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Very good career move by the player . . .
Jumbo wide receiver Lawrence Cager is moving to tight end.
Remember Cager? He was a rookie free agent wide receiver out of Georgia, who signed with the Jets after the 2020 draft.
He went on to have a nice spring and summer in 2020, and was on the Jets’ practice squad in 2020.
Then he was released on the final cut down in the summer of 2021, and spent time with the Cleveland Browns this past season.
Well, the Jets brought him back today, signing him to a future’s contract, but not as a receiver, but as a tight end.
Cager is a large receiver at 6-5, 220, and always seemed to be a perfect candidate to convert to tight end with his frame, and now it’s finally happening. He’s likely going to put on between 20-30 pounds.
With his frame, Cager reminds me a little of Las Vegas Raiders tight end Darren Waller, who entered the league as a wide receiver, but outgrew the position, and now is one of the better tight ends in football. If Cager turns out to be half as good at tight end as Waller, the Jets will be thrilled.
Making Cager a tight end is an experiment that could pay benefits down the road with his size-speed ratio and large catching radius, The key will be how he acclimates to the blocking part of the tight end job.
Jets tight end coach Ron Middleton, a former NFL tight end himself, who excelled at blocking, is a very good teacher of the art of blocking, and should do a nice job getting Cager up to speed . . .
One of the reasons the Denver Broncos reportedly moved on from coach Vic Fangio was he was too old-school, and not warm-and-fuzzy enough.
They want a coach who is upbeat, commands the room when he is in front of the team and connects better with millennials, and that is why they are targeting Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, the former Atlanta Falcons coach.
You saw Brian Flores lose his job because he got in Tua’s face during halftime of the Dolphins blowout loss to Tennessee a couple of weeks ago. They reportedly had a nasty shouting match.
You saw Urban Meyer lose his job in Jacksonville because he was tough on receiver Marvin Jones and some of the team’s offensive assistant coaches.
With society changing, it looks like the kind of coaches teams are looking for is different.
They seem to be moving away from coaches who yell at their players and staff.
Robert Saleh seems to fit the template of what teams are looking for now.
When you see Saleh getting angry and yelling on the sidelines, that is usually at officials.
I’ve never seen him yell at a player.
Saleh is very enthusiastic and gets fired up motivating players, but I’ve personally never seen him yell at a player for screwing up in a practice or game.
And this is where coaching is trending – give players a good plan, motivate them, but don’t talk down to them or yell at them in a negative way.
Times have changed, People have changed. Whether you like it or not, it’s happened.
The jury is still out on Saleh as a strategist. There were some good X’s and O’s games for the Jets coach this season, and some average. But when it comes to his coaching style, he fits in perfectly with where the NFL is headed. Martinet-type coaches are becoming a thing of the past.
January 13, 2021
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