commented on that, and when he sucked I did the same. It was not all bad early, and It took me 5-6 starts to complete evaluation, which was not unreasonable. I like to give people a chance before I conclude they suck For AD the evaluation is not yet completed. The pass in question was rifled behind him and he only got elbow on it. Every statistical outlet shows either 0 or 1 drop, which is the same conclusion I came to before I knew that (1 drop). There were much more egregious drops in this game and AD had one game where he actually legitimately dropped 3 balls. They have the statistic for this exact reason, which matched my eye test upon close review. I am not saying he had a good game, just not as terrible as it initially looked. It will be a different story if he continues dropping and playing poorly, like Fields did, but I don't think we are there yet, and he may not end up there hopefully.
There is still small sample size, and QB play was not great even without Fields. Just because Fields failed doesn't mean every young guy who is going through up and downs will fail also. Although they probably will, since we are the Jets. AD just turned 23, and I just think there is something there that requires more evaluation. He did have 100 yard game before. I still think he might become WR3. Let's see what he does from here on out. But another thing is, it is very clear how critical a QB is to everything we do. Easier balls are also good for confidence, good to get into the rhythm. If most balls you are dealing with require acrobatic powers to have any shot of catching them, it's not amazing either. Which is also why I am more critical of Metchie than of AD. We need to get QB right. I believe other things will work out as largely the framework is in place.
Without a QB, we are not going anywhere. We do not have Shanahan. Heck we probably do not even have Bob/MILF combo. No one is saying to trade ALL the picks. But we have to get a good QB even if it costs some decent capital. And if we have to trade SOME picks to get someone we believe in, we have to do it. As long as the QB is good even if AG fails, new regime can fix things. This happened in NE, Chicago, even Jax. You get a solid QB, you have a shot if not with AG, with someone else possibly in the future. We have framework in place, but without a QB we will be fucked again and again and again for years to come. Every year we get a high pick and then what? We need a QB and don't fuck it up like with Sam when we get one. IF we get one.
We traded 3 second round picks to get Sam, and then never had the firepower to build around him. Where we are right now in our rebuild you don't trade up - you trade down if possible and keep ammo'ing up. You don't trade picks for players in year 1, either in the draft or FA. You don't use valuable picks on a hunch, like Zach WIlson, etc. This offseason is all about maximizing our resources fr the future.
