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It’s not easy, other-wise they all would do it.
Talking about quarterbacks going through progressions – read one, read two, read three – boom, boom, boom.
The Jets’ former QB Sam Darnold, now on IR with Carolina, struggled doing this, often fixating on his first read. He has plenty of company. A lot of young quarterbacks do this same thing.
In three games, Mike White looks to be very good in this area. I will give you two examples of big plays for the Jets, both touchdown throws.
In the Jets’ win over Cincinnati, White hit tight end Tyler Kroft for the game-winning touchdown pass. On this play, White looked right, looked left, and then hit Kroft in the middle of the end zone for the score.
In the Jets’ loss to Indy, on their second possession, it ended with White hitting Elijah Moore on a 19-yard TD.  On this throw, he looks right, looks center, and then hits Moore on the left side.
On both plays, he hit his third read. This is huge and a key to being a successful NFL QB.
Troy Aikman kind of summed up White when he said during his one TD drive before he got hurt:
“He has a good feel for what he’s doing back there.”
And a big part of knowing what you are doing back there is smoothly going through your progression and throwing to the open man.
This important part of the QB skill set will be key against Buffalo the NFL’s top-ranked defense, which is so fundamentally sound. If you telegraph passes and make bad reads, they will make you pay . . .
Speaking of defense, the Jets have a big problem, and it’s leading to some of their issues in run defense. When their second-team defensive line comes in for the starters, their defense seems to fall apart, and often give up some really long runs. There is a big dropoff from the first unit to the second, and their second team is out there a lot based on a defensive philosophy.
“The objective really for the entire d-line is to not have any of them play more than 40 snaps in a game – that’s the goal,” Saleh said. “The amount of strain we ask from play-to-play, We ask so much out of our d-line that if you can go four plays in a row or play 90 percent, then you’re probably BS’ing on the football field, in our mind and you’re not executing the technique as it’s designed. So, Quinnen is a phenomenal football player, but we also think Sheldon Rankins is a phenomenal football player. We love Foley (Folorunso Fatukasi), we love Shep (Nathan Shepherd), so there’s a really cool four-man rotation, really deep four-man rotation and on the interior.”
He might love Shepherd, but unfortunately for the hard-working Canadien, the film isn’t loving him. He’s having a rough year.
The problem here is simple. Quinnen Williams is probably their best defensive player and he’s only playing 62 percent of the snaps.
Defensive tackle Aaron Donald is the Los Angeles Rams’ best defensive player, and he plays 85 percent of the snaps.
You do the math.
You can talk about the defensive system all you want, but taking Williams off the field as much as they do is hurting this defense, especially since Shepherd is struggling so much.
This philosophy of taking the starters out so much, due to the style of play, and putting in the backup unit as much as they do, is hurting this defense a great deal. There is no way around it.
November 12, 2021
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