After Reviewing Titans Film, Jets OC LaFleur Hopefully Learned That “11” Is Heaven For Wilson
London calling Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur with a reminder: To build on the team’s first victory of the season over the Titans last week, the more playmakers you can put on the Tottenham Hotspur New Stadium field against the similarly 1-3 Falcons on Sunday the better.
I can’t believe I have to repeat this, but hopefully that was LaFleur’s obvious takeaway after reviewing last week’s game film If not, he should go check out NFL.com, which put together a highlight package of quarterback Zach Wilson’s 13 best plays last Sunday. What do you know--all but two, including all nine in the second half, occurred when the Jets lined up with at least three wide receivers on the field.
The so-called 11 personal package, with one running back and one tight end, generated an average of 10.1 yards per play on Sunday, according to SharpFootballStats.com. Too bad it was only used on slightly less than half the Jets’ snaps, including just 9 of 24 snaps in the first half.
It’s true that a couple of 50-yard Wilson bombs skewed the numbers, but, as I wrote in my postgame column, that’s supposed to be what you want out of a modern NFL offense—explosive plays.
Through three-plus games, LaFleur was stuck in some time-warped universe where handing the ball off to substandard running backs, abetted by multiple awful tight ends in the formation, was a sustainable plan to generate points. My goodness, the Jets haven’t even been able to run successfully out of jumbo personnel packages with two or more of Tyler Kroft, Ryan Griffin and Trevon Wesco on the field. On the season, they’ve gained 3.3 yards per rush attempt when lining up with multiple tight ends or with Wesco at fullback alongside a tight end.
And the times when Wilson has dropped back to pass in those personnel packages, how could anyone expect that he’d be efficient when handicapped by so few capable receivers in the pattern? The Jets are averaging 4.9 yards on 41 dropbacks with four of his league-high eight interceptions with personnel packages featuring multiple tight ends and 7.2 yards per dropback on all other pass play snaps.
By the way, this particular analysis isn’t a plea for more opportunities for wide receiver Denzel Mims, who not only wasn’t targeted on any of his 10 offensive snaps in his first active duty since the opener on Sunday, but he also wasn’t even on the field to act as gravity for any of the aforementioned big plays. Even if Mims goes back into LaFleur’s doghouse with the expected return of rookie receiver Elijah Moore out of the concussion protocol on Sunday, that doesn’t mean that the Jets should go back to the heavier packages that too often hamstring Wilson.
Maybe LaFleur was pacing slot receiver Jamison Crowder, who made his first appearance of the season following a groin injury, last week. Crowder lined up for 38 of the Jets’ 61 (62%) offensive snaps, producing 7 receptions for 61 yards and a touchdown, or 1 reception, 15 yards, and a touchdown more than Kroft has accumulated in four games this season. Again, if you think keeping Kroft on the field for 46 snaps as an extra tight end is helping the Jets’ running game, ProFootballFocus.com would like to have a word with you. PFF ranks Kroft 45th out of 54 tight ends in the league with at least 50 run snaps in run blocking grades this season.
Wide receiver Keelan Cole went deep for a couple of huge chunk plays on Sunday, yet he was granted 36 snaps while Griffin (1 catch for 8 yards) got 35 snaps. These personnel decisions makes no sense. Why on Earth would a coach choose to limit his number of playmakers on the field? You get five skill positions outside of the quarterback and about half the time LaFleur actually prefers to waste two of them on players with little skill.
Kroft has yet to practice this week due to a back injury and won’t make the trip to England, but don’t count out former 49ers assistant LaFleur when it comes to preserving his sacred Kyle Shanahan blueprint and its devotion to tight ends, as if they’re all George Kittle. Daniel Brown has dressed every game mostly to play special teams, where he has registered all of one assisted tackle. In seven offensive snaps, he has yet to register even one blip on the radar—no targets on five pass routes, per PFF. In addition, the Jets could always call up Kenny Yeboah from the practice squad—he was a designated a protected player last week, most likely as an emergency replacement for Kroft had he not been able to go versus the Titans.
In his weekly press conference on Thursday, LaFleur continued to hit some sour notes. He’s a true believer that all those two-and-three-yard first-half runs out of 12 or 21 personnel “kept the defense honest” and had a positive impact on the second-half passing game.
Please. In an NFL oddity, Wilson was significantly more successful without play-action (17-for-22, 221 yards) than when the defense supposedly had to respect the run with a play-action fake (4-for-12, 76 yards), according to PFF. Folks, the only thing all those handoffs did was put Wilson behind the chains.
As for this Sunday, maybe LaFleur will change it up and hit the Falcons early—he has to be embarrassed that the Jets have managed to score just three first-quarter points all season. OC’s are supposed to script the first 15-odd plays, so the fact that the team has yet to succeed in them begs for another approach.
LaFleur has the personnel to go with extra wideouts—it’s one of the deepest position groups on the team. Only his stubbornness has prevented the Jets from getting the most out of them on the field.
Prediction: Jets 23 Falcons 20