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One thing you can’t do in player evaluation
is listen to the noise. Ever.
And there is some noise around the Jets right now, some from the outside (media and fans), some from the inside (social media) about certain players, based on a good play here or there.
The film doesn’t lie, and I’m talking about all the film, not some highlights here and there.
What we’re seeing a lot of is “noise” evaluations, based on a highlight film play or two. What is the typical number of plays by an NFL team in a game? Probably around 50-60 on each side of the ball. Obviously that can vary, but you get the idea.
So with that many plays in a game, multiplied by 17 games now, isn’t it a mistake to look at a few highlight plays and make bold statements about a player being the answer?
In my worldview it is.
And would suspect Joe Douglas, Chad Alexander and Phil Savage feel the same way, since all are Baltimore disciples of one of the top GMs in NFL history – Ozzie Newsome.
If you want to build an elite program, you can’t listen to the noise on anything, let alone overrating players based on one or two highlight-film plays over the course of a long season. That is fool’s gold.
The Jets secondary had two picks in a loss to Miami. That unit still needs some reinforcements in the off-season, including a first-round corner, and a top-shelf safety with elite instincts . . .
And this brings us to Brandon Echols, who had an impressive Pick Six in the Jets’ loss to Miami. There is no taking away from this play. Any Pick Six in an NFL football game should be applauded. It’s not easy to do. If it was was, we would see more of them.
But for goodness sake, you go to the social media account, you would think we were talking about Deion Sanders.
I’m not looking to be flippant, and honestly what I’m about to write actually benefits the player more than what is being done on social media.
“Name a CB with a higher coverage grade than Brandin Echols in Week 15. (you can’t).” – Jets Twitter account.
Well first of all, that rating is from PFF, and that isn’t a coach’s evaluation. That comes from a service that doesn’t know the playbook or the assignments on every play. Most teams don’t use PFF for their player evaluations.
Secondly, in the same game, with that impressive Pix Six, he got beat down the left sideline deep for what could have been a long gain or TD, but Tua underthrew the receiver who had Echols beat by a few steps. It was a terrible pass and displayed Tua’s issues with arm strength. Echols got a PD on the play, which is somewhat misleading.
And if you want to buy into this PFF stuff, then look at his overall score on the season, which isn’t good. One fan pointed this out to the social media account.
“Now, take his score in every other game, add them up and divide by the amount of games and then we can talk,” tweeted Tibor.
Look, Echols has a place in this league, but probably as a fourth or fifth corner and core special team’s player.
He’s been up-and-down all year, which is totally understandable as a late-round rookie forced into the starting lineup.But for goodness sake, can we chill with the hype this week based on one play?
As Bill Parcells said over and over and over again when the media or fans praised a rookie, “Let’s not put him in Canton just yet fellas.”
Because he knows it’s very dangerous for their psyche and development . . .
With Robert Saleh testing positive for COVID-19, interesting decision by the Jets to make tight end coach Ron Middleton the interim coach. This is a guy who has been around the league a long time, and has paid his dues, and played under and learned a great deal from the legendary Joe Gibbs with the WFT. He is one of the greatest head coaches in NFL history. Middleton learned a ton from him.
The first thought when you need an interim coach is to go to one of the coordinators, but they have enough to focus on right now, so letting Middleton do it makes a ton of sense . . .
The Jets’ doctors (pictured above) have a lot on their plate this week. Aside from all the injuries to deal with, the team has 17 players (and the head coach) in COVID-19 protocol.
December 22, 2021
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