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5 most underrated #Jets players heading into the 2022 season:
The New York Jets have a promising roster lining up for them in 2022.
There’s hope for a step forward in quarterback Zack Wilson, their trio of first-round rookies, plus pass rusher Carl Lawson finally getting out there.
But often it’s the players under-the-surface that can make all the difference in the 11-on-11 game that football is. New York has plenty of those as well.
With that, here are the seven most underrated Jets players heading into 2022:
The Jets could be in the market for a lockdown cornerback this offseason – either in the draft or free agency.
The Jets’ secondary could get a major facelift this offseason.
Not only could Joe Douglas find two new starting safeties, but multiple reports indicate the Jets want a true No. 1 cornerback.
The Daily News’ D.J. Bien-Aime II recently told the Badlands podcast that the team wants to acquire a lockdown cornerback this offseason, either in free agency, the draft or via the trade block. Bien-Aime added that teams targeted second-year CB Bryce Hall, New York’s No. 1 corner in 2021, because of his lacking ball skills.
Hall’s lone career interception came in 2020.
That aligns with what The Athletic’s Connor Hughes reported as well. Hughes said the Jets like the trio of Hall, Brandin Echols and Isaiah Dunn on the outside but don’t view any of them as ball-hawking, No. 1 cornerbacks. Echols finished the 2021 campaign with two interceptions, but he and Dunn were both suspect in coverage at times during their rookie seasons.
There are a lot of different avenues the Jets could go down if they truly want to add a shutdown cornerback. A few big names will likely hit the open market – some of which the Jets should and shouldn’t target – as well as some intriguing options early in the draft. The Jets could easily use the fourth or 10th pick on a cornerback such as LSU’s Derek Stingley Jr., Cincinnati’s Ahmad Gardner or Washington’s Trent McDuffie. They could also throw a lot of money at veterans like J.C. Jackson or Stephon Gilmore.
Either way, there’s no shortage of options for Douglas and Robert Saleh as they try to bolster one of the weakest units on the Jets’ defense. New York allowed the fourth-highest completion percentage, the third-most passing yards and tied for the second-fewest interceptions in 2021.
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Jets cornerbacks Bryce Hall, Brandin Echols and Michael Carter have a lot of room to grow, according to a new metric.
Cornerback is one of the hardest positions to evaluate with advanced metrics alone.
The best corners are obvious because they either allow a low completion percentage, are rarely targeted, or wrack up a ton of batted balls and/or interceptions. But even that isn’t enough to decide if a cornerback is entirely good or bad.
Take Cowboys CB Trevon Diggs, for example. He made the Pro Bowl and All-Pro team after leading the NFL with 11 interceptions, but he finished with the 84th-best Pro Football Focus grade and allowed the ninth-most yards per completion.
The Jets’ starting trio of Bryce Hall, Brandin Echols and Michael Carter II are three other defensive backs who played well at times in 2021, but certain numbers don’t always paint a positive picture of their performances.
Because the position is tough to evaluate, Cowboys Wire’s K.D. Drummond created two new advanced statistics for cornerback efficiency: adjusted net passing yards allowed per target (ANYA/T) and adjusted net passing yards allowed per coverage snap (ANYA/CS). These two metrics help provide proper context for a cornerback’s true coverage skills.
Neither statistic suggests Hall, Echols and Carter II were anything more than average in 2021, though.
Echols was easily the Jets’ best cornerback by both marks. He finished 2021 with the 34th-best ANYA/T (6.12 yards) out of 78 qualifying cornerbacks, per Drummond. His ANYA/CS ranked 45th at 1.00 yards. Carter II finished with a 7.82 ANYA/T and a 1.21 ANYA/CS, which ranked 53rd and 63rd, respectively. Hall’s 8.57 ANYA/T and 1.40 ANYA/CS ranked 63rd and 73rd, respectively.
For reference, Packers CB Rasual Douglas finished first with an absurd 0.33 ANYA/T and 0.04 ANYA/CS. The rest of the top-10 in both categories allowed 2.32-4.63 ANYA/T and 0.39-0.60 ANYA/CS.
Coincidentally, these numbers are actually better than the Jets trio’s other statistics. Only Carter II finished in the top-100 of defensive players in average yards per completion allowed, while Echols and Hall finished in the top-100 in completion percentage allowed. Echols struggled in coverage plenty of times and Hall allowed the fourth-most touchdowns among cornerbacks (7).
Although their numbers aren’t fantastic, all three have a lot of room to grow – especially in the takeaway department. Echols led the group with two interceptions this year. Their youth is their biggest asset, though. All three are under the age of 25 – Hall and Echols are 24, while Carter is just 22 – which means they’re entirely malleable.
The Jets’ room could use at least one more quality cornerback, but it remains to be seen if Robert Saleh and Joe Douglas agree. They were content with running this trio out for most of the 2021 season despite their inexperience, so it stands to reason they could run it back with the same crew.
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The Jets need to fix these parts of their game if they want to compete next season.
The Jets need to do a lot of work before the 2022 season.
Between various needs across the roster, the continued development of Zach Wilson, and contractual decisions to be made, the Jes could look very different after this offseason. Just look at how the Super Bowl-bound Bengals transformed their team.
But in order to actually improve their win total, the Jets will need to improve a couple of key parts of their game. Here are six ways Gang Green must improve in 2022.
Robert Saleh was cool with Brandin Echols asking Tom Brady to sign the football the Jets CB intercepted. In fact, Saleh called the move “ballsy.”
Jets cornerback Brandin Echols has had an impressive rookie season so far. He’s tied for the team lead with two interceptions and earned Defensive Rookie of the Week honors in Week 15 after taking one back for a touchdown against the Dolphins.
Echols added his second pick against Tom Brady in the Jets’ 28-24 Week 17 loss to the Buccaneers. While New York came up short, Echols wanted something special to remember an early highlight in his career. So he asked Brady to sign the football Echols snagged from the seven-time Super Bowl champion at the end of the second quarter.
When you’re a rookie like Brandin Echols and you intercept Tom Brady it’s perfectly awesome to ask him to sign the ball pic.twitter.com/xxy8RXodKU
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) January 2, 2022
A few pundits scoffed at Echols’ decision, but Robert Saleh had no issue with it. Saleh said he understood the optics of asking an opposing player – especially one who just beat the Jets with a last-minute score – for an autograph, but the coach didn’t take offense to what Echols did.
“The reality is, the NFL is a brotherhood. These guys all know each other. They talk to each other on the phone, they call each other, they work out with one another,” Saleh said. “This is a huge fraternity of brothers and they just spent four hours going at it on the football field, they spent all week prepping on how they’re just going to absolutely embarrass one another, and so at the end of the game, the jersey exchanges, those conversations that they’re having, that is a very cool, genuine moment that’s happening between players.”
The Jets coach even called Echols “a little ballsy” for asking Brady to sign a football that he turned over.
“I don’t care what anyone says – he picked off Tom. Like that’s a childhood dream. That’s one of the greatest of all time and for Tom to humor him with the autograph and to do that for him, I think is pretty cool on his part,” Saleh added. “I have no problem with it, not at all, because I know what those guys go through and trust me, Echols cares that we lost and he cares that Tom had a hell of a game. But to be able to pick off a guy like Tom Brady — how many guys can say that, right?”
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The Jets had the Buccaneers on the ropes, but squandered their lead down the stretch. Takeaways from New York’s Week 17 loss:
Zach Wilson was on the verge of becoming the fifth Jets quarterback to defeat Tom Brady. Then, Mike LaFleur dialed up his worst play call as an offensive coordinator.
The Buccaneers took advantage to pull out a late 28-24 win.
New York had Tampa Bay on the ropes, but couldn’t close out a game in which it led by 14 points in the fourth quarter. The Jets have experienced their fair share of bad losses in 2021, but that was arguably the most excruciating of them all.
Here are six takeaways from New York’s Week 17 loss.
Zach Wilson and most of the Jets offense had a great game in Week 16. Here are the studs and duds from the win over the Jaguars:
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Despite all the missing players due to COVID-19, the Jets pulled off the win over the similarly-woeful Jaguars Sunday thanks to some solid offensive performances and adequate defense.
The Jets’ quick legs were on full display as Zach Wilson, Braxton Berrios and Michael Carter enjoyed electric runs. The 26-21 win won’t help the Jets get a better draft pick, but it does help the team’s morale and development as the 2021 season winds down.
Here are the studs and duds from the Jets’ Week 16 win over the Jaguars.
Brandin Echols’ pick-six against the Dolphins didn’t lead to a Jets win, but it did help the corner earn Rookie of the Week honors.
Brandin Echols’ pick-six against the Dolphins didn’t lead to a Jets win, but it did help the corner earn Rookie of the Week honors.
Echols became the second Jet to take home the award in Week 15, joining two-time winner Zach Wilson. Echols’ fourth-quarter interception against Miami tied the game at 24, though New York ultimately lost. Echols totaled three defended passes and four tackles in the game.
The interception was Echols’ first as a pro and first pick-six since his JUCO days at Northwest Mississippi Community College.
Blessings, look just like my first pick 6 when I was juco ✊🏾 https://t.co/DDXCQXtbCs
— Brandin Echols (@matayo_echols) December 19, 2021
A sixth-round pick in 2021, the 24-year-old Echols has made his presence felt in his first season with the Jets. He has seven pass breakups and 49 tackles over 11 starts.
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It’s been another long year for Jets fans, but it’s not over yet. Here are some things to look forward to over the final 3 games.
Let’s face it: Most Jets fans are thinking about the 2022 NFL offseason and draft more than the rest of the regular season with the team sitting at 3-11. That’s fair. There isn’t much left to be excited about as the team drifts toward another top-five pick.
But that doesn’t mean the final three games of the 2021 season are without intrigue. The Jets’ youngsters have shown promise at times and they’ll get a few more opportunities to prove to the coaching staff they deserve a bigger role in the team’s immediate future.
Here are six things to look forward to as the Jets’ season mercilessly winds down.
Only a few Jets played well in Gang Green’s loss to the Dolphins. Here are the Studs and Duds from Week 15:
The Jets had plenty of opportunities to pull off the upset against the Dolphins in Week 15, but they ultimately fell in the 31-24 loss in Miami.
Once again, the offense stuttered down the stretch and couldn’t muster the points to pull off a comeback. Meanwhile, the defense gave up over 30 points again.
There were a few Jets who played well in the loss, but most of Gang Green flopped as the team fell to 3-11. Here are the Jets’ studs and duds from Week 15.
