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While nobody meant any harm. it’s far from ideal, if you want to build a strong football culture, to call a rookie “great player.”
You know what Bill Parcells always said about praising young players too fast – “Let’s not put him in Canton just yet.”
Somebody from the team tweeted out on Wednesday – “Not only is Olu Fashanu a great player but a great teammate.”
No doubt he’s a great teammate, and has the potential to be a great player, but even he would admit he’s not there yet.
Late in the Jets’ loss to Miami, veteran defensive end Calais Campbell beat Fashanu and this made Aaron Rodgers move up on the pocket and defensive tackle Zach Sieler sacked him.
Look, Campbell is a great player, a likely Hall-of-Famer, and Fashanu is playing well, but like a lot of young players, he still has a lot to work on, so perhaps we should hold off calling him “great” at this point.
Just like they were heaping praise on rookie running back Isaiah Davis on social media for his first career TD against Seattle, when in the same game, he did a poor job on blitz pickup on cornerback Colby Bryant on the Jets’ last offensive play, an incomplete pass to Garrett Wilson that fluttered because Aaron Rodgers was hit as he threw.
Once again, not looking to attack Davis, who is a terrific prospect, just talking about how it’s not great for a culture to praise rookies like this, especially after games they had rough plays.
So it goes beyond just plugging in a new GM and coach, and keeping everything the same. Other things need to be tweaked around the new GM and coach.
Parcells, a brilliant football mind, didn’t repeat his “Canton” quote ad infinitum to be cute, but he believed in his soul it was not a good idea to heap praise on young players too soon . . .
Speaking of praise, Jets coach Jeff Ulbrich had some for defensive end Haason Reddick on Wednesday.
“Everything that we had seen on tape that made us pursue him as hard as we did has showed up,” Ulbrich said.
In six games as a Jets, Reddick has five solo tackles and half a sack . . .
During the broadcast on Sunday, CBS analyst Trent Green raved about Aaron Rodgers’ movement skills and his ability to create extra time, not as a scrambler, but around the pocket. On Wednesday, I asked Rodgers about what Green said.
“I’ve never been a runner like some of the great athletic guys in the League, even Josh (Allen) in Buffalo I never had his top end speed or his ability to run people over, but I’ve always been able to move around the pocket a little bit and make plays outside the pocket, throw the ball in the run,” Rodgers said. “Last couple of weeks I felt a lot better physically and I feel like I played some better football.”
One of his better plays in this regard was actually on an incompletion, when Emmanuel Ogbah burst up the middle and got to Rodgers, and he evaded the defensive end, rolled right and threw to Davis in the end zone, incomplete.
People who claim he looks old out there, and can’t move, clearly aren’t watching the tape. Granted there were a few games earlier in the year when he was dealing with some lower body injuries, and perhaps wasn’t as nimble, but now healthier, you can see his movement skills around the pocket are still very good.
And this skill is much more important than straight-line speed. Tom Brady never had great speed, and excelled at doing this, even in his 40s.
And Rodgers, when healthy, still excels at this as well, and this skillset was on full display in Miami . . .
It would be surprising if the Jets break their losing streak in Jacksonville.
The Jaguars broke their five-game losing streak, beating another bad team, Tennessee 10-6.
Going from facing QB Will Levis to Rodgers is quite a contrast.
And the Jags are starting Mac Jones at QB for Trevor Lawrence who is on IR. In three starts, Jones has two touchdowns to five interceptions.
Rodgers vs. Jones, at the all-important QB position, is kind of a mismatch. The Jets will certainly be able to keep up with the Joneses on the scoreboard, and then some.
The Jets have been close in so many games, and they are likely to break through in one of these games, and don’t be shocked if this is the one . . .
Jets rookie cornerback Quantez Stiggers, who missed the last game with an illness, is still wearing a mask around the Jets’ facility, like he did last week.
December 12, 2024
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