2018 New York Jets Coverage Stats: Week 10

The Jets were shellacked by a quarterback who entered the game with the 6th-worst era-adjusted quarterback rating in NFL history (among players with 250+ career passes) in Matt Barkley. Let’s take a look at which secondary members were picked on the most in this embarrassing outing.

Previous editions: Pre 1, Pre 2, Pre 3, Pre 4, W1-DET, W2-MIA, W3-CLE, W4-JAX, W5-DEN, W6-IND, W7-MIN, W8-CHI, W9-MIA

RULES

• The coverage numbers include only legitimate targets into the general area of a receiver/defender; throws in which a defender in coverage was directly involved the outcome. Throwaways and deflections at the line are excluded.
• The stats for each individual are that of the quarterback’s passing numbers when targeting the individual’s matchup. A player could receive coverage credit even if a teammate finished the play. For example, against Denver this season, Morris Claiborne tipped a pass in this direction that ended up being intercepted by Marcus Maye. I credited Claiborne with that interception.
• Penalties and pass breakups counted are only those accumulated in coverage. Penalties/PBUs picked up on blitzes, or penalties tackling another player’s responsibility, are not included. PBUs and INTs in the box score are not exclusive to one another.
• “Burns mitigated by opponent miscue,” or “miscues” (M) are included in charting to attempt to knock defenders who benefited from an egregious error by the offense (drop, horrible throw) and give perspective to the validity of their raw stats. A defender can still register an interception or incompletion to his credit on a miscued play.

First, here’s a look at each targeted player’s total numbers in coverage against Buffalo.

Next, let’s take a look at the coverage numbers broken down by individual player-vs.-player matchups and man coverage vs. zone coverage.

Some thoughts from me:

• It was an extremely rough outing from the two highest paid defensive players on the Jets. Let’s start with the second-highest paid cornerback in the NFL: Trumaine Johnson. He allowed a 46-yard bomb over the top to a player in Robert Foster who came off the practice squad two days earlier. Johnson has no confidence in his speed and is getting regularly exposed in off coverage every single game he plays. Foster picked up more yards on that catch than he had in his entire career to date over six games. Johnson also allowed a pair of firsts to the anemic Zay Jones, for 3 firsts and 71 yards allowed in total. Johnson’s contract is a major burden right now, and there’s no way around it. His 11.0 yards allowed per target on the season is the worst on the entire team by my charting. This deal continues to look worse by the week.
• Buster Skrine allowed 6 first downs, the most I’ve tagged an individual Jet with in one game this year. He allowed 5 firsts (including a TD) and 68 yards to Zay Jones. Jones currently owns the worst yards per target average among wide receivers with at least 100 targets since he was drafted in 2017. Over his first 24 career games, Jones’ previous career high for receiving yards in an entire game was 68 - matching the total he gained against Skrine alone in this game. Skrine is one of the most volatile players in the league. At his worst, like in this game, he is consistently two steps slow off the snap and cannot mirror the opposing receiver as he gets into his route. Thus, performances like this one occur. Altogether, Jones caught for 7 first downs in this game. He had never even caught that many total passes in a game before.
• Morris Claiborne broke up 4 passes to bring his season passes defended total to 13, which currently leads the league. He also gave up a 40+ bomb to Foster, though.
• Nice job Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye, bringing tight coverage on each of the combined 3 targets they faced.
• Neither Darron Lee or Avery Williamson were targeted as the Bills rarely looked to utilize the backs in the passing game, and they were having great success outside and in the slot anyway.

Here is how the Jets look going into the bye week.