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There are so many layers to this . . .
Of course Elijah Moore was wrong for taking his beef over his targets public after being triggered by a ESPN writer Rich Cimini, who also works for the Jets media partner, who tweeted he had no catches in Green Bay.
Moore was sent home on Thursday due to his behavior, was kept out of meetings today, and will be inactive for the game Sunday.
“He will rejoin the team on Monday,” Robert Saleh said.
Will the writer get another reaction after tweeting about Moore being active on Sunday: “Basically, he’s being kept in timeout.”
That is what parents do with little kids when they misbehave.
But while Moore should never have gone public with his beef, his frustration is understandable.
Both things can be true – going public being wrong and the complaint being legitimate.
The Jets might be 4-2, which is an impressive start, considering Las Vegas had their over/under win total at 5.5 entering the season, they still have some things to work on.
And one thing that needs is the quarterback going through his progressions better and getting more receivers involved. The QB often forces passes to his first read, when there could be better options on a second or third read. Will give you a couple of examples from the Jets-Packers games – not too far apart. Late in first half, on third-and-two, Zach Wilson ran a bootleg to the left side, and forced a pass to Garrett Wilson who was not open, and the pass was broken up by CB Jaire Alexander. Then early third quarter, on third-and-nine, he forced another pass to Garrett Wilson, and it was nearly picked off by Alexander.
These are two examples of the QB being determined to go to his first read come hell or high water, whether it was open or not. And keep in mind, Alexander is one of the NFL’s best corners and one of the highest-paid. The rookie Garrett Wilson, even though he is enormously talented, isn’t a mismatch for Alexander. Other cornerbacks yes, but not this guy. These were two wasted plays on third down, and remember the Jets finished the game 1-11 on third down (it’s amazing to win a game with this stat). And when you keep failing on third down, there are obviously less opportunities in the passing game, because you can’t sustain drives. Zach Wilson finished the game 10-18 passing.
“He works his tail off and he does everything that’s asked of him,” Saleh said about Moore. “And whether or not people can get out of whack, like that’s probably a conversation more for him. But he is a very high character individual.”
That middle sentence was a kind of eclectic, that if a player is “out of whack” it’s a conversation the media needs to have with the player.
But if you were to have this conversation with the player, and shoot him with truth serum, he would probably tell you he was “out of whack” because the QB needs to go through his progressions better, and get more people involved, like they do in places like Kansas City and Buffalo.
Now Zach Wilson isn’t doing a poor job seeing the field on purpose, just like Justin Fields in Chicago isn’t doing it on purpose. It’s hard to read defenses and go through your progressions on the NFL level. Many people struggle with it. It’s really hard.
Will he get better at going through his progressions smoothly and reading defenses better, it’s hard to say. Some guys do, many guys don’t.
Blake Bortles, the third overall pick in the 2014 draft, just retired from the NFL. He was one of many high QB draft picks, who couldn’t master these things.
But he has a lot of company.
So this is the elephant in the room right now that people don’t want to talk about – QB improving progression scans – and this certainly has contributed to Moore’s frustration. We will see if the QB improves in that area this week, which could be tough against a very good defense. We shall see.
However, Moore never should have taken to Twitter to complain about not catching any passes in Green Bay. That’s a no-brainer.
October 21, 2022
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