Looking at the areas of the field Morris Claiborne has been targeted

If you’ve been following along here at Gang Green Nation, you know I’ve been running a weekly series charting the numbers accumulated by each individual Jet in pass coverage.

Today, I decided to do a little spin on my usual coverage breakdown. I went back and charted all of the targets against Jets cornerback Morris Claiborne, putting them on a graphic to showcase exactly where on the field Claiborne has seen his targets.

The chart below showcases all of the targets thrown at Claiborne as the primary defender, showing the distance of the throw from the line of scrimmage and the horizontal location on the field.

Claiborne has predominantly operated at right cornerback, opposite of Trumaine Johnson who has usually lined up on the left side. When Johnson missed this past week’s Broncos game, Claiborne remained at home on the right side, while Darryl Roberts covered for Johnson on the left side.

You might notice that most of Claiborne’s targets are near the sideline. I’ve picked up that Claiborne has for the most part elected for a bend-but-don’t-break mentality. When isolated outside without safety help, he often opens up to the inside as to prevent production towards the middle of the field and over the top. He’s done a very good job sticking to go routes and and breaking on action towards the middle of the field, but this has left him susceptible to the out route. This is where he has given up a lot of his production. Here, Demaryius Thomas takes advantage. (Top)

However, a big reason Claiborne has had such a solid start to the year is that when he has been in position on the out route, he has made quite a few plays on the football near the sideline. He already has 7 passes defended on the year, 1 shy of his career high and tied for 2nd in the league entering Week 6.

What do you take away from Claiborne’s target chart?

In addition, what do you think of the target chart in general? Is it something you would like to see for the other cornerbacks? Is there anything else you would like to see accounted for on the chart (zone vs. man, slot vs. outside, etc.)?

Let me know any thoughts or suggestions you have for the idea of the target chart!