Category: Featured and Editorial Content

6 takeaways from Christopher Johnson’s Wednesday comments

What did Jets acting CEO Christopher Johnson say on Wednesday? Here are the Jets Wire’s six takeaways.

Christopher Johnson ended his media hiatus Wednesday to deliver an unsurprising bit of news.

Johnson announced that Adam Gase will return as the team’s head coach in 2020 despite his failings thus far. Gase has gone 2-7 and Sam Darnold has struggled under his direction. Instead of listening to reactionary fans, though, Johnson will stick with Gase next season — for better or worse.

Gase, however, was not the only subject Johnson spoke about when he met with reporters. With that said, here are six takeaways from his Wednesday press conference.

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Jets should take a look at former Buccaneers CB Vernon Hargreaves

The Jets need cornerback help, and 2016 first-round pick Vernon Hargreaves could be the answer.

With the Jets woefully thin at cornerback, New York should take a look at the recently-released Vernon Hargreaves III to fill a position riddled by injury and poor play.

Hargreaves could be a low-risk, high-reward move by the Jets considering his youth and potential. The former 11th overall pick in the 2016 draft only recently turned 24 and was one of the top prospects coming out of Florida just three years ago. He opened his career with a stellar rookie season with the Buccaneers (76 tackles, nine passes defended and one interception), but injuries plagued Hargreaves the past two seasons and he was ultimately cut after a brutal beginning to 2019.

Bruce Arians and the Buccaneers were dismayed by Hargreaves’ lack of enthusiasm and effort this season, culminating in Arians benching Hargreaves after he didn’t hustle on a 55-yard pass play against the Arizona Cardinals in Week 10.

“He didn’t look like he was hustling to go in for a tackle,” Arians said of the play. “He was chasing somebody across the field, and he wasn’t running fast enough.”

Hargreaves, to his credit, didn’t back down from the criticism. He took full responsibility after the game for any perceived concerns about his effort.

“If that’s what coach saw that’s what he saw,” he said. “There’s no arguing with that – I need to hustle. Point blank. End of discussion.”

Hargreaves’ production has dropped off considerably since his rookie season and he has major injury issues – he missed all but one game in 2018 with a shoulder injury and seven games in 2017 with a hamstring injury. His 2019 hasn’t been much better, as he’s allowed a 111.9 passer rating when targeted (51st among cornerbacks), 12.3 yards per reception (37th), 5.7 receptions per game (77th), a catch rate of 63.8 percent (49th) and burned on 3.8 percent of his targets (71st), per PlayerProfiler.com. 

Those numbers are all terrible. Sadly, they’re also better than every other Jets cornerback other than Brian Poole, who plays 61 percent of his snaps in the slot.

The Jets need a player like Hargreaves to play on the outside, especially if Darryl Roberts can’t play. With Roberts hobbled by a calf injury and Trumaine Johnson on injured reserve, the only healthy cornerbacks the Jets have on the roster are Poole, Nate Hairston (who was benched in the second quarter of Sunday’s game), sixth-round rookie Bless Austin, and undrafted rookies Arthur Maulet and Kyron Brown. Austin played well for the Jets in his first game of the year, but he can’t be expected to fix a Jets secondary that’s been leaky all season.

Hargreaves won’t be a game-changer for the Jets, but he’ll be an infusion of young talent in a depleted secondary. He’ll also be looking to prove himself in search of another contract. The Buccaneers picked up Hargreaves’ $9.954 million fifth-year option this offseason, but it’s only guaranteed for injury. If the Jets claim him, they could easily try him out for a few games and see how he fares in the offseason before committing to that price tag for the 2020 season. 

Hargreaves also has a few former teammates on the Jets – Poole and safety Marcus Maye both played with Hargreaves in Gainesville in 2015. 

The Jets are grasping at straws in the secondary right now. Hargreaves isn’t the player many expected him to be after his rookie season, but he’s young and experienced and could be a short-term solution for the Jets defense heading into the back-half of its schedule. 

Patience with Nathan Shepherd may pay off for Jets

After returning from a six-game suspension, Jets’ second-year defensive lineman Nathan Shepherd had a sack and three tackles for loss.

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A week ago, Nathan Shepherd returned to the Jets following a six-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs.

On Sunday, he turned in what was easily his best game as a pro. The second-year defensive lineman had a sack and three tackles for loss in the Jets’ 34-27 win over the Giants. Shepherd would have recorded another sack, too, had CB Nate Hariston — who was eventually benched — not erased the play with a holding penalty.

The sack was the first of Shepherd’s career. Playing in 16 games as a rookie last season, he recorded 15 tackles in five starts. Overall, he did little to show why former general manager Mike Maccagnan invested a third-round pick on a Division II product.

Shepherd flashed the potential that impressed NFL scouts on Sunday, though. He finished the game with a Pro Football Focus grade of 82.0, coming off a decent 68.7 grade in the Jets’ 26-18 loss to Miami in Week 9.

Since returning from his suspension, Shepherd has provided a much-needed boost for a Jets team that had been previously reeling.

“It’s good to have him back,” Adam Gase said following Sunday’s game. “His energy level, he’s so happy to be playing football again. That stuff’s contagious.”

It would have been easy for the Jets to dismiss Shepherd after he was suspended for two separate violations of the league’s performance-enhancing drug policy. He didn’t perform well as a rookie and New York’s new regime had no attachment to the Maccagnan holdover.

Instead, Gase and Joe Douglas stuck with the 26-year-old. The sample size has been small, but so far the decision has paid off.

“I feel like I used eight of my nine lives,” Shepherd told NFL Network following his suspension. “I kind of have to treat it like I have a peanut allergy — if I get one more, it’s going to be over for me. That’s just my reality and I accept that.”

A third violation of the NFL’s PED policy would equal a minimum of a two-year ban for Shepherd.

Shepherd’s two failed tests came on June 27 and July 25 while he was recovering from shoulder and groin injuries. The shoulder injury could eventually require surgery. He underwent an MRI on his groin that revealed he needed sports hernia surgery. In response to a change in posture, Shepherd had multiple herniated discs in his back.

Rehabilitating and coming back from suspension, the Leonard Williams trade allowed Shepherd the opportunity to prove that he was still worthy of a roster spot. With his NFL future in limbo, he rose to the occasion on Sunday.

He’s become an asset for the league’s No. 1 rushing defense and the Jets third-round pick from a year ago is finally coming around. It took some patience, but the investment in Shepherd may turn out to be worth it if he continues to play like he did Sunday.

Jets Rookie Power Rankings: Bless Austin blesses Gang Green in NFL debut

Jets Wire breaks down Gang Green’s rookie class following their performances against the Giants.

Not only did the Jets emerge victoriously in Week 10, but they also got blessed by one of their rookies.

Bless Austin made his NFL debut against the Giants and made an instant impact in his first professional action and appearance on a football field in almost two years. He wasn’t the only rookie who made noise for Gang Green on Sunday, though, as another member of New York’s rookie class made a substantial contribution for the first time this season.

So, where do the neophytes stand after the Jets’ second win of the season? Let’s find out in the latest edition of Jets Wire’s rookie power rankings series.

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Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones offer hope for the future of New York football

Both Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones showed everyone how they can be the next franchise quarterbacks in New York.

The future shined a little brighter for the Jets and Giants on Sunday.

It’s hard to see positives amid such a disappointing season for the Jets and the Giants, but Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones both showed their abilities to play competitive games. Darnold displayed all of his athletic mobility without any of his signature turnovers to throw for 230 yards and two scores on his way to the win, while Jones found holes in the Jets defense to finish with 303 passing yards with four touchdowns. 

Neither the Jets nor the Giants fielded even a remotely good pass defense, so this game won’t paint a perfect picture of either Darnold’s or Jones’ potential. But there were enough bright spots from both quarterbacks to give New York fans a glimmer of hope once the rest of the roster is fixed.

Darnold needed to have a good game after a horrendous three-game stretch, and he finished with his first turnover-less game since Week 1. He was in much better command of the offense and looked every bit as good a quarterback as he could be.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Darnold’s game – and the one that’s gotten him into trouble with turnovers as well – is his ability to go off-script and find his receivers by extending plays with his legs outside the pocket. Recently, those plays have resulted in costly turnovers for the Jets. But against the Giants, Darnold played mistake-free and led three touchdown drives by making throws you only see from the best.

Darnold didn’t back down from adversity and consistently poor pass blocking. He rebounded and didn’t change his game despite a month-stretch of mistake-ridden play.

Jones, meanwhile, went toe-to-toe with Darnold and matched him almost point-for-point most of the afternoon. He hit Darius Slayton on two second-quarter touchdowns to draw within one point and then found Golden Tate on back-to-back touchdown drives to take the lead. Jones continues to improve every week for the Giants and seemingly always finds ways to make the big play. Sunday’s loss was Jones’ second game with at least 300 passing yards and four total touchdowns.

Jones played well but also fumbled the ball three times – one of which resulted in Jamal Adams’ incredible strip-sack touchdown. He’s shown the ability to be the Giants’ franchise quarterback but, like all young quarterbacks, needs to hold onto the ball. Coincidentally, Darnold has the same problem for the Jets and has looked atrocious at times with inexcusable mistakes. Darnold corrected a lot of problems from the past three weeks to finish the game with a clean sheet – Jones just needs to do the same. 

Again, this isn’t a final judgment call on the abilities of Darnold and Jones. They bother played against very weak defenses. But even against bad teams, they performed well enough to give hope in a city that hasn’t seen much in recent years when it comes to competent quarterback play. Both quarterbacks obviously still have issues, primarily when it comes to holding onto the football. But this first duel between Darnold and Jones could signal a shift in New York football, one that could feature two long-term solutions at quarterback if each team learns from the mistakes of its past to build a solid roster around the two.

4 interesting stats from Jets’ Week 10 win over Giants

The Jets won their second game of the season by defeating their roommates 34-27 in a battle of young quarterbacks in the area.

The Jets weren’t perfect Sunday, but they came from behind and beat the Giants, 34-27.

After three consecutive weeks of losing, Sam Darnold turned in his best performance since the Dallas game, throwing no interceptions on the day. Jamal Adams had one of the best games of his young career, while the defense made big stops when it needed to, especially in the trenches.

Let’s take a look at some interesting stats from Gang Green’s second win of the season.

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Jamal Adams is Jets Wire’s Player of the Game vs. Giants

Jamal Adams was a man on a mission in the Jets’ second win of the season, a 34-27 victory over the Giants Sunday.

Jamal Adams was a man on a mission in the Jets’ second win of the season, a 34-27 victory over the Giants Sunday.

Adams was flying around the football field all day. He had nine total tackles, two sacks, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, one pass defense and a defensive score. For his performance, Adams is Jets Wire’s Player of the Game for Week 10 of the regular season.

The Pro Bowl safety said earlier in the week that this game had a little extra meaning to it given it was the battle of New York. But he was on a completely different level in this game. It seemed everywhere the football went, he was there, too.

One of those plays came on a strip-sack of Giants quarterback Daniel Jones. Adams was coming in hot on a blitz and obliterated Saquon Barkley before getting to Jones and ripping the ball out his hands to take it to the house for a touchdown. Right before that drive, Adams told Adam Gase that he was going to create a turnover on that drive, Turns out he was right.

You don’t see many safeties with Adams’ playing style. He’s brilliant around the line of scrimmage and is solid in pass coverage, too. Most safeties only have one of those qualities, but Adams is a one of a kind player.

It definitely felt like a weight was lifted off of Adams’ shoulder after the dispute he had with the front office over the last couple of weeks. Adams finally spoke to both Joe Douglas and Gase about his name being brought up in trade rumors and cleared the air with both parties. The noise finally calmed down around him and he went out and balled.

He’s clearly the leader of this defense and there’s no way to envision him not on it. His play on Sunday continued to show why he is in the elite category at his position.