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I disagree with this high-profile individual’s assessment. I think there are holes in his argument. Let’s take a closer look at what I’m referring to.
“Geno brings something to the table because he can throw the long ball, so it makes defenses have to step back and play more honestly, defend the entire field, because he can throw the 70-yard bomb on a rope,” Bart Scott said. “Fitz has to step into that. He can throw the same route, but he has to let it go earlier, which doesn’t allow the big receivers or the speed of [Eric] Decker to separate. So he has to throw it up, and they have to go get it.”
Where do I start on this one?
Let me start away from Fitzpatrick for a second.
“Speed of Eric Decker?”
Eric Decker isn’t a speed receiver. That isn’t an insult of him, just the reality of the situation.
Decker ran a 4.54 forty when he came out of the University of Minnesota in 2010. That is pedestrian time. Not the time of a deep threat. And I can assure you that at the age of 29, after the wear-and-tear of six years in the league, he has not become faster.
Look, I’m not ripping Decker. He’s a terrific player, but to even pretend he’s deep threat that the Jets aren’t taking advantage of due to Fitzpatrick’s average arm is not just not an accurate assessment.
And let’s get to the next point, which is a very important one – Geno Smith isn’t a great deep thrower.
Is he a little better than Fitz throwing deep? A little bit, but you guys watch all the games, did you see a lot of success throwing deep when he was starting? No.
Scott was dismissive of Clyde Gates (in another quote about Geno’s lack of weapons when he started), but one thing Gates can do is get deep, and Geno never took advantage of that. Gates has world-class speed.
Geno is better throwing post-routes down the deep middle of the field than he is throwing fly routes down the sideline.
For those of you who get the magazine, I relayed an anecdote from the spring about Geno throwing deep. I will share it here.
Brandon Marshall was lined up left. As he was lining up, he yelled back to Geno, “See you in the end zone.”
Marshall proceeded to beat the cornerback with a perfectly executed double-move, and was wide-open down the left sideline. The deep ball faded out of bounds, and was incomplete.
And I’ve seen this happen many times in practice and games.
Geno’s deep passes often are like golf shots that slice. They have trajectory issues. They often fade.
There was an eye-opening deep pass in the Jets’ rookie mini-camp. Christian Hackenberg hit Quenton Bundrage (who is no longer with the team) on a 50-yard deep pass down the left sideline, and the receiver didn’t break stride and caught it for a touchdown. I had not seen a deep pass like that around the Jets for a long time. I was standing right where it landed. You could not throw a deep ball better.
So once Hackenberg gets a couple years of development under Chan Gailey and Kevin Petullo on his footwork and mechanics, I think he will be a better NFL deep thrower than both Smith and Fitzpatrick.
July 20, 2016
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