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Morris County – One thing I noticed
watching Joe Flacco in practice, was he was making quick decisions, getting the ball out fast to his playmakers, allowing them to make plays.
Now granted, the media, can only watch a half-hour of practice, but even within this limited time, I could see it.
It will be good for Sam Darnold to watch this in practice and games for the next week or two.
Darnold needs to speed up his internal clock a tick. That is quite obvious. We saw that on the play he got hurt.
Remember what Joe Douglas said right before the season.
“Just watching him, his ability to digest Adam’s playbook and just operate at a quicker pace,” said Douglas. “You know, there’s just that half second, quicker decision, quicker release.”
Flacco should be able to do this, and Darnold will learn watching him do it . . .
It remains a strong possibility that George Fant will be the Jets’ left tackle this week, and that is a heck of backup plan to fill-in for Mekhi Becton, who is nursing a shoulder injury.
Usually when you lose your starting left tackle in this league, you are screwed. Quality left tackle, big guys with arms like vines and the feet of a dancing bear, are so hard to find.
The Jets have two of them. Fant, a former college basketball player at Western Kentucky, is a bona fide left tackle, but clearly he’s playing right tackle due to the drafting of Becton.
But having him at left tackle this week, which is a strong possibility, will do wonders for the Jets ability to protect Joe Flacco’s blindside.
Chuma Edoga will likely take over for Fant at right tackle . . .
The Jets need to get more athletic and mobile on defense, so expect to see a lot of these four players moving forward – Bryce Huff, Frankie Luvu, Tarrel Bashem and John Franklin-Myers.
All these guys have flashed top-shelf athleticism at times this season, and the Jets are going to need players like this, especially this week against the super-mobile Kyle Murray.
Franklin-Myers, a waiver claim from the St. Louis Rams at the end of camp in 2019, looks like a keeper. It was surprising the Rams waived him (he played for them in the previous Super Bowl), and this was a smart waiver claim by Joe Douglas . . .
Speaking of smart additions by Douglas last year, the Jets should have wide receiver Vyncint Smith back this week from a sports hernia. The Jets signed him off the Houston Texans practice squad in September, 2019. Smith has world class speed.
“The guy is obviously a vertical threat,” Jets coach Adam Gase. “It’s nice to get one of those 4.3 guys back, we’ve got a couple other guys still sitting in the training room, but anytime you’ve got that vertical presence it changes things for the defense.”
No need to focus on guys in the trainer’s room, not a good cultural thing to do, but getting Vyncint Smith will really help the Jets. He can will not only help them at receiver, but as a kick returner.
Having the speedy Smiths out there – Vincyint and Jeff, who both run under 4.4, will open things up for the Jets running game, and give Flacco some interesting options down field . . .
There has been a lot of talk this week from Jets players and coaches about how the Jets need to play smarter on defense.
Obviously the reason this is being brought up is because of the penalties, and as it should have been.
However, one thing people aren’t focusing enough on is playing smarter with assignments in coverage, setting the edge and situational football.
The Jets are giving up too many “free plays” as they say in the football world. “Free plays” are things like easy uncontested catches down field. Look, teams are going to make plays on you, but you don’t want so many plays that are easy throws that look like something out of a seven-on-seven practice drill.
October 8, 2020
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