Content available exclusively for subscribers
The Jets got some good news today.
Mike White has been cleared and will start on Sunday.
I will get back to this in a minute, but I want to make another point first. If they don’t fix their run defense, not sure they will be able to win-out, and make the playoffs (with a New England loss).
People talk about the renaissance of the Jets defense this year, and there is no doubt they are much better, but more so against the pass.
They have been bad against the run ever since the bye-week, and the biggest reason they lost to Jacksonville, aside from a QB who rushed back into the lineup three weeks after a mechanical reboot (impossible to fix that stuff in three weeks), was terrible run defense.
The Jets play the same defensive system as the San Francisco 49ers. You can’t run the 49ers. So it’s not the system.
The Jets defensive line isn’t playing well against the run, and that includes the star DT, who is on the brink of a huge payday. He’s a tremendous interior pass rusher, but he must be more consistent against the run, and I don’t know if Joe Douglas or the team’s cap guy, Dave Socci, will bring this up in negotiations, but I would. In fact, their best run defense game since the bye-week was probably against Detroit, a game he didn’t play in.
Seattle loves to run the football. If they don’t fix this, they could lose to a very beatable Seattle team . . .
Brian Costello announced this morning that White was cleared to play this week. With the Jets still in the playoff hunt, he by far gives them the best chance to win their remaining two games. Chris Streveler is tough as boot leather, but has arm and throwing motion limitations and Joe Flacco is toast. Zach Wilson needs an entire off-season to work on footwork and mechanics, not three weeks, and then we will see where he’s at. Though Fox Sports Jay Glazer announced on Saturday: “Expect the Jets to move on from [Zach Wilson] after this season.”
Powerful words.
I’m not sure I would get rid of him. I would keep him as a backup for a year. I actually think he would buy into the role. He’s been humbled. To me, an entire off-season, and sitting for a season, working like heck on his footwork and mechanics, would not be a bad thing for him. But the bigger point here is, if they cut him, they will have $20 million in dead cap money. Considering they will have to pay Mike White, and Quinnen Williams, with a run defense adjustment, do they really want to take a $20 million cap hit also?
But focusing on the hear and now, White gives them a good chance to win these last two games. When Wilson missed on that easy hitch route to Garrett Wilson in the right flat, that is when he truly jumped the shark.
“If they announced (Zach) Wilson was starting this week, some players might not have boarded the charter to Seattle,” said former NFL GM Mike Lombardi on VSIN.
Obviously Lombardi was being a little sarcastic. No player is going to give up a huge game check and not board a charter. But Lombardi’s point is that Wilson has lost the locker room. It’s not all personal. There are guys that like him. This is more about performance.
Garrett Wilson said all the right things to the media after the game after getting debriefed by a team executive before taking the podium, but he was clearly frustrated as heck with how Zach was playing. You didn’t need to be a body language to discern that. Duane Brown looked livid walking off the field after a really bad offensive series against Jacksonville.
White is the Jets best option at QB to win these last two games (with an improved run defense). He’s better at all the other Jets quarterbacks at reading defenses, going through progressions, pocket presense and throwing with anticipation.
December 26, 2022
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Tuesday.