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A heaping helping of Jets Whispers . . .
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif didn’t practice today and was working on a side field.
I saw him get hurt with 4:33 left in the first quarter in Seattle, on a 12-yard run to the the left side by Ty Johnson.
It might have been hard to see on the TV feed, but he got chopped, pulling in the open field. He got up limping pretty bad, and I’m surprised he was able to play the last three quarters.
Perhaps adreneline helped him push through, but on the five hour flight home, the knee stiffened up quite a bit.
Maybe it’s coincidence, but after this play, the Jets had no success running the ball. The Jets had three big chunk runs early in this game, the aforementioned 12-yarder, a 19-yard run by Zonovan Knight, and a 22-yard run by Johnson on their first series.
The rest of the game, they ran 14 times for 22 yards.
LDT is a very good run blocker.
Not making excuses, but just trying to figure out why their running game stalled after the 12-yard Johnson run. It went south the rest of the game, against a team you can run on . . .
“When you look at what Sam (Darnold) is doing in Carolina, doing a really nice job, and Geno (Smith) just from a relatable standpoint,” Robert Saleh said when asked about Zach Wilson. “These guys take time and we’re going to give them that time.”
This is a slippery slope when running a football operation. If you think every player is going to turn it around by giving him ample time to develop, that perhaps isn’t the case. The NFL landscape is littered with examples where that didn’t work. And has Darnold really turned it around in Carolina? They are running the ball great and throwing low-risk passes, and they lost a must-win game to Pittsburgh two weeks ago. And NFL insiders are reporting that noted QB expert David Tepper will be looking hard for a QB this year after his Panthers have been spinning their wheels at the position.
Robert Saleh’s believe in people is a nice thing, but Joe Douglas can’t subscribe to the “time heals all wounds” philosophy with players, because it can sink your football operation.
And by the way, Geno Smith has been better this year, but before the Jets game, Seattle had lost three straight, and barring a miracle, ended their playoff hopes. And as you saw in that Jets game, he’s okay, but let’s not put him in Canton. He had two nice throws to tight ends, who the Jets struggle covering, a 12-yard TD to 6-7 Cody Parkinson, being covered by a player he literally had a foot on, and a 29-yarder to Noah Fant, who nobody covered down the right seam. He also had that improvised flip pass while under duress to running back D.J. Dallas that went for 41-yards. Aside from those three plays, what did he really do?
So I’m not sure if Darnold or Smith are great examples of guys who turned it around with time. They have both improved a little this year, but not sure either is great long-term answer.
I’m not saying Wilson can’t get better. I’m not saying that at all, but you can’t fall into a trap thinking it’s just time . . .
Watching over the game on the flight back from Seattle, I don’t think Mike White played as bad as some would tell you. Of course the two picks were bad, and I’m not defending them. But as I mentioned, they flat out could not run the ball after the LDT injury, there were two drops on key third downs (Garrett Wilson and Corey Davis), and some awful pass protection on a number of third downs.
There were a lot of good throws mixed in, and I wonder, if the pick, on the pass to Garrett Wilson, if the receiver was at the right landmark. These QB’s throw to spots, and if the receiver isn’t there, the QB can look like the bad guy.
Once again, not his best performance, but if you can’t see this guy is an option for them next season, maybe stay off Twitter, which isn’t exactly a Mensa Meeting.
January 4, 2023
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