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I could be alone, but this decision perplexed me
George Fant hurt his ankle in the second quarter, and he was replaced by Chuma Edoga.
That was a little surprising. The day before the Jets gave Conor McDermott a contract extension. Right tackle is his best position. Why not go with him? Edoga has a lot of potential, but still needs a lot of work. McDermott came into the league in 2017 as a sixth-round pick of New England (which is kind of a compliment because they only put 75 players on their draft board), and is now 28. Edoga, a third-round pick of the Jets in 2019, is just 23. McDermott is much higher on the growth curve than Edoga, so when Fant got hurt, why go with Edoga?
Egoga struggled with two penalties in the third quarter, a holding call and a false start. Then on the Jets’ last series, he can beat for a sack by Joey Bosa, who got called for roughing the passer (bad call). After Edoga was beat for the sack, they put McDermott in at right tackle, because Edoga got dinged.
But the bottom line is there needs to be better communication between the personnel department and coaching staff. I wrote about this extensively in the last issue, with a perfect example being Harvey Langi being buried on the bench for two months after playing well in the opener. They went with a pair of linebackers with much less range than Langi.
McDermott should be the first guy in at right tackle. Obviously Joe Douglas likes him a lot and just extended him. The problem is the way the Jets are set up, Douglas can’t tell the coaches who to play, he can only pick the players. Moving forward, perhaps after a coaching change if that is what the Jets chose to do, Douglas will be more in sync with a new coach as far as how to use players better on game day . . .
Speaking of Douglas, it’s looking like he hit on his first two draft picks, Mekhi Becton and Denzel Mims, out of the ballpark.
Becton had another strong game, including two key run blocks on the Jets’ first scoring drive, on the final two plays of the series.
He locked up Bosa on a Gore 8-yard run to the five-yard-line, and then on La’mical Perrine five yard TD run, Becton pulverized linebacker Denzel Perryman.
Mims had two circus catches on deep sideline routes in tight coverage, and also drew a pair of pass interference calls.
They both look like they’re going to be signature players for the Jets for many years to come.
As for some of the other picks, some might look at the stat sheet and say, “Hey, a 2020 third-round pick led the team in tackles with 12, what about him?”
Talking about safety Ashtyn Davis.
You gotta love his toughness as a tackler – he’s an unflinching hitter. However, while he had 12 tackles, he had no passes defensed, and seemed to be implicated in a few big throws into the Jets’ zone.
He has now played in eight games, with four starts, and has just one PD on the season, and no picks.
He has a lot of potential, but needs to start making more plays on the ball as a pass defender, and I’m sure he’d be the first to admit it.
As for Bryce Hall, who got his first start, while he struggled out there at times, you can see the arrow is pointing up on his player. He’s very smart, and you could see as the game was progressing, he was getting better, and he did a nice job of diagnosing a bubble screen to Keenan Allen, on third-and-nine, late in the fourth quarter, stopping him for no gain, allowing the Jets to get the ball back with a chance to tie.
November 23, 2020
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