FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 Jets Confidential 3 The Jets hired Adam Gase as theirhead coach, and there is so much toget into about him — his QB acumen,his fruitful offensive mind, what happened
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2018 was a great prediction year with
several correct draft picks including many
late round picks.
Mail date early April
Trang 3round picks — which is what Jameswas in 2014 — aren’t safe with Gase.
Gase was asked about what pened after the game Hedidn’t offer a canned re-sponse like, “We wanted tolook at other guys.” He told
hap-it like hap-it was
“We pulled him out,”
Gase said after Miami’s
30-24 victory over Cleveland
In October 2017, Gaseshocked many when hetraded talented running back Jay Ajayi
to Philadelphia Why? Because Ajayirefused to spend the necessary time toget the playbook down He was miss-ing holes and assignments
“At the end of the day, guys havegot to actually take this stuff home andstudy it,” Gase said “They’re not going
to just learn it all in meetings We’vegot to find guys that will actually putforth effort to actually remember thisstuff and really, it starts with our bestplayers.”
He also cut ties with Ajayi for beingmore concerned with his workloadthan winning
“(Ajayi) complained bitterly about
not getting the football,” wrote Miami
Herald columnist Armando Salguero.
“He stormed out of the locker room —get this, after wins — because hehadn’t gotten what he deemed to beenough carries.”
So Gase sent him packing
Same with former second-roundpick, Jordan Phillips, a defensive tacklewho was cut in early October last sea-son after complaining about his roleand getting his playing time cut
“DT Jordan Phillps apparently nothappy to leave field before that play
Threw helmet angrily on ground onsideline and sat on bench after briefexchange with a coach,” tweeted Chris
Perkins, formerly of the Sun-Sentinel,
during a Patriots blowout win overMiami
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 Jets Confidential 3
The Jets hired Adam Gase as theirhead coach, and there is so much toget into about him — his QB acumen,his fruitful offensive mind,
what happened in Miami,his eyes, the list goes on
But I don’t want to getinto any of that I want tofocus on one thing, and onething only: Accountability
To paraphrase that linefrom Jerry Maguire, “Gasehad me at accountability.”
For eight years I’ve been railingcoaches for refusing to pull strugglingplayers
Former Jet Trevor Pryce called hiscoach Rex Ryan “loyal to the point ofdefiance” for sticking with guys toolong
And we could apply that to thecoach who followed
And also to the GM keeping performing draft picks, but to hiscredit, he has started to move awayfrom this
under-For eight years I’ve been ripping myhair out asking the question to any-body who would listen: “Why not justkeep the best 53 players and start thebest 22 at all times?”
Anything else is foreign to me
And to Adam Gase
Gase doesn’t walk around withanointing oil, so maybe I can finallytake off my tin-foil hat
Look, I have no idea if Gase will besuccessful as the Jets’ coach I don’thave a crystal ball like some radiohosts, but I do know one thing: He’snot a afraid to pull or cut anybodyhurting his team
This guy believes that if a playerisn’t getting the job done, he’s notgoing to play
Just look at his history
In September 2016 during a Cleveland game, Dolphins right tackleJu’Wuan James was benched aftercausing two hits on the QB Even first-
Miami-Gase was asked why Phillips’ ing time was cut
play-“There’s a reason why we’re doingthat,” Gase said “There’s a reasonwhy we’re subbing the way we’re sub-bing against that team It’s not a secretwhy we’re doing it Whatever (defen-sive line coach) Kris Kocurek wantsthe D-linemen to do, that’s what we’redoing.”
In March 2018, Gase traded widereceiver Jarvis Landry to Cleveland,which shocked a lot of people, but hehad his reasons
“They see a player who doesn’tpay attention to details,” wroteSalguero “They see a player whosometimes runs the right routes andsometimes doesn’t They see a playerwho sometimes inspires with hisemotions, but sometimes loses con-trol and hurts his team They see aplayer who doesn’t lead in the lockerroom although he’s in a great position
to do so They see a player whodoesn’t seem to respect his coachesbecause he often ignores what theyask.”
In October 2016, Gase also cutthree linemen after a stretch of gamesfeaturing terrible offensive line play.You get the idea
The days of players keeping theirjobs regardless of performance areover in Florham Park
Past coaches talked about countability — they all do
ac-But Gase actually follows through
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Trang 4The McCarthy Mystery
Some people thought former Green Bay
Packers coach Mike McCarthy was the
slam-dunk candidate to become the Jets’ next head
coach
Obviously it didn’t happen
CBS NFL Insider Jason La Canfora
an-nounced that the Jets and McCarthy butted
heads over his staff Considering this
informa-tion came out a few days after he lost out to
Adam Gase for the job, we have to wonder if
this was an attempt at spin control by his
pow-erful agency looking toward the coach’s future
On Jan 8, ESPN’s Adam Schefter
an-nounced, “Former Packers head coach Mike
McCarthy doesn’t want to be considered, and
isn’t pursuing, any other head coaching vacancy
other than the New York Jets, per source.”
A day after this announcement, Schefter,
NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport and ESPN’s Jeff
Dar-lington announced that the Jets would hire
Gase as their new head coach
Losing out to Gase for this job had to be a
little bit of a comeuppance for McCarthy It
cer-tainly wasn’t a good look for the veteran coach
that he lost out to Gase, and we aren’t insulting
the new Jets coach, but just dealing with the
re-ality of the perception
McCarthy finished his tenure in Green Bay
with a 125-77-2 record in the regular season
The Packers won the Super Bowl with him at
the helm in the 2010 season, and made the
playoffs nine times (10-8 record) in his 13 years
with the team
Gase was the Miami Dolphins’ coach for
three years and finished with a 23–25
regular-season record and went 0-1 in the playoffs
It was a no-brainer the Jets needed to hire a
coach this time around with head-coaching
ex-perience after firing four straight head coaches
who came to them as first-time head coaches
They got a man with head-coaching
experi-ence in Gase, but many thought the Jets would
go with McCarthy, who had a lot more
experi-ence and the much more impressive résumé
So why Gase over McCarthy? A few reasons
First, we just mentioned that résumé, but
some will claim that résumé was embellished
by having one of the greatest quarterbacks of
all time, Aaron Rodgers, at his disposal in
Green Bay
As one long-time NFL observer once put it,
“An elite QB is like a strong deodorant, it can
cover up other parts of the team that stink.”
Furthermore, an anecdote that came outabout McCarthy during the Jets’ coaching searchhurt the coach’s reputation a tad
It was a somewhat shocking revelation thatRodgers changed McCarthy’s play calls in thehuddle this season This came from Packerstight end Marcedes Lewis in an interview withYahoo! Sports
“We were in the huddle,” Lewis said “I guessMcCarthy called in a play, and Aaron was kind
of like, ‘Nah.’ He gave a direction and a tion to the line, and went It was a four-minuteoffense, he threw a 40-yard bomb for a comple-tion I’m like, ‘What’s really going on?’ I’ve neverseen anything like that before in my life.”
protec-Neither have we It’s one thing to audible atthe line based on the defensive formation, but
to change plays in the huddle is incredibly respectful That reflects poorly on the coach,and gives the appearance he wasn’t in control ofhis team
dis-Another fact that hurt McCarthy’s chanceswith the Jets was the perception in some quar-ters, in an era of new-wave young offensive in-novators such as Sean McVay, McCarthy wasrunning a dinosaur offense
“They are still running the 1997 Brett FavreWest Coast offense,” Bleacher Report analystChris Simms said recently on “The Peter KingPodcast,” adding that Green Bay’s offense underMcCarthy was “as basic as it gets.”
Simms said opposing coaches in Green Bay’sdivision “know that offense just as good as MikeMcCarthy and Aaron Rodgers.”
The offense the Jets ran in 2018, under remy Bates, seemed to be an old-school WestCoast offense that also seemed a tad predictable
ag-Something else that hurt McCarthy was thatthe Cleveland Browns, also looking for a headcoach, weren’t interested in him Many assumedthat Cleveland would be all over McCarthy be-cause Browns GM John Dorsey worked withthe former Packers coach for six years in GreenBay, where Dorsey was a personnel executive
McCarthy didn’t even get an interview in land
Cleve-We aren’t looking to cast aspersions on Carthy, who will likely get a head-coaching jobnext year after sitting out 2019 and collectingthe final $9 million on his Packers contract.We’re just trying to get into the weeds on whythe Jets took a pass
Mc-Hey, nobody knows how Gase will turn outfor the Jets, but clearly McCarthy wasn’t thelay-up candidate some assumed
QB CONTROVERSY?
There is speculation that Aaron Rodgerscould have played a role in his formerhead coach not getting the job in New York
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PAPR-NJ19
Trang 6On Jan 15, the Jets held a press conference in
Florham Park introducing new head coach Adam
Gase Here are questions Gase was asked by the
assembled reporters followed by his responses:
Brian Costello, WFAN: Adam, just curious,
what lessons do you feel you learned from your
time in Miami that you will apply now in your
second crack at being a head coach?
Gase: Over three years, you’re going to have
mistakes that you make You start creating
men-tal notes and a list from year to year
It really started in the first part of this
process, putting a coaching staff together First
thing I learned the first go-around is don’t get
impatient You don’t have to rush into that and
get this guy hired Go through your process If
you have to interview guys, you have to
inter-view guys
That is just a start of many things I learned
in that first go-around It’s a long list
Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post:
Congrat-ulations, obviously a big reason you were
brought here was the quarterback, Sam
Darnold I’m just kind of wondering, what have
you seen in him in the short period of time
you’ve had to scout him?
Gase: The majority of the things I’ve already
looked at have been his pro tape, and obviously
(in Miami) preparing for him for two games was
kind of a jump start for me
He was one of the guys we thought was
going to be way gone before we picked (in
Miami) We focused on some other guys who
could possibly fall to us at 11 The last few days
I’ve been hammering out as much tape as I
could on him, seeing the things he can do really
well and some of the things we can possibly
work on
It’s going to start with him That is an
obvi-ous statement I’m excited because this is reallythe first time I’ve been able to get with a guy thisyoung (21), at this stage of his career We aregoing into Year Two, and he’s hungry for knowl-edge, and he wants to be coached When youhave a player who has the physical traits, it’s anexciting thing for me to go through
Daryl Slater, Newark Star-Ledger: When you
look at this Jets team, one of the issues has beentheir inability to finish games What are yougoing to do to fix that?
Gase: Over the last three years, it was thing we took a lot of pride in, being 20-6 in one-score games That was something that group took
some-a lot of pride in, some-and it stsome-arted in prsome-actice some-and ourpreparation really developing the mindset thatwhen we got to that fourth quarter, and we are in
a tight game, we are going to come out on top
It’s that mental focus, putting in the work andmaking sure everyone is on the same page,whether you need that (defensive) stop or thattwo-minute drive, you are able to accomplishthat, but it all starts with the preparation
Rich Cimini, ESPN.com: In Miami, you hadcontrol of the 53-man roster, which you won’thave here Why would you agree to the setup theway it is here, and how might that impact yourcoaching?
Gase: I was good I don’t even think I asked
That was not something I was really interested
in This is just kind of how it worked out inMiami That was something that was really of-fered up, and this is the way we should go Iknew coming in here it was going to be a teameffort
My part is to coach the team and do what Ican to help bring in good players, and when myopinion is asked, give my opinion That is whatyou are looking for, that kind of collaboration
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: Now that
you are the head coach, what is your top ority?
pri-Gase: Putting a coaching staff together That
is where we have to start We can’t skip stepsand start evaluating the roster before we evenhave coaches here It’s going to be our No 1priority, getting coordinators and working ourway down after that Once we get that accom-plished, we will be able to do our (player) eval-uations, and we move into free agency
MEET THE NEW BOSS
Former Miami Dolphins coach Adam Gasewas introduced as the new coach of the Jets
division appealing to Gase
WITH ADAM GASE QUESTION SESSION
Trang 7Tina Cervasio, Channel 5 (NY): What made
the Jets the right landing spot for you?
Gase: The No 1 thing for me was a young
quarterback I also think the knowledge of
play-ing these guys over the last three years That was
interesting for me to stay in the division where
you know your opponents right out the gate
(I’ve) been with one of the other teams you will
end up playing
I have had a chance to work with older
quar-terbacks late in their career, but not somebody
fresh out of the draft who does have a year
ex-perience I was excited to get that opportunity
Bruce Beck, Channel 4 (NY): Why do you
think you can succeed here where others have
failed with the Jets?
Gase: Really, at the end of the day, it’s going
to be about our staff’s work ethic, the
collabora-tion we are going to have with the front office,
that gives you the best opportunity to have
suc-cess, and really on Sunday it’s all about wins and
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 Jets Confidential 7
losses The preparation that leads up to thatwhich will be key for us
Costello: Adam, you were just talking aboutknowing this division and how that appealed toyou There is a team that has dominated this di-vision for a long time in the Patriots, and youhave been trying for the last three years to topplethem How do you do it?
Gase: It’s going to start with putting a goodcoaching staff together It’s a 16-game schedule
We have to do a good job putting this thing gether where we give ourselves a chance to winthe division You win the division and that getsyou in the tournament After that, it’s the teamthat wants it most
to-Obviously, (the Patriots) have had able success There is good reason why I wentagainst those guys the last three years It’s a chal-lenge; if you are in coaching you want that, as aplayer you want that It’s about preparing the rightway so when we play them or anybody else wegive ourselves the best chance to win
unbeliev-Andy Vaszquez, Bergen Record: Why
wasn’t your offense as successful as you wanted
in Miami, and what can you do to make it ferent here?
dif-Gase: Trust me, I’ve looked at that a lot self When you look at rankings, a big focus ofours was our turnover margin We knew wehad to play a certain way We lost some of ourkey pieces, and we knew we would have to find
my-a certmy-ain wmy-ay to win We smy-acrificed stmy-atistics totry and get wins And that is what we did
We made sure we had great ball security andgetting turnovers on the other end We wereable to do that and stay in games and makeplays at the end of the game that put ourselves
in position with three games left, where wewere still alive in the playoff hunt We justcouldn’t finish it out That is my best answerfor that
I wish it was top 10, top five (offense inMiami) I think we have a different set of play-ers here, and hopefully we can be in that upperechelon of offenses
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Trang 8Q: What are your overall thoughts on your
rookie season?
A: I thought in the beginning of the year, I
took a while to get comfortable Then once I got
comfortable in the offense, I felt very confident
when I was out there Again, just going to keep
growing and keep trying to make those strides
and watch the tape See how I can get better and
move forward from there
Q: What are your thoughts on the season the
team had?
A: As a team I thought we battled, we fought
hard Obviously not the record you want
com-ing out of the season, but I just thought we gave
the effort that we were looking for I feel like we
were just a few plays away from being 8-8 or
maybe having a winning record It’s just little
things that you look at throughout the year, and
little details that we wish we could’ve been
bet-ter at We’ll learn from it and grow from it
Q: Will having to learn a new offense slow
you down a little?
A: I think anytime you make a coaching
change and anytime new coaches come in on
the offensive side of the ball there is always
going to be a learning process
Q: What do you guys need to do to take the
next step?
A: We just got to fix some details here and
there with some of the games, in terms of the
losses You look at the Texans loss, the Titans
loss, Green Bay loss, those games right there
we’re one or two plays away from winning those
games We just got to look ourselves in the
mir-ror as players and figure out what we can
im-prove, and do that in the offseason and come
here ready to work for whoever is leading us
Q: What area do you think you improved the
most from college?
A: I thought I did a better job with the
turnovers this year Threw some picks, but
(I’m) doing a lot better in the pocket in terms
of keeping two hands on the football And thenjust going about reading the defense and figur-ing out what the defense is doing pre-snap ver-sus post-snap All those little things, I feel likeI’m just getting a lot more comfortable outthere
Q: What did you think of Jamal Adams’
com-ments after the season about the team needingmore talent?
A: I’m just going to control what I can I’m
just going to continue to work hard, continue
to push these guys in the locker room and justtry to create the best atmosphere, best team that
we can as players, and we’re just going to tinue to push each other in the ways that we do
con-Q: Do you guys feel if the team performed
better Coach Bowles would still be coaching?
A: I don’t think about it like that For me I’m
just very, very confident in the fact that I put mybest foot forward, and every single day I came
in here ready to work I think a lot of the guys
in this locker room could say the same thing,and we did the best that we could every singleSunday to win games
Q: How tough is it to have a coaching change
after your rookie season?
A: It’s not a good feeling It’s not something
you want to deal with when you come in hereand coaches are packing up, you’ve got to saybye to your first-year coaches So it’s not a goodfeeling, but at the same time it is what it is, andwe’re just going to continue to move forward in-dividually as players, as a team, as an offense
Defense is going to do the same thing — how
we can improve from here
Q: Do you hope the next head coach will be
your last?
A: Yeah, that’s always the goal You always
want someone to come in here and provide bility, and hopefully we can win a lot of gamestogether That’s always the goal
sta-Q: What got better for you from a technical
standpoint after watching Josh McCown startthree games?
A: I think just settling my feet down I think
that was a big thing Just calming my feet downand understanding where my checkdowns are,understanding what coverages that I can get theball down to the back, what coverages I can ex-pose the defense and possibly hit a receiverdown the field I think that’s really how I’vegrown the most, and I’m just going to continue
to try to do that and continue to grow with that
Q: How did you enjoy Christmas in New
York City?
A: It was awesome The crowd was
some-thing different that I haven’t experienced before
I got to get out Christmas Eve and go to the citywith my family, which was awesome It was re-ally good, really fun
‘We need to look in the mirror’
Trang 10Jets need to load up
on instinctive corners
Memo to Jets GM Mike Maccagnan and his
right-hand man, Jets VP of player personnel
Brian Heimerdinger: It’s time to load up on
cornerbacks with great instincts and
route-recognition
The last couple of years the Jets have been
victimized by too many blown coverages
This needs to end How can a team
consis-tently win in a pass-happy league with myriad
blown coverages over the course of a season?
Look, cornerbacks are going to get beat The
rules are set up to favor the receivers We
un-derstand that
And let’s be clear, when we say “blown
cov-erages” we aren’t talking about every play on
which a receiver beats a defensive back for a
catch That would be unfair We aren’t talking
about situations when a defensive back is in
tight coverage and the receiver comes down
with the ball — like on the first series of the
Houston Texans game when DeAndre
Hop-kins (who didn’t have a drop the entire season)
made an amazing 18-yard catch down the right
seam with cornerback Trumaine Johnson in
terrific position Same with the game-winning
14-yard TD when cornerback Mo Claiborne
had solid coverage on the left side of the end
zone, but Hopkins made an insane catch
These plays are going to happen, and aren’t
“blown coverages.”
So what are we talking about? Just pop in
the tape of the second Jets-Patriots game, and
watch Julian Edelman’s 5-yard touchdown
catch at the end of the game Or Jake
Kumerow’s 49-yard TD down the right sideline
in the second quarter of the Packers-Jets game
These players were uncovered These are
blown coverages
We aren’t excusing the Kumerow TD, but
sometimes when a team throws to an obscure
player it catches defenders off guard But how
is Edelman, who is Tom Brady’s favorite target,
left uncovered in the end zone? That is
uncon-scionable
If the Jets want to take their program to the
next level, the blown coverages in their
sec-ondary need to stop
It’s time for Maccagnan and Heimerdinger
to load up on cornerbacks with top-shelf
in-stincts and great positional awareness Speed
and leaping ability are great, but what
differ-ence do they make if the players are cuited by route combinations?
short-cir-Athletic ability is obviously important at nerback, but it kind of goes out the window if aguy is a tick late reacting to what is in front ofhim A 4.4-second 40-yard dash can look like4.8 when a cornerback has unsophisticatedeyes The Jets have some corners who possesslimited downfield awareness when their backsare to the ball They are sometimes flailing onpasses downfield, and this often leads to longcompletions or pass-interference penalties
cor-The Jets need to improve, not just in man coverage, but zone as well
man-to-Going back to the Houston game, late in thefirst quarter, Hopkins caught a 27-yard pass Itlooked like the Jets were playing a zone con-cept, and Deshaun Watson found a soft spot for
an easy throw and catch How does the best ceiver in football end up wide open for a longgain? How is he not the focal point of the cov-erage?
re-So this offseason, it’s time for Maccagnan andHeimerdinger to focus on adding cornerbackswho diagnose quickly — guys who confidentlystick their foot in the ground and drive hard to-ward the throw
One thing that made the Chicago Bears’ fense so good this year, aside from the addition
de-of Khalil Mack, was their defensive backs werevery assignment savvy — not a lot of blown cov-erages This is one of the reasons former Bearsdefensive coordinator Vic Fangio got the Den-ver head-coaching job; his defense was so fun-damentally sound in Chicago In addition togood coaching, hat-tip to Bears GM Ryan Pacefor loading up on smart, instinctive corners
They Jets need corners who have what scoutscall “fast eyes” that can process informationquickly Poor instincts limit a player’s ceiling
The Jets need to stock up on guys who do a nicejob of anticipating routes unfolding and sortingthrough route combinations; fewer guys whoget their hand caught in the cookie jar all thetime biting on double-moves
We didn’t mention safety here because theJets should be fine with Jamal Adams, MarcusMaye (if he can stay healthy) and Doug Mid-dleton, three instinctive players who are gener-ally assignment-sound
But the Jets have some work to do in the nerback room, because if all these blown cover-ages continue, the Jets are going to have a hardtime taking the next step
cor-Media war on Leo continues
After the season, a writer for USA Today did a
list of the biggest disappointments for the 2018Jets in the form of a slide show on their website.Slide shows get a lot of clicks
We aren’t going to go over the whole list, but
of course Leonard Williams was on the list.With a Jets media obsessed with sack totals,Williams continues to get hammered by writers
He finished the season with five sacks, and some
in the media are focused on this number like alaser, even though he plays the 3-4 end position,which is not a big sack spot The big sack totalsgenerally come from the outside linebackers in
a 3-4 defense This isn’t to say 3-4 ends don’t get
CORNER THE MARKET
It’s time for Mike Maccagnan to load uphis cornerback room with guys whopossess top-shelf coverage instincts
Trang 11sacks Of course they do, but the double-digit
sack guys are generally at OLB, going back to the
early days of this defense and the Giants’
Lawrence Taylor Look at Denver, with Bradley
Chubb and Von Miller The Jets haven’t been
able to find a dominant 3-4 OLB for quite some
time Maybe that will finally happen with the
third pick of the 2019 draft or in free agency
We think Williams had a solid season, and is
a very good player, not a great player, but a very
good one
And the best could be yet to come
While Williams did good things in former
coach Todd Bowles’ 3-4 front that required him
to do a lot of dirty work, former Jets defensive
end Mike DeVito belives he can be “great” in
the Jets’ new 4-3 scheme under coordinator
Gregg Williams
“I think ‘Big Cat’ up front is great in a 4-3,”
DeVito said as a guest on SiriusXM NFL Radio
“He’s not the kind of guy you want having to
two-gap He’s the kind of guy who’s going to
wreak havoc when he can put his hand in the
dirt and put all his weight forward and just get
off the ball and cause problems for the offense.”
Though he had just five sacks this season, he
had a ton of QB pressures, which coaches will
tell you are just as important as sacks Most NFL
quarterbacks get rid of the ball so quickly, it’s
often hard to get the sack; so if a defender can
get in the QB’s face, get him off his spot and force
a bad throw or incompletion, that is also good
“When you pressure the quarterback,
mis-takes happen, turnovers happen,” said Chiefs
3-4 OLB Dee Ford, who had 13 sacks this year
Williams had a ton of pressures this year
There is no exact stat for this, but based on our
film study, he had a truckload
In the first half of the game against the
Tex-ans, Williams had two quarterback pressures On
the Texans’ first series, Williams hit Watson as
he threw, causing an incompletion to wide
re-ceiver DeAndre Carter on the short right side
Early in the second quarter, Williams ran over
left guard Senio Kelemete and pressured
Wat-son to roll left and throw an incompletion to
Hopkins
In the Jets’ win at Buffalo, we noticed four QB
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 Jets Confidential 11
pressures where Williams moved Josh Allen offhis spot One of these pressures collapsed thepocket, and led to a sack shared by Henry An-derson and Brandon Copeland at the end of thefirst half If this were hockey, Williams would get
an assist on the play
How could any objective observer discern thatthese kind of plays don’t matter?
Sure, his sack total wasn’t gaudy, but he didsack two future Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks whodon’t often get sacked — Aaron Rodgers in Week
16 and Brady in Week 17
Williams finished the season strong, and asidefrom his efforts, we think there is another reason
Bowles made a head-scratching decision tostart raw rookie Nathan Shepherd the first 12weeks of the season, and play Anderson behindhim It was truly a decision that made no sense
As we have mentioned in previous issues, herd, coming from a lower level of college com-petition, needed a ton of technique work, andwasn’t ready for prime time The Jets believed thatFoley Fatukasi needed a red-shirt year to getstronger and work on his technique In reality,Shepherd needed the same
Shep-CLOSING ARGUMENT
Leonard Williams finished the season strong
Over the final month, Anderson started ahead
of Shepherd, and played on a high level son and Williams complemented each otherwell, and both made a lot of big plays
Ander-So we have some advice for our readers.Ignore the hate directed at Williams in themainstream media over his sack total
He’s a very good player
And like we mentioned in the last issue, heaveraged 6.6 sacks in his three seasons at USC,
so he’s never been a big sack guy It’s very rarethat a player who didn’t have a lot of sacks in col-lege becomes a sack machine in the NFL.But Williams is a very good player nonethe-less — very disruptive to opposing offenses
Trang 12I think it’s awesome for (Andre Roberts and
Jason Myers to make the Pro Bowl) I was
proud as hell of those guys I think there’s no
bigger honor in this game, other than having a
gold jacket on, than have your peers vote you
for the Pro Bowl I think that’s well-deserved
Every kid should see where (Myers and
Roberts) came from Nine years in the league
with Andre, and he finally gets a Pro Bowl
berth Jason (and Andre), they took the hard
route Both of them have grit Both of them
play and practice their butts off every week
And that’s what it takes to be a special guy and
to be in that elite company I couldn’t be
prouder of those guys and Jamal (Adams) I
think it’s a special group that they’re in,
some-thing that no one can ever take away from
them
You got to give credit to the guys blocking
for (Roberts) as well Dre is a heck of a runner,
got great vision, got great run skill, but those
guys came together to block their butts off
They believe in him Just like Jason, it doesn’t
happen without the whole battery of guys that
are blocking for him up front and the holds
with Lachlan (Edwards) and snaps with
Thomas (Hennessy) That’s a whole team effort
As a (former) player I know how special it
is And to see their background, I’ve been cut
before, they’ve been cut before and as a former
player I know how hard a route that is It’s not
like they took the easy route to get there It
wasn’t like they were highly drafted and came
from big schools They grinded, they work and
they prepare That’s the story that every young
kid should see how that is done, from (Myers)
walking on to Marist College and (Roberts)
going to The Citadel (and) playing for five
dif-ferent teams, that is really cool to me as a
coach To be able to be a small part of that I
think it’s really neat
The (99-yard kickoff return TD against
Green Bay) is what it’s supposed to look like
It’s funny because I actually said it on the
side-line, ‘If they give us this, this will go.’ I said it
to (Davis) Webb, the quarterback, I said, ‘This
is going to the house, watch.’ And it did We
were laughing our butts off They did a great
job of executing it
This year we haven’t blocked a better return
than that They did everything that you teach
Guys were battling Roberts set it up perfectly,just like he does all the time and did a heck of ajob running the track, and that’s exactly what it’ssupposed to look like
If you ask me to go find two (kick coverage)gunners, that’s what I would find, our two guys(Charone Peake and Trenton Cannon) If they’regoing to be shorter like Trent, he’s got more juicethan anyone else, and they have a hell of a timeblocking him because of it If not, like Charone,he’s also fast, but he’s long and he can keep peo-ple away from him and use his hands, andthey’re both damn good
With two legit gunners that have been there,
it has made a huge difference It’s been good to
have those guys and to see the progress, ically with Trent and how he’s learning everyday and he’s tackling I think he is going to donothing but get better
specif-(Eric Tomlinson’s) like our do-all guy He’sdone a great job He does kick return, and plays
in some phases for us He’s one of those guysthat doesn’t need a lot of reps I call them theblue guys who can do everything, don’t need(to give them) any reps It’s like, “Hey grab himand go play guard,” and he’ll know it rightthere without even taking reps “Alright goplay, go flip over and play tackle,” and heknows it because he pays attention in meetingsand is professional A great quality person,good professional, hell of a guy
‘Every kid should see where (Myers, Roberts) came from’
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