Thursday Jets Whispers from Florham Park

Was watching an O-Line drill . . .

and noticed that Duane Brown wasn’t participating. Looking around, I saw him working with a trainer on a faraway field.

This O-Line drill involved offensive linemen taking each other on (not violently), but engaging, as they worked on technique with offensive line coach John Benton, and assistant offensive line coach Ben Wilkerson.

It made sense for Brown not to participate in the drill. He’s dealing with a messed up left shoulder that needs to be harnessed in to play on Sundays.

So there is no point in him working in drills that involve engagement during the week that could further mess up his shoulder.

Brown deserves a lot of credit fighting through this injury to play on Sundays, Other guys wouldn’t do that.

So they owe it to guys like Brown, playing in a lot of pain, to do everything they can to attempt to win on Sunday, and not use this season as a development campaign for certain positions. At least in my worldview . . .

As mentioned the other day, Jets rookie right tackle Max Mitchell is making great progress in his comeback from a dislocated knee cap suffered in Pittsburgh. Saw him a few days after the injury walking on crutches, and today he was running sprints on the rehab field. Also saw him Sunday leaving the locker room with no limp or brace. He doesn’t seem far off from returning . . .

Zach Wilson’s two sideline picks, where he should have thrown the ball away, are getting a lot of attention, but the other pick, by linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley, was just as bad, for a different reason. The other two throws were very poor decisions, but Bentley picked stem from poor mechanics, throwing off his back foot, leading to the pass sailing over the head of the wide-open target, running back Ty Johnson.

“He had no anchor, it sailed on him,” said CBS game analyst Charles Davis.

Wilson, like a lot of quarterbacks, works hard on throwing mechanics in the off-season. During the season, also, of course, but more in the off-season when there is more time for this stuff, and you aren’t practicing the game plan preparing for the next opponent.

But that pesky factor known as “muscle memory” often takes over in games. In the heat of battle, most athletes revert back to how their comfortable doing things. It’s really, really hard to break away from bad habits that are ingrained in your muscle memory. This isn’t an excuse, just the reality of the situation . . .

One of the Jets’ most underrated players this year has been defensive end Bryce Huff. As you know by now, he was the guy who hit Mac Jones’ arm as he threw leading to a wobbling pass picked off by Michael Carter. What Huff does, better than all the other Jets’ defensive ends, is bend under offensive tackles, which isn’t easy to do. It’s the thing that makes Buffalo’s Von Miller so good, the flexibility to bend under tall tackles, Not comparing Huff to Miller, but just saying his flexibility to bend the edge is impressive.

Carl Lawson says Huff has “elite bend.” . . .

The Jets tried to get Elijah Moore to speak to the media a couple of times this week, but to no avail.

Not saying that the Jets had anything to do with him not speaking. They didn’t, but it probably serves no purpose from their standpoint.

He’s clearly still pissed off, but what is he going to do about it, walk out and not get paid? He has two-and-half years left on his rookie contract.

The solution to the Elijah Moore problem is for the QB position to see the field better, go through progressive scans better and get more receivers involved. Also improve accuracy. When the QB is 20 of 41 passing, a lot of passes are hitting the ground.

Bills QB Josh Allen has completed 65.5 percent of his passes this year. That is an ideal number. Over the years, the Tom Bradys, Peyton Mannings, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers of the world were usually in that 65 percent range. That seems to be the magic number. Zach Wilson is at 54.9 percent. It’s hard to sustain drives that way, and hard to get a lot receivers involved, where everybody is eating.

November 3, 2022

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