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There is no way around it.
Zach Wilson has rare arm talent.
He can throw from so many different arm angles with ease.
What makes him such a weapon as a thrower is the combination of making quick decisions, having a quick release and then the ball comes out with major RPM’s.
That is going to a lot of good results, because it’s hard for defensive backs to jump his routes.
I’m not going to provide you with any stats that you might see other places, because those are wacky in non-tackle football where you can’t touch the QB, but one throw that illustrates his special arm talent was in the 7-on-7 drill, a rocket to the back of the end zone to Daniel Brown, in pretty tight coverage. It was an absolute rocket put in the perfect spot for the tight end to grab it, with safety Jordyn Peters in coverage . . .
As the cliche goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” and that certainly applies to the Jets rebuild, vis-a-vis their cornerback position.
They certainly added some impactful talent in free agency and the draft this off-season, but it’s hard to fill every need, and cornerback got a little bit of the short shrift.
And you saw the negative impact of that today on the practice field, as quarterbacks like Zach Wilson and Mike White were completing passes all over the lot today. Obviously, in a football practice, there is often a positive and negative for the team on every play. In other words, if there is a nice offensive play, that usually means there was perhaps a bad defensive play, and vice versa.
Now granted, Bless Austin was out today with some undisclosed minor injury (he was working on the rehab field), but the Rutgers product isn’t a slam dunk starter and clearly still a work-in-progress.
With Austin out, rookie fifth-round pick Jason Pinnock was starting. Pinnock has potential, but is very raw, and for him to be the first man in, due to an injury, points to a thin CB situation.
Not sure where the Jets can turn for help at this point. In June, generally all the good free agent corners are locked up, because they are so hard to find. Where do you turn? Richard Sherman? Dre Kirkpatrick?
There will probably be a waiver claim in the summer from San Francisco’s deep cornerback room, but once again, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and with all their needs, the Jets probably weren’t able to add enough at cornerback, and they might have to wait until 2022 to truly make this a position of strength, and just get by this year with baling wire and duct tape . . .
The Jets’ best corner might be Bryce Hall, and he was beat deep today by Elijah Moore. Hall if a solid player, but doesn’t seem to be a burner, and Moore got by him down the right sideline for a nice connection with Wilson . . .
A big problem for Jets corners today was wide receiver Braxton Berrios, who was consistently cutting away from cover guys with his elite short-area quickness . . .
Spotted Jets new game management coach Matt Burke on the field today, and he was in constant communication with Robert Saleh, clearly going over game and clock management scenarios as they came up . . .
Still haven’t seen safety Ashtyn Davis on the practice field this spring, but he’s been in meetings. The guess here is that the foot injury that landed him on IR late last season was more serious than most of us realized. Expect Saleh to be asked about Davis’ status at his Thursday presser, so we will have an update then.
June 8, 2021
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