Bart Scott has never been afraid to speak his mind. Now that that the former Jets linebacker is an ESPN personality, don’t expect that to change.
Scott showed no such signs of doing so when he appeared on Rich Cimini’s Flight Deck podcast this week. During their conversation, Scott elected took some shots at Jordan Jenkins, New York’s pending free agent outside linebacker.
Scott went as far as to question Jenkins’ production and viewed some of the sacks as “layups” due to Gregg Williams’ coverage schemes. Here is what Scott had to say about Jenkins on Cimini’s podcast:
“I don’t know about Jordan Jenkins. I appreciate what he’s done but come on man those sacks were atta boy. Those weren’t meaningful sacks, they were coverage sacks. If you rush the passer 500 times a couple of those are going to be layups and he got a couple of those.
I think they definitely have to upgrade that position. The Jets can’t afford to use some of that equity on a player that we already know what his ceiling is.”
New York has just over $50 million in cap space, according to OverTheCap, which can increase to over $80 million if the team elects to make obvious cap casualties of players like Trumaine Johnson and Brian Winters. There should be room to re-sign Jenkins if the Jets want to, but Scott is clearly advising against that.
In four years with the Jets, Jenkins has complied 100 total tackles, 20.5 sacks, seven passes defended and six forced fumbles. His 2019 season was the best to date, as Jenkins compiled 21 total tackles, eight sacks, three passes defended and two forced fumbles.
Being a part of the same draft class as Darron Lee and Christian Hackenberg, the 25-year-old Jenkins has been viewed as one of Mike Maccagnan’s better draft choices.
Jenkins has produced immense value as a former third-round pick and seemed to be finally blossoming under a new defensive coordinator. Jenkins is never going to be a player that flirts with double-digit sack numbers, but he can definitely be a valuable player on defense that sets the edge if the Jets find an upgrade that can complement him this offseason.
Whether he is worth a new deal is up for Joe Douglas to decide, not Scott. However, Jenkins obviously does not have a former Jets linebacker on his side.