Motivations of Hank Poteat Signing
The Hank Poteat signing by the Jets might have raised some eyebrows, as it gives the Jets a disproportionate number of defensive backs on a team that has a roster completely out of whack as it is. But if the old “eye test” or “smell test” when watching the Jets defense has not been enough to convince you on why this move needed to be made, here’s some proof from our friends at Football Outsiders on just how terrible the Jets are when it comes to defending anyone other than the WR1 or WR2.
To explain, 0% is considered average, so negative numbers further from 0% are better. The bigger the positive number, the worse the team’s defense is against that particular receiver. The second number indicates the rank in the league the team is at defending against that particular player-type.
(Click on the image if you need to enlarge it)
Reading that was like a Godsmack.
As you can see. Revis is the real deal, clearly a top ten corner in a little over a year in the league. After just three games, Dwight Lowery is holding up decently considering his situation as an unproven rookie playing with no net across from one of the league’s best. It’s when teams faces slot receivers, tight ends or running backs that this team team is absolutely crippled.
Coming out of the Miami game, many of you readers astutely pointed out that the secondary receivers killed the Jets back eight, and it seems they are continuing to do so. Drew Coleman has been abysmal in the slot, and with Justin Miller’s return up in the air, the team needed to get better at the position quickly, especially with one of the leagues youngest, and best, receiving tandems coupled with some good pass catching runners. Rumor is, it’s a good thing the Jets signed Poteat when they did, because the Bengals were interested in him as well, according to The Daily News’ Rich Cimini.
Although David Barrett has proven helpful at times (like his pick six) at safety, the play there has been lackluster overall. Rhodes has had a quiet start to his season, Abram Elam has rarely been seen on the field, and Eric Smith is now entering Brian Russell status in terms of “please remind me how the hell you continue to play in this league?” For all the money the Jets spent in the offseason on the front seven, unless the team can turn up the pressure (which Sutton seems unable to do when it matters) this secondary is going to get exposed more and more in the coming weeks.
I’m just thankful that the bye week is coming, which means Mangini will take over the playcalling again for the third year in a row. Here’s to hoping that Rob Ryan or Romeo need a job this coming offseason.
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This may not hurt us so much this week vs. Arizona, since they don’t throw much to their secondary receivers, backs and tight ends. Almost everything goes to Boldin or Fitzgerald. and of course that’s not a bad strategy when you have a tandem like that. Revis and Lowery can’t be expected to shut them down, but at least they can slow them down and keep them from having huge games.
We should also be able to do a good job against the Arizona running game that’s nothing special.
Rhodes not blitzing much untill latre in the SD game was really bad on sutton’s part and I havent seen a CB blits ummm since ummm, preseason?
Two problems with this article Bassett.
1.) While the numbers prove what the eyes reveal, that Revis and Lowery have played great and Drew Coleman, Eric Smith, Barrett and others have been inept, it is less clear whether it is all talent and not scheme. IOW, perhaps the TE and third WR are not being covered similarly by scheme. Remember when Harris was supposedly responsible for a WR deep?
2.) More importantly, the issue is not signing Poteat. The stupidity is keeping the players who have not performed and necessitated his signing. Why let an OL go? If he was incompetent too, replace him with another OL who might perform better. But there is no reason to add Hank unless we subtract one of those who caused his signing.
Harlan
Bassett-
Thank you for your “quiet” aggravation about the roster and how badly the secondary has been. I was wondering if anyone was actually watching the Jets or were too busy talking about great the Jets are.
As for the roster, it’s just bizarre.
Go Harlan!
Harlan is right…add a DB…subtract a DB.
Unless he can kick field goals or punt…Drew Coleman should be gone.
harlan i think you made two great points. the scheme might be what needs overhauling not the corners. even so, it’s clear there’s a gap that that has not been addressed by swapping personnel or by scheme
as far as swapping DBs, it’s a good one, and if they did Ahmad Carroll should be the first out the door. I’m thinking it’s something they needed to do for this week for gameplanning, and although I think that montgomery will be back pretty soon.
I think D Coleman has actually played the deep ball fairly well and is worth keeping to back up Lowery and Revis. The problem is that, since Ray Mickens left town, the team has had no one who’s played nickel particularly well.
However, though I’m not nearly as down on the CS overall as some posters, I suspect the slot/underneath weakness has more to do with scheme than talent.