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There is perception and reality.
The perception, based on bad information that was being peddled, was that QB Mike White wasn’t very good, and the Jets needed to go out and get another #2 QB.
I can’t tell you how many times I heard somebody say in a condescending fashion, “They can’t go with Mike White.”
And never understood this, based on what I saw last summer, this spring and this summer.
The anti-White narrative wasn’t based on reality.
Remember, this is a QB who was drafted (5th round to Dallas in 2018), and a player Joe Douglas made a beeline for when the Cowboys released him after training camp in 2019.
And he’s been with the Jets ever since, bouncing between the practice squad and regular roster.
He outplayed Sam Darnold in the 2020 training camp.
Watching him the last couple of years, in practice, and in a few preseason games, I’ve seen a quarterback who smoothly goes through his progressions, is accurate and is a full field reader. He also has good size (6-5, 225), a terrific arm and very smart.
There is a lot to like here and Douglas, Robert Saleh and Mike LaFleur know this, so it looks like he is going to be the #2 QB.
And if something happens to Wilson, I think fans will be pleasantly surprised at his White’s game. The stuff that you were hearing about him not being very good was inaccurate and snooty . . .
Even with his great performance against the Philadelphia Eagles in the third preseason game, I told people who asked, that I believed Josh Adams was going to be cut.
We all know how political the final cuts can be.
Who was he going to beat out, 2021 fourth-round pick Michael Carter, 202o fourth-round pick La’Mical Perine, 2020 waiver claim Ty Johnson or 2021 free agent addition Tevin Coleman, who was with LaFleur and Saleh in San Francisco?
So barring an injury, he could have walked on water, he wasn’t going to make it.
None of us were born yesterday. We know how this works.
Now, I’m not saying he’s out of the picture. If he’s not claimed, he will likely be back on the practice squad.
Just like with the inside swing offensive line job, like I mentioned yesterday, based on the finances, there was no way Corey Levin was going to beat out Dan Feeney, and now you can throw Jimmy Murray in there, who was released today. Levin and Murray make the league minimum with no guaranteed money, and Feeney is guaranteed $3 million, so of course Feeney beat out Levin and Murray.
Like Adams, Levin and Murray could be back, but if anybody thinks these decisions are purely based on training camp and preseason performances, they are kidding themselves. It usually doesn’t work that way.
It’s a shame that these aren’t pure meritocracies based solely based on performance, but they are not, and it’s naive to think they are.
Now, of course, if somebody is beyond awful throughout the spring and summer, perhaps a team will eat some guaranteed money, and move on from a player, but the overarching point here, is there are a lot of politics involved with these cuts . . .
As I went to press here, Chris Herndon was traded to the Minnesota Vikings for a 4th round pick. The Jets sent a sixth-round pick to Minnesota in the trade.
We brought up the possibility of Herndon being traded the other day due to the Jets depth at tight end (which might not exist anymore, for the time being, with only two guys left – Tyler Kroft and Trevon Wesco).
Herndon needed a change of scenery with the so much negativity from the media and fans directed at him. The well has been poisoned. He could turn out to be a steal for Minnesota, which is down two tight ends right now – Irv Smith and Tyler Conklin.
August 31, 2021
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