Guidry Playing Big In Opportunity To Settle Jets Secondary Issues
Jets fans have had little to feel good about during this lost season—or any of the last half-dozen seasons for that matter—which makes it seem kind of silly to chirp about anyone’s feats for a 3-8 team that’s miles away from NFL relevancy.
So forgive me for blowing the horn for an underappreciated hidden gem General Manager Joe Douglas plucked out of the undrafted pile in the 2020 offseason. As someone who has been height-challenged my whole life, I can’t help feeling a little joyful watching Javelin Guidry play cornerback for the Jets.
Listed at 5-foot 9, Guidry is more suited to playing in the slot, his position at Utah, but rookie Michael Carter II beat him out in training camp, forcing Guidry to learn how to play outside against taller receivers in order to get on the field as the backup’s backup. When rookie Brandin Echols was felled by a quad injury during the Week 10 pummeling by Buffalo and then Isaiah Dunn, a 2021 undrafted free agent, blew a key coverage against Miami the following week, it gave Guidry an opportunity to start in Houston last Sunday.
Guidry’s contributions in New York’s 21-14 victory, its first on the road this season, were underrated by most, but not be me. No one cheers louder when the undersized stand tall.
The results when Guidry has been thrust into service haven’t always been pretty—All Pro wideout Stefon Diggs took him to school (3 receptions, 43 yards, 1 touchdown) when he was inserted mid-game in the Buffalo debacle—but it’s now two games where he was asked to step up for injured/benched teammates and earned stellar grades from ProFotballFocus.com in Jets’ victories—Guidry also replaced Echols for 85 snaps in New York’s 27-24 upset over Tennessee in Week 4.
On Sunday, Guidry played all 57 of the Jets’ defensive snaps, mostly at right cornerback. According to PFF, in quarterback Tyrod Taylor’s 32 dropbacks, he only targeted Guidry’s receiver twice, completing neither. On one of those attempts, Guidry deftly swatted a pass away from Texans receiver Danny Amendola that spoiled a third-down conversion early in the fourth quarter. As for the other target, Taylor had no chance to connect with top receiver Brandin Cooks on a deep ball during Houston’s final possession, as Guidry had him blanketed.
Cooks, who entered the game with 59 receptions for 661 yards, beat Jets cornerback Bryce Hall for a 40-yard touchdown in the second quarter but was otherwise held in check—according to Jets X Factor, Guidry was the primary man in coverage against him on 20 of Taylor’s dropbacks.
In addition to his tremendous speed (his 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine was clocked at 4.29), Guidry plays with a physicality that masks size differentials. He’s not afraid to stick his nose into the fray, recording 30 combined tackles with just 1 miss, making him the league’s sixth-most efficient tackler among corners with at least 300 snaps this season, per PFF. Last season, he was credited with four forced fumbles in 171 snaps over 11 games, a startling rate.
More importantly in the grand defensive scheme of things, it’s his ability to stick with receivers off the line that has been most impressive. It forces opposing quarterbacks to hitch when they first plant their back foot, which in turn helps the Jets pass rush get that extra second to get home. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the Jets’ highest sack totals were reached in the games Guidry played the lion’s share of snaps at cornerback.
Hall, a fifth-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, has been New York’s highest graded cornerback by PFF, but opposing QBs have been able to find, quite easily in fact, other areas downfield to attack, which is why the Jets have surrendered the fourth-most passing yards per game in the league this season. If Guidry can consistently handle the opposite side without getting torched, the Jets defense will start to look more like what Head Coach Robert Saleh envisioned.
Sunday will pose a different kind of challenge because Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts is as much or more of a threat keeping the football and running it as he is throwing it. It will require disciplined games for a very young Jets secondary.
The Jets will need Guidry to once again come up big.