On one hand, a good NFL offense prioritizes getting the ball to their most impactful weapons. Of the Jets’ first 26 plays during their Week 1 loss at San Francisco, 21 went to either running back Breece Hall or wide receiver Garrett Wilson.
Yet outside of one quality touchdown drive, Gang Green’s offense was stymied, with three three-and-outs and a pair of turnovers that helped the 49ers to a 26-7 lead with about 3:30 remaining in the third quarter. The same thing happened at the start of Sunday’s contest at Tennessee, where Hall received 9 touches in the Jets’ first 12 offensive snaps where the others resulted in an Aaron Rodgers sack, an intentional grounding, and a give-up 4-yard completion to rookie Malachi Corley on a 3rd-and-22. Again, the Jets fell behind, with the good fortune from two boneheaded plays by Titans quarterback Will Levis limiting the damage to 7-0 midway through the second quarter.
You see, defenses typically attempt to take away what offenses do best, and in New York’s case, that’s handoffs/swing passes to Hall and throws targeted toward Wilson. Jets Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett’s scripted first 15 plays or so might as well have been e-mailed to his two opponents in advance, that’s how prepared they were for them.
Only when they diversified their ball distribution a bit did New York get into some semblance of a rhythm. Allen Lazard had two touchdown receptions in Week 1 (albeit one in garbage time from backup QB Tyrod Taylor) and then Braelon Allen, 20, hit paydirt twice on Sunday, including the game-winning 20-yard TD run with 4:31 remaining.
As I mentioned in my previous post, the Jets scoring three offensive touchdowns in both contests equals the number of times they accomplished that feat all last season., so it’s hard to complain. Still, it feels like some offensive pieces have been underutilized. After all, an offensive set includes a QB, five linemen, and five “skill position” players. That’s three more besides Hall and Wilson. In total, they have 33 touches/targets through two games compared with 61 for the Hall/Wilson duo.
It was good to see Allen get the call 11 times on Sunday—and I hope he’s featured more often as the short-yardage back going forward—but here are a few others that need to be more involved for the Jets offense to really take off to the next level:
Mike Williams
One of Sunday’s biggest plays was a 19-yard Rodgers-to-Williams connection to pick up a 2nd-and-16 on that go-ahead Jets drive. It showcased both Rodgers’ ability to put balls in places where only his receiver can get to it and Williams’ extraordinary knack for coming down on contested catch opportunities. Titans cornerback Chidobe Awuzie was in Williams’ grill along the left sideline with his left hand tucked between Williams’ arms and body as the ball came down, yet Williams went up higher to secure the completion.
We all know that the Jets have been careful with their free-agent acquisition’s ramp-up from ACL surgery last season, but this isn’t entirely about his snap count, which increased from 9 to 37 over the two games. Per ProFootballFocus.com, Williams has run 30 routes this season and the play above was his only target. The 0.63 yards per route run is obviously affected by the small sample size (and Rodgers’ prior chemistry with Lazard from their Green Bay days), but the appropriate question at this point is “Where should it be?”
WR2s typically produce at about 1.5 yards per route run, though Williams’ number was often close to 2.0 due to his higher-than-normal average gain per reception (Wilson was 1.55 last season, but that was with the Terrible Trio of Zach Wilson, Tim Boyle and Trevor Siemian at QB). So no matter where Williams ends up this season, be it an average of 3-4 catches per game for around 50 yards, it definitely has to be more than 1-for-19.
The Tight Ends
Every training camp for the last three years, the Jets media raves about Ty Conklin. The tight end was targeted often at camp practices, provoking predictions for monster seasons. While he has certainly been better than average in terms of production, catching 61 and 58 balls, respectively, in his first two seasons in New York, it still felt like he had more to offer for which the Jets dreadful QB play couldn’t oblige.
But even with Rodgers now settled in under center, Conklin has been a lot less involved in the first two games of 2024, with 2 receptions on just 4 targets for 16 yards (0.29 yards per route run). TE2 Jeremy Ruckert, who was expected to make a bit of a leap in Year 3, has been nearly invisible, with just two errant balls thrown his way. Considering all the attention paid to Hall and Wilson, you’d think either of these two would be open from neglect more often.
This is on Rodgers as well as the coaching staff. He seems most comfortable gripping-and-ripping off the catch from the shotgun snap, and that’s usually to the quickest guys off the line. Or Hall behind the line scrimmage, where half his targets this season have travelled. When those plays aren’t open, Rodgers has often looked skittish, wary of what he lost in mobility following last year’s surgery to repair a ruptured Achilles, even though the offensive line has boasted the league’s fourth-best pass blocking efficiency as measured by PFF’s pressures allowed counts.
Head Coach Robert Saleh and Hackett, though, would do their team a favor in Thursday’s home opener versus New England by not being so predictable in the early going. The hard-headed “Feed Hall” approach doesn’t work against most NFL defenses that know it’s coming. The Patriots, with their safe, run-oriented attack, will more than likely fold if they have to play catch-up.
So stop game-planning like they still have Zach Wilson calling signals.
Prediction: Jets 23 Patriots 17
I’m a Jets Way guy. David mentioned about Saleh defending Hackett
My response
It’s nice to see Coach DejaVu is in full BS mid season Hackett protection mode.
Hey Coach, your fan base is pretty sophisticated, they all just didn’t ride into town on a hay wagon with a piece of straw hanging out of the side of their mouths, saying “ Howdy neighbors.
I noticed DejaVu didn’t mention how the team was burning up timeouts because the plays weren’t being called in fast enough.
Hackett’s offense is so vanilla, every ice cream manufacturer in the U.S. wants Hackett’s formula so they can improve their product.
Try googling Hackett’s name with the word innovator in the same sentence, it doesn’t exist.
We saw JD this past draft working feverishly trying to get a pick back into the second round so that the Jets could get a talented wide receiver.
When they finally were able to trade up they took Corley.
Video shows everyone in the war room high fiving each other when the Corley pick was announced. Rumor has it that Woody and his brother Clueless Chris avoided the camera so that they could do an Irish Jig together.
The videos of Corley’s college career were exciting, platitudes about him being something special were endless.
Two games into his NFL career, Corley under the dynamic play calling of Coach Vanilla Bean Hackett shows 1 target, 1 reception for 7 yards.
You have a better chance of seeing Corley on a milk carton than on the field for the Jets.
For the love of god, could someone in Florham Park grow a set of balls and replace Hackett. Stop placating Rodgers.
The goal of NFL teams is to win games not win friends.
Rumor has it that the Jets talked to Arthur Smith about bringing him in to help Hackett.
That would have been such a typical Jet move. Bring in the second worst play caller in the league to help the worse play caller.
Nothing like adding gasoline to a fire.