Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
The Jets tried to make some big improvements last offseason, but a few didn’t work out the way New York had hoped.
The Jets spent lavishly in free agency last offseason, but most of the moves made by Joe Douglas didn’t accelerate the team’s rebuild.
The general manager’s biggest splashes didn’t help much in 2021. In some cases that was due to injury. In other cases, players simply didn’t perform as expected.
Let’s look at four big moves the Jets made in 2021 that didn’t pan out for the franchise.
Whether it be to save money or get rid of an unproductive player, the Jets might part ways with these 10 non-impending free agents:
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The Jets’ season is over and there is a good chance that many of the players that took part in their season finale against the Bills are not back with the team next season.
New York has nearly 30 players set to hit the open market. Some will be retained, while Joe Douglas won’t bother to keep others around. There are also plenty of players who are not impending free agents who may have already played their last games with the Jets — for one reason or another.
Here’s a look at 10 notable names whose time with New York might come to a premature end this offseason even though they’re not impending free agents.
Watch: Jets DT Sheldon Rankins sacks ex-Saints teammate Taysom Hill
RANK COMIN'#NOvsNYJ on CBS pic.twitter.com/deJ5P2Ho7A
— New York Jets (@nyjets) December 12, 2021
We’ll file this one for consideration in this week’s “Not Top 10” plays. New Orleans Saints quarterback Taysom Hill fumbled a snap out of shotgun while dropping back further against the New York Jets, and turned to corral the loose ball — with one of his former teammates closing in on him for a New York sack. Hill recovered the fumble, but Sheldon Rankins was credited with the 19-yard loss on the play.
Rankins, of course, left the Saints in free agency earlier this year after five seasons in black and gold. The team’s first round draft pick in 2016 struggled with injuries throughout his career and was questionable to play at all this week, but he was able to gut it out. And he ended up making an impact.
Good for him, but sheesh, couldn’t he have waited another week?
[lawrence-newsletter]
Breaking down the final Saints vs. Jets injury report for Week 14
The New Orleans Saints will welcome running back Alvin Kamara back to their offense after a four-game absence, but others are unavailable. Here is everything we learned from Friday’s final Saints injury report before kickoff with the New York Jets on Sunday:
The Jets and Eagles could be without key players for Week 13, including WR Corey Davis for New York and QB Jalen Hurts for Philadelphia.
The Jets and Eagles could be without some of their key players in Week 13.
Jets WR Corey Davis (groin) and Eagles QB Jalen Hurts (ankle) are both questionable. Davis only practiced once this week on a limited basis, while Hurts got in three limited practices.
A few other Jets could miss Week 13. TE/RB Trevon Wesco (ankle) is listed as doubtful, but Robert Saleh already said Wesco would be out for 2-4 weeks. DL Sheldon Rankins (knee) is also doubtful. DT Foley Fatukasi (back), DL John Franklin-Myers (hip), LB Quincy Williams (calf) and OT Morgan Moses (knee) are all questionable.
QB Zach Wilson (knee) got a full week of practice and is good to go against the Eagles.
Philadelphia will be without RB Jordan Howard (knee) this week, while RB Boston Scott (illness) is questionable alongside Hurts.
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The Jets have allowed 145 points in their last four games. What is it going to take for New York’s defense to right the ship?
The Jets have not been able to stop a nosebleed for the past month.
New York has allowed 175 points in its last four games and at least 45 points in three of its last four games. That’s after a Bills offense that mustered just nine points against the Jaguars in Week 9 came to MetLife Stadium and scored 45 points to go along with 489 yards of offense on Sunday. Josh Allen threw for 366 yards and two touchdowns, while the Jets’ secondary had no answer for Stefon Diggs, who finished with eight catches for 162 yards and a touchdown.
“We’re trying to do things the right way and see where we can help our guys out,” Robert Saleh said after New York’s seventh loss. “Obviously, it’s not good enough. It always starts with me. We got eight games left. We have to figure it out.”
The Bills got it done through the air and on the ground, with Allen connecting with eight different pass-catchers. Explosive plays were the name of the game for Buffalo through the air, as Diggs averaged 20.3 yards per catch, while Gabriel Davis caught three passes for 105 yards. Emmanuel Sanders averaged 13.5 yards per catch on his two receptions for 27 yards, while Dawson Knox caught a 17-yard pass.
Devin Singletary, Matt Brieda and Zach Moss proved to be an effective trio out of the backfield. Singletary rushed for 43 yards and a touchdown and Moss chipped in 27 yards and a score, but it was Brieda who had the best game of them all with 28 rushing yards and a touchdown. He added three catches for 22 yards and a touchdown.
“In the simplest of terms, lack of execution,” Sheldon Rankins said. “Whether it be guys not understanding assignments or just not getting to a place when they need to a second too late or whatever. At the end of the day, lack of execution. It showed up over and over and we’re continuing to work to fix it.”
The Jets benefit from a softer matchup when the Dolphins come to MetLife Stadium next weekend. Miami just upset the Ravens on Thursday Night Football, but its offense has been among the worst in football this season. That could serve as a reprieve for Jeff Ulbrich’s unit after weeks of playing high-powered offenses that it simply does not have the talent to keep up with.
“When things aren’t going right, people start looking for the easy way out or an out,” C.J. Mosley said. “As long as I’m here and I have the C on my chest, I can’t let that happen. If players start to see that or we start to see that, we gotta make sure we call each other out, ’cause we all have a job here. We all came here for a certain reason and when you start talking about wins and losses, the big picture can kind of get lost.”
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Players like Ty Johnson and Sheldon Rankins didn’t necessarily star against the Bengals, but they were among the unsung heroes in Week 8.
The Jets shocked the Bengals in Week 8 with backup quarterback Mike White under center. White had a game for the ages, throwing for over 400 yards and three touchdowns to lead New York to a 34-31 come-from-behind victory.
Players on both sides of the ball shined for New York, though not everyone received equal credit for fending off a Bengals team that traveled to MetLife Stadium fresh off its biggest regular-season win in a long time. Here, we’ll take a look at some unsung heroes who flew under the radar in the Jets’ Week 8 win.
A small crowd of former Saints players, ranging from Thomas Morstead to Sheldon Rankins and Eli Apple, met up after the Jets upset the Bengals:
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Strong #Saints connection pic.twitter.com/fmO68uF78L
— Thomas Morstead (@thomasmorstead) November 2, 2021
Here’s another entry for the “things we love to see” file folder. A small crowd of former New Orleans Saints players gathered for a group photo after the New York Jets’ upset victory over the Cincinnati Bengals last Sunday, which Thomas Morstead shared from his official Twitter account.
And there’s a number of names very familiar to Saints fans among them: Morstead was joined by his Jets teammates Justin Hardee and Sheldon Rankins, all of whom signed with New York this offseason, as well as their Bengals opponents Trey Hendrickson, Vonn Bell, and Eli Apple.
Morstead’s Jets pulled off a 34-31 win (just their second victory of the year) thanks to a stunning performance from backup quarterback Mike White, who filled in for the injured Zach Wilson. But the Bengals have had an exciting year so far thanks to Hendrickson’s addition to their defensive line. Bell was voted a team captain for the second year since signing with Cincinnati.
It’s tough to see good players like them leave New Orleans, but at the same time it’s great that they’re still finding success. The Saints will get to catch up with their friends in New York when they visit the Jets on Dec. 12. They’ll have to wait another year to see their old teammates in Cincinnati until next year, when the Bengals are scheduled to play the Saints at the Caesars Superdome in 2022.
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The Jets signed a lot of free agents over the offseason. Some worked, some didn’t & some are hurt. Here’s how they’re faring:
Joe Douglas spent the seventh-most amount of money in free agency this past offseason in the hopes of patching up a few holes across the Jets roster.
He splurged on pass-rusher Carl Lawson and receiver Corey Davis while also adding a couple of low-risk, but notable, deals to shore up positions of need.
The jury is still out on these signings, but a few have certainly been impactful through the first five weeks of the season. A few key signings, including Lawson, won’t be realized until next season after injuries struck them early in their Jets careers, though.
Here’s a look at how 16 notable Jets signing have played so far.
Saints projected to earn 3 compensatory draft picks again in 2022
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A year after the New Orleans Saints received three additional selections in the 2021 NFL draft, they’re predicted to do so again. The analysts at Over The Cap have come closest to cracking the NFL’s tightly-guarded code for determining comp picks, and after correctly forecasting the team would be awarded 2021 draft picks in the third round (for Teddy Bridgewater) and the sixth round (for A.J. Klein), they’re projecting a continued trend for the Saints in 2022.
Right now, OTC projects the Saints to receive a fourth rounder for Trey Hendrickson and a sixth rounder for Sheldon Rankins — in addition to the third round comp pick the Saints have already earned for Terry Fontenot in the NFL’s incentivized minority hiring policy. A handful of other teams are predicted to receive three comp picks each, while the Rams (five) and Chargers (four) pace the NFL.
In past years, Hendrickson’s $15 million per-year contract would have been a sure third round comp pick for the Saints. But that new incentives policy guarantees third-round compensation for teams who lose a minority candidate to a head coach or general manager role on another team, which pushes highly-valued contracts like Hendrickson’s down below the threshold and into the fourth round. It’s the difference between picking at No. 105 and waiting until No. 142 to make your selection.
Still, the Saints are direct beneficiaries of this policy so we can’t complain. And creating greater diversity in leadership roles across the league, better representing the population of players who are subject to their decisions, is a worthy cause deserving of those incentives. And, hey, remember: this is only a projection. Maybe the Saints end up getting a better pick for Hendrickson after all.
Last year, New Orleans used all of its compensatory draft picks to pad out trade packages while moving up the board to target specific players. They put the third rounders for Fontenot and Bridgewater together so they could leapfrog 22 spots and go get Paulson Adebo, who is competing to start Week 1.
The Saints then packaged the sixth rounder for Klein with a seventh round pick acquired from the Jaguars (for nose tackle Malcom Brown) so they could vault a dozen spots up the board, landing left tackle Landon Young — who was their highest-graded rookie in preseason, per Pro Football Focus. Even if the Saints didn’t remain in place and use all of their picks on different players, the draft-day versatility that extra ammo creates speaks for itself.
So is this signaling a philosophy shift in how the team approaches free agency and the draft? Or was this two-year trend more based in the logistics issues of struggling to keep a talented team together during a salary cap-shattering pandemic? Will the Saints get back to cooking the books once the cap recovers and goes to the moon in 2023, thanks to an influx of revenue from new broadcasting deals?
I’m guessing it’s a little of both. Even with the salary cap bouncing back two years from now, the Saints won’t be able to re-sign all of their priciest free agents — the 2022 class includes defensive cornerstones Marshon Lattimore and Marcus Williams, franchise left tackle Terron Armstead, and quarterbacks Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill. If any of them are signed by another team, the Saints should be poised to net another comp pick in 2023.
For the curious, here are the current list of Saints draft picks in 2022 (their initial sixth rounder was forfeited by the NFL for COVID-19 protocol violations last year):
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