New York Jets’ 2019 season in review: Marcus Maye

Michael Nania reviews Marcus Maye's 2020 New York Jets season in an in-depth fashion using Nania's All-22 film session. Career recap: After taking Jamal Adams with the sixth pick in the 2017 Draft, the New York Jets completed their safety duo of the future by selecting Marcus Maye with their second-round pick, 39th overall. Adams was to be the jack-of-all-trades Swiss army knife, roaming around the field and making an impact wherever needed. Behind him, Maye would provide a sturdy backbone, giving the Jets a secure last line of defense in the deep middle that would allow them to feel comfortable moving Adams around the field. It was a match made in football heaven. Both safeties started all 16 games for the Jets in their rookie season. Behind Demario Davis, Adams ranked second the team with 1,101 defensive snaps (98.7%), while Maye placed third with 1,064 (95.3%). Maye played 100% of the defensive snaps in 14 games. He missed a mere two snaps in the Jets' Week 6 loss to New England and only played 41% of the snaps in the team's meaningless season finale loss (also against New England), but otherwise was out there for every single defensive play. Maye's rookie season was uneven. He showed the promise to be a reliable single-high safety, but gave up a few too many big plays. Maye missed 11 tackles (tied for 18th among safeties), yielded 196 yards and three touchdowns in coverage over just 18 targets, and was penalized three times. Pro Football Focus ranked him 57th out of 67 qualified safeties, including 59th in coverage. Maye came in as an older draft prospect. He was already 24.5 years old on the day of his NFL debut. Typically, older prospects are expected to have less of a growth curve and a higher likelihood of contributing right away. For Maye, who was not much of a physical specimen and best known for his headiness and IQ, it was critical that he wastes no more time hitting his ceiling. He was expected to take a big leap in 2018. After missing the first three games of his second season with a foot injury, Maye returned in Week 4 and began living up the potential he flashed as a rookie. Looking more comfortable on an island, Maye did a great job limiting big plays through the air. Over seven appearances, Maye was targeted just four times, giving up only two catches for 18 yards (one touchdown). Maye's season was limited to just seven games. Following his late start, he missed one game (Week 7 vs. Minnesota) with a broken thumb, returned for the following three games, and then was put on injured reserve with a shoulder injury. In 2018, Maye earned a Pro Football Focus grade of 80.0, which placed him ninth among 89 qualified safeties. His average of 106.5 cover snaps played per allowed reception ranked second among safeties behind only Malik Hooker. The Jets allowed just 10 deep completions for 20-plus yards in the seven games played by Maye, an average of 1.7 per game that would rank seventh-best in 2018 if accrued over the entire season. In nine games without Maye, the Jets allowed 21 of those completions, an average of 2.1 per game that would put them on pace to rank 19th in the league. 2019 expectations: Maye was playing great football in 2018 even while dealing with a plethora of injuries. If he could continue performing at the same level, the Jets would have themselves perhaps the best safety duo in the league. Health was the main concern for Maye going into 2019. He dealt with three different injuries in 2018, starting to earn himself the "injury-prone" tag. Positives: First and foremost, Maye was able to squash any concerns about his durability. He started all 16 games in 2019 and led the team with 1,093 defensive snaps (98.8%), playing no fewer than 95.1% in any game. In 2019, Maye was thrust into the spotlight more often than in the past. Gregg Williams is known for playing his safeties extremely deep, and this is a role Maye handled plenty under the ferocious defensive coordinator. Because of the humongous amount of space he often had to cover, the football found Maye quite a bit. There were cringe-worthy moments, but in the end, Maye did a lot more good than bad. Maye was targeted a career-high 20 times and did a phenomenal job neutralizing those throws. He allowed just nine of those passes to be caught while recording six breakups and an interception (he had another pick called back). Among 65 qualified safeties, Maye ranked sixth in cover snaps per allowed reception (71.6), 14th in yards allowed per cover snap (0.30) and 22nd in passer rating allowed (76.0). Pro Football Focus handed Maye a 74.6 overall grade, good enough for 18th at the position. There were three games in particular in which Maye looked spectacular — Week 1 vs. Buffalo, Week 6 vs. Dallas, and Week 16 vs. Pittsburgh. On those afternoons, Maye found himself in numerous crucial moments, and he consistently came up huge. Let's start off in Week 1. Maye showed excellent range on two foolish Josh Allen throws, including this one that he was able to snag for an interception. He does a good job mirroring John Brown's corner route and then undercutting the poor throw. Unfortunately, the interception was canceled out because of a Darryl Roberts holding penalty away from the play. Maye nearly made another interception in this game off of Allen. He is put in a tough position on this play, needing to handle two receivers. Maye initially carries Robert Foster's post route up the middle. John Brown is crossing from the other side, but Maye has to respect the possibility of a break to the corner from Foster. Once Maye sees that Foster is not breaking outside, he flips his hips and takes a good angle on Brown's route. Allen tries to squeeze the throw-in and the ball arrives way too late, as Maye breaks on it for a should-be pick. That was a well-designed play. Buffalo could have had a touchdown there if not for Henry Anderson's pressure forcing Allen to scramble, and there would not have been anything Maye could have done about it. Still, a good reactionary play by Maye, although he needs to come down with that ball (he knew it). Maye's tackling was extremely hit-or-miss throughout the season. When he whiffed, he whiffed badly. However, he also had a bunch of highly impressive open-field tackles that saved valuable yardage. Such is the life of a free safety. Maye saved a touchdown against Buffalo with a great open-field tackle on Devin Singletary. Maye takes a precise angle, dropping his hips and squaring up Singletary nearly perfectly as he anticipates and mirrors the inside cutback. He maintains his balance, not biting on the juke attempt, and makes a clean low finish. On to Week 6 against Dallas. Clutch open-field tackling was the main course for Maye throughout the afternoon. Take a look at the yardage Maye saves on this play. Here is another look at that play. This is simply phenomenal. Maye is faced with a two-on-one, with Travis Frederick leading Ezekiel Elliott down the field. Maye has the perfect counter. Noticing Elliott riding Frederick's outside shoulder, Maye slides outside, baiting Elliott into cutting back inside towards the rest of the defense. But he doesn't leave the job up to somebody else. He gets it done himself, quickly pivoting back inside and cutting Elliott down at the knees. Elite stuff. On this play, Maye saves another big play against Elliott in space, this time on a screen pass. Elliott was stumbling when Maye arrived, but it is a solid finish nonetheless. To boot, Maye came up with two huge plays in coverage on Dallas' final drive. Here, Maye breaks on Tavon Austin's hitch route to prevent a first down near the goal line. It is another opportunity for a pick that Maye could not come up with, although this one was much more difficult than the one against Buffalo seen above. Maye and Adams teamed up Dallas' two-point attempt for the tie. Adams executes a well-timed blitz to get instant pressure on Prescott. Maye takes advantage of the physicality afforded to him within five yards, sealing Witten away from the ball to prevent him from making any sort of attempt on it. Against the Steelers in Week 16, Maye and Adams came together for their most dominant game as a duo. Adams made seven stops short of the line of scrimmage and recorded three pressures. One of those led to an interception and another led to an incompletion on Pittsburgh's last chance to stay alive. Maye made four potential touchdown-saving plays, two in coverage and two as a tackler in the open field. First, the plays in coverage. Maye made his first and only official interception of the season off of Devlin Hodges. It is reminiscent of his near-interception off of Allen against Buffalo. Playing single-high, no threats attack Maye in the deep middle, so he ranges over and breaks on Jaylen Samuels' corner route before Hodges even begins his windup. Great anticipation by Maye, putting him in position for another pick. This time he hauls it in. Here, the Steelers are facing 3rd & 7 at the Jets' 44-yard line with 51 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, trailing by six points. Maye carries James Washington up the field and sticks with him stride for stride. Hodges launches a good throw that hits Washington on two hands, but Maye does his best Dikembe Mutombo impersonation as he swats the ball out of Washington's grasp, saving the game. Maye had two stupendous open-field tackles on James Conner to save chunk gains. Check out the range on display here as Maye comes from the opposite hash and perfectly times his arrival to blast Conner into the sidelines. Had Maye not read this so quickly and run such a crisp route to the ball, Conner had a clear lane to the end zone. Maye did it again, later on, wrapping up Conner in a one-on-one battle to save another potential touchdown. Outside of those three games in which he was granted opportunities to make flashy plays, Maye was still a consistently reliable presence in the back end. He soundly executed his responsibilities and rarely made egregious mistakes in coverage. The following play is simple, but it is a good example of the little things Maye does on a consistent basis that help to prevent big plays. Oakland runs a one-man route, keeping nine men in protection. Tyrell Williams is the target, running a deep post from the left against Blessuan Austin. Austin does a good job channeling Williams inside and staying attached to his back hip. All Maye needs to do is mirror the route over the top. If he drops too deep, Derek Carr could have a window to the outside. If he crashes down too hard, Carr could throw it over the top. Maye does neither, taking zero false steps as he mimics Williams step for step. Carr sees no possible way to complete the throw and takes a sack. Negatives: Maye has been prone to missed tackles throughout his career, and that was his main issue in 2019. With 10 missed tackles against 64 total tackles, Maye's missed tackle rate of 13.5% ranked 44th out of 70 qualified safeties. Maye's tackling was particularly shaky against the pass. He was decent in the run game, ranking 30th at the position with a 12.5% miss rate (35 made, five missed). In the pass game, however, he posted a miss rate of 14.7% (29 made, five missed), which ranked 54th (the average miss rate for safeties is higher in the run game than the pass game). As mentioned earlier, Maye is a boom-or-bust tackler. While he piled up plenty of clutch tackles like the ones seen above, his misses were often ghastly. This play was arguably Maye's worst of the season. It can hardly even be qualified as a "missed tackle" because he does not even get close enough to make one in the first place. Maye takes a horrible angle on this quick slant to Odell Beckham, leading to an 89-yard touchdown. After the catch, Maye commits hard to running with Beckham upfield, but Beckham quickly cuts back to the outside. For some reason, Maye takes an eternity to react to the change of direction, continuing to run himself out of the play rather than pivoting back towards it. A very peculiar lapse of concentration. Maye takes a conservative angle on this screen to Julian Edelman, trying to shove him from behind but failing as Edelman breezes by and converts on 3rd & 10. Although Maye was more efficient cleaning up against the run than against the pass, he was responsible for the two longest runs allowed by the Jets defense in 2019. Leonard Fournette's 66-yard scamper on Jacksonville's game-opening drive in Week 8 was the only run of over 30 yards or more allowed by the Jets all year. Maye bites too hard on the initial direction of the play and is a beat late reacting to Fournette's cutback. He makes a diving attempt to try and recover but Fournette is able to evade it. This 31-yard run by Joe Mixon was technically the second-longest run allowed by the Jets, but it was called back due to a block above the waist penalty on Auden Tate. Although the play did not count, Maye put an awful tackle attempt on tape. Maye's angle here is not terrible, but he may have come in a bit too hard, fully selling out on Mixon's juke move as he gets left in the dust. Part of the reason for that hard sell-out is that Maye was a tad late getting over at the start of the play. 2020 Outlook: Maye is not a ball-hawking highlight-reel machine-like Ed Reed, nor is he a bone-crusher like Troy Polamalu. He is simply a smart, heady workhorse who keeps the back end safe — making him a splendid complement to the jack-of-all-trades superstar he shares the defensive backfield with. The duo works together like a well-oiled machine. Maye does not have to take on difficult assignments or run from sideline-to-sideline aggressively chasing plays because Adams can do all of that. Adams can be deployed as creatively as the coaches desire because they can feel comfortable with Maye hanging back on his own. If the Jets are going to lock up Jamal Adams long-term (as they should), they would be wise to keep Maye alongside him. Going forward, health is the primary key for Maye. In two out of his three seasons, he has been an iron man, but in the other, his bones seemed to be made of glass. The Jets are hoping 2018 proves to be an outlier rather than a sign of things to come (obviously). As long as he is healthy, Maye has to proven to be an excellent piece in the Jets' secondary, and all the Jets need from him is more of the same. Improved tackling could kick his game up to an elite level, but even if that progression does not come, he will remain a solid player.