The New York Jets are in the middle of another disappointing season. This one stings more than more most. They’ve traded away multiple franchise players, Aaron Glenn has struggled to find his groove as a head coach, and the team simply doesn’t have many players to root for.
So, in an effort to find something, anything, to keep myself interested in a lost season, I went on a search to find those players that have stood out among the wreck. And to my surprise there were a fair few that I found myself wanting
to highlight.
Now, these guys aren’t going to be full-time starters, they won’t play premium positions, but they are potential building blocks that could end up playing a role on the next Jets team. And that means something in a year that would otherwise be just a vehicle to the next rebuild.
Jowon Briggs, DT
Jowon Briggs came to the Jets as a cast out. The downtrodden Cleveland Browns decided they had enough interior D-Line depth and could send off a promising young player. After all, when you spend a top-5 pick on a DT, you don’t really need to hold onto the Day 3 guy from last year.
The Browns’ loss has been the Jets’ gain. For next to nothing, the Jets have found a starting-caliber DT. And he’s going to get a shot to start, and play over 30 snaps a game, the rest of the season with Quinnen Williams now in Dallas.
Where Briggs has really excelled is as a pass rusher. He has a 14.2% pressure rate this season as a pass rusher. That’s the best mark in the NFL among DTs with at least 100 pass rush snaps. Now, is Briggs likely to keep that up with more snaps? That’s the big question, isn’t it? We have two games of proof for that, and well he has 11 pressures in 41 pass rush snaps in those two games. That’s an insane 26.8% pressure rate. Now, those numbers aren’t sustainable, but that 14.2% number? It’s highly unlikely that Briggs will be able to maintain an NFL-best pass rush rate for the rest of the season, but he doesn’t have to. If he’s above average that’s a massive win for the Jets.
Now, that doesn’t mean Briggs is a future All-Pro bottled up. He has his flaws. Top of the list is that he’s been an incredibly poor run defender. He has just a 61.1 run defense grade and a 52.4 tackle grade. He’s missed over 11% of his tackles this season, including one in each of the last two games. Both Cleveland and New England took advantage of Briggs poor run defense. And as a DT, it’s going to be hard to see the field as a starter with poor run defense.
The honest truth is that Briggs is likely to be a rotational pass-rushing DT if he’s on the next good Jets team. But, the potential is there for more. If Aaron Glenn and his staff can continue to develop the 24-year-old Briggs, they may have acquired a diamond for a pittance.
Austin McNamara, P
Spout all the jokes you want about a punter being on this list. Get it out of your system before we dive into the numbers, because Austin McNamara is not just a good punter, he’s an elite one. In fact, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that McNamara could end up on an All-Pro team this season.
McNamara has a number of outstanding stats, all minimum 50% of punts taken. His net punt average is 5th in the NFL. He has the 4th lowest return rate, and the best hangtime in the NFL. One stat that is disappointing is that McNamara is only 14th in punts downed inside the 20, but a lot of that has to do with the poor punting position the Jets are in. When most drives end inside your own 40, it’s hard to pin opponents deep. But McNamara only has 3 touchbacks this season.
Put all this together, and you get the picture of an elite punter who’s doing his best to keep the Jets in games by winning the field position battle. And when you’re a bad team that needs any advantage they can get to help them win, that’s massive.
It’s possible that McNamara, only 24-years-old, may end up the longest tenured Jet at some point in his career. And while that may be wild to say, it’s easy to think about.
Malachi Moore, S
Malachi Moore came into the season with higher expectations than the average Day 3 pick. He came in as an over-age, 4 year starter from Alabama. Even though he was only a 4th round pick, it was almost expected that he would get the vast majority of snaps as a starter at safety this year. And that’s exactly what’s happened. Moore has solidified himself as a starter on this team playing opposite of Andre Cisco.
While that may not seem like a lot, it’s worth talking about how he’s looked as a starter. Since taking over the starting job full-time in Week 6, Moore has graded out 17th in defense grade among safeties. That’s not great, but a top-20 safety on Day 3 as a rookie? That’s a pretty good outcome. It looks a lot better when you break down the individual stats as well.
Moore has allowed just a 36.4% completion percentage since Week 6, 2nd best among all safeties. His 31 yards allowed in those 5 games is 4th best. And he’s allowed just a 44.9 passer rating, 5th best. Those coverage numbers are as elite as they come.
There’s a real shot that Moore is a long-term starting safety in the NFL. That’s a massive win on Day 3 where the average player doesn’t even reach the end of his 3rd season.
