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East Rutherford – A lot of interesting angles coming out of the Jets win over the Eagles with the final cuts looming . . .
With Chris Ivory and Bilal Powell in front of him, it’s hard seeing Zac Stacy getting a ton of playing time, but Mike Maccagnan made a smart move trading for him.
And St. Louis made a mistake shipping him out of town. With Todd Gurley (knee) not ready, and Tre Mason hurt, Stacy likely would have started the Rams’ opener.
The guys is a very underrated running back.
He breaks a lot of tackles and his quicker than you would think for his size (5-9, 224).
In the first quarter, on a 10-yard run off right tackle, he broke an arm tackle attempt by safety Ed Reynolds early in the run.
Early in the fourth quarter, he showed very quick feet making linebacker Deontae Skinner miss around the line and turned it into a gain of five.
He’s also a very good receiver out of the backfield. He caught a 25-yard screen and also hauled in a middle screen for a touchdown.
Good trade by Mike Mac . . .
One of the interesting subplots in this game was the battle for the backup offensive line spots.
I think Brian Winters really helped himself.
On a Darryl Richardson gain of 11 up the middle, he pancaked linebacker Jordan Hicks. Winters also had the key block on a middle screen to Zac Stacy that he took in for a five-yard touchdown.
Wesley Johnson, who perhaps was the leading candidate for the backup swing job, didn’t have a great game.
He had a holding call bringing back a long Walt Powell kick return.
But more importantly, in terms of his work at center, he had issues dealing with Eagles nose tackle Beau Allen who led the Eagles with eight tackles. It’s not common for a 3-4 nose tackle to lead a team in tackles. It seemed like Allen was a little too big and strong for Johnson.
So if Johnson hurt himself tonight, who might as emerge as the backup interior swingman? I’d say Winters.
We know he can play both guard spots. I asked him after the game about center, and he said he got work there throughout the spring.
So Winters is likely the leader for that job right now.
Another backup question was about the backup swing tackle job.
Brent Qvale didn’t help his cause by giving up a sack to OLB Brian Braman.
I’m not going to blow one sack out of proportion, but Ben Ijalana clearly has quicker feet than Qvale, and is a bonafide backup swing tackle who can play both sides. I think Qvale is a right tackle/guard athlete, not a left tackle.
Perhaps they keep both, but Ijalana, if he’s healthy (dealing with an MCL sprain), is likely ahead of Qvale for that job.
Jets could try to put Qvale on the practice squad, but that could be risky . . .
You know who quietly looked terrific tonight was rookie free agent ILB Taiwan Jones. He finished second on the Jets with six tackles only playing a half, and had a couple of big-time hits. He’s super-tough, instinctive and Detroit tough. He’s not going anywhere. He’s at least a lock for the practice squad . . .
September 3, 2015
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