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Longhorns Wire compiled a roundtable discussion to make their case for which Texas player is currently flying under the radar.
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The Jets let Robby Anderson walk in free agency but added two receivers who are both younger and possibly faster than Anderson.
The Jets got younger and faster at receiver despite losing Robby Anderson this offseason.
Soon after Anderson signed with the Carolina Panthers, Joe Douglas grabbed former first-round pick Breshad Perriman in free agency and took Baylor receiver Denzel Mims 59th overall in the draft. Both players boast fantastic quickness and agility and should easily replace Anderson’s skillset and production.
Perriman is almost a carbon-copy version of Anderson, but faster. He’s roughly the same size at 6-foot-2, 209 pounds, six months younger and ran a faster 40-yard in college than Anderson (4.19 in 2015 vs. Anderson’s 4.34 in 2016). While those numbers may be a bit outdated, Perriman’s speed showed up on the field more frequently than Anderson’s in 2019. According to NFL NextGen Stats, Perriman reached a top speed of 20.66 miles per hour on a 34-yard touchdown catch in Week 15, while Anderson only hit 20.3 miles per hour on his 93-yard touchdown against the Cowboys in Week 5. We’re splitting hairs with that 0.36 difference, but sometimes that’s all it takes to get enough separation to catch the ball. The advanced metrics also favor Perriman’s speed over Anderson’s. Perriman earned a 125.7 speed score, according to PlayerProfiler.com, while Anderson only earned a 103.2 score.
If Perriman more than accounts for the loss of Anderson in the speed department, than Mims is an added bonus. The Baylor wideout ran a 4.38 40-yard dash at the NFL combine this spring – tied for fifth among all participants – and led receivers with a 6.66 three-cone drill. Mims is nimble for his frame, which is similarly built to Perriman and Anderson at 6-foot-3 and 207 pounds. Mim’s posted a lower PlayerProfiler speed score than Perriman at 115.6, but graded out much better in explosive speed with a 131 burst score.
The Jets also kept two speedy reserve players at wide receiver in Vyncint Smith and Braxton Berrios. Smith actually reached 22.01 miles per hour on a 19-yard rushing touchdown in Week 5, while Berrios ran 20.95 miles per hour on his 69-yard catch in Week 12. Neither will be mainstays on offense but give Sam Darnold another element of quickness at the position when needed.
The one thing the Jets can’t replicate is Anderson’s chemistry with Darnold, though. The two worked well together in Darnold’s first 26 games as a Jet, and it’s hard to gauge how Perriman and Mims will play with Darnold if training camp doesn’t begin as scheduled.
At the very least, Douglas managed to give Darnold two faster players to work with for the young quarterback’s third NFL season. Both are very much wildcards given Perriman’s small sample size in 2019 – he only caught 35 passes – and Mim’s inexperience as a rookie, but the speed on paper should be enough to elevate the offense.
Breshad Perriman said his torrid finish to 2019 is just a glimpse of his potential for the Jets.
Breshad Perriman is setting high expectations for himself before even putting on a Jets jersey.
The newly-signed wideout told reporters Friday that his five-game stretch to end the 2019 season with the Buccaneers is only a “tiny glimpse” of his ability. During that stretch, Perriman became the first player in 15 years with 500 yards, five touchdowns and 20 yards per reception in the final five games of the season. He finished with 25 receptions for 506 yards and five touchdowns.
“I bring a lot of speed, a lot of big play-making ability to this team,” Perriman said. “I can’t wait to get to work to prove that anyone who has doubt in their mind is wrong.”
Perriman’s sample size of success is small, though. If you take away his past five games of action – where he played in 90 percent of the Buccaneers’ snaps – he tallied only 70 receptions for 1,055 yards and five touchdowns in 46 games since 2016 and only played in over 70 percent of offensive snaps three times. Extrapolated over a 16-game season, that’s an abysmal 24 receptions for 367 yards and two touchdowns. That’s nowhere near the production the Jets will need from Perriman, who figures to take over as the Jets’ top receiving option after Robby Anderson signed with the Panthers.
Perriman only recently played well, too. He lasted only three seasons in Baltimore after the Ravens drafted him 26th overall pick in 2015 and saw limited action in his lone season with the Browns.
Despite his limited production, Perriman proved in 2019 he can play at a high level when given the opportunity. He only tallied 11 receptions for 139 yards and one touchdown in the first nine weeks of the season, but only played in 53.4 percent of the offensive snaps and operated as the third wide receiver behind Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. But when the Buccaneers lost Evans and Godwin to injury, Perriman stepped up with his incredible five-game stretch where he played in 90 percent of the team’s snaps and only dropped one of his 65 targets.
“It was definitely just a matter of opportunity and taking advantage of it,” Perriman said. “Unfortunately, they suffered injuries and it forced me to go into a bigger role and gave more opportunities and I just really capitalized on it.”
The problem is, Perriman’s production potential could be capped in an Adam Gase offense. The past receivers who’ve played in Perriman’s presumed position at the “X” for Gase haven’t performed well.
Robby Anderson caught just 52 catches for 779 yards and five touchdowns in 2019, while Devante Parker averaged 56 catches for 707 yards and two touchdowns over 16 games between 2016-2018 for the Dolphins and Alshon Jeffrey caught 54 catches for 807 yards and four touchdowns in nine games for the Bears in 2015. This pattern caps what Perriman can do for the Jets even with his speedy 6-foot-2, 215-pound frame.
Regardless, Perriman remains convinced he’ll succeed for Gase and the Jets.
“I believe it’s going to happen now because knowing Coach Gase, he’s definitely an offensive-minded coach,” Perriman said. “You see that the receivers that he had and the numbers they put up every time in this system, I have no doubt in my mind this is definitely going to be a season to remember for me.”
Unless the Jets draft a top wideout or trade for another, they’ll need Perriman to be their top pass-catching option. Sam Darnold will have a solid arsenal of weapons between Perriman, Jamison Crowder, Le’Veon Bell, and Chris Herndon, but only Bell is a proven playmaker. If Perriman can live up to his first-round billing five years later he could be a steal for the Jets.
The Jets haven’t done enough to upgrade their offense so far this offseason.
If the 2020 NFL season started today, Sam Darnold and the Jets would be in a worse offensive state than they were when the 2019 season ended.
That’s saying a lot considering the Jets ranked 31st in points and 32nd in yards last year, but it’s undeniable after they replaced Robby Anderson with Breshad Perriman on Tuesday. Anderson’s departure and Joe Douglas’ inability to bring in more talent on offense could also set Darnold up for failure in 2020.
Despite a respectable 7-9 season, New York finished 2019 among the worst in almost every offensive category. Darnold finished 25th in passing yards, completion percentage and passing touchdowns. It would be hard to get much worse than that, yet the soon-to-be third-year quarterback somehow has less talent to work with just a few weeks into free agency.
New York’s offensive line is theoretically better but isn’t proven, the receiving corps lacks a true No. 1 option without Anderson and Le’Veon Bell remains the only running back worth giving any touches. A lot can change between now and the beginning of the 2020 season, but so far it would take a miracle for Adam Gase and Darnold to salvage this offense.
General manager Joe Douglas went heavy on offensive linemen early in free agency by signing potential starters Connor McGovern, George Fant and Greg Van Roten and bringing back Alex Lewis. Outside of McGovern, none of those players have proven to be consistent performers and aren’t necessarily true upgrades over what the Jets fielded in 2019. Fant is wildly inconsistent and undeveloped, while Van Roten and Lewis are serviceable linemen.
The biggest blow to Darnold’s potential is the loss of Anderson, who signed a two-year, $20 million deal with the Panthers on Tuesday. Losing one player won’t break an offense, but Darnold targeted Anderson on 19.8 percent of his passing attempts over the past two seasons. Without Anderson, the Jets are now woefully thin at wide receiver. Perriman, Jamison Crowder and Quincy Enunwa – should he return fully healthy from his second season-ending neck injury – are now the Jets’ top receiver options and none inspire confidence.
Perriman is a solid replacement for Anderson with lots of speed and a big 6-foot-2, 215-pound frame, but a downgrade considering he only recently enjoyed a solid season. He failed to perform with the Ravens and Browns over his first three seasons in the NFL and only excelled with the Buccaneers after they lost Mike Evans for the season. Perriman’s 36 catches for 645 yards and six touchdowns on only 56 percent of Tampa Bay’s snaps is nice, but misleading. He caught 25 passes for 506 yards and five touchdowns in the final five games of the season when he averaged over 90 percent of the snaps.
Behind Perriman, it’s Crowder, who saw 20 percent of Darnold’s targets in 2019. Crowder’s 78 targets were 16 more than the combined totals of the rest of the Jets receivers, excluding Anderson. Enunwa, Vyncint Smith, Josh Doctson and Braxton Berrios aren’t going to cut it for a team looking to take over the AFC East and the duo of Perriman and Crowder isn’t great as Darnold’s top-two receiving options.
That leaves the tight ends and running backs. Chris Herndon and Ryan Griffin are good players but neither are worldbeating tight ends, and the Jets have not found a running back to backup Bell, who faded toward the end of the 2019 season after being fed touches throughout the year. It looks like Ty Montgomery and Bilal Powell won’t be returning, meaning the Jets must find a quality backup running back to spell Bell during the season. There are some quality rushers left on the market, but none are good enough to invigorate the Jets offense.
Now, this doom and gloom for the Jets offense could all change in the next month. The Jets have the Nos. 11, 48, 68 and 78 picks in the draft, which they could easily use to bolster the offensive line and add weapons for Darnold. The o-line and receiver are two of the deepest positions in the draft and it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Jets grab a player at either position with its first two picks. The Jets could also trade for a lineman such as Trent Williams or a wide receiver such as Alshon Jeffrey before the draft to infuse some veteran experience into the roster. Any of those moves would help Darnold and would be significant upgrades over the offense the Jets currently field.
A lot can change before the season begins, but as it stands now, the Jets look a lot worse than they did in 2019.
