Avery Williamson’s return will be a game-changer | New York Jets training camp primer

A healthy Avery Williamson will make far fewer costly mistakes than the linebackers that replaced him in 2019. New York Jets training camp primers: Bless Austin Chris Herndon Connor McGovern Foley Fatukasi Greg Van Roten Sam Ficken vs. Brett Maher Quinnen Williams Quincy Wilson Here's everything you need to know about Avery Williamson as he aims to recapture his peak form and restore stability at the off-ball linebacker position. Five positive stats to maintain Efficient tackling Missed tackles were a problem for the 2019 Jets linebacker group. The unit had the sixth-worst missed tackle rate against the pass (16.9%) and fifth-worst against the run (13.8%). Williamson has been a tremendously consistent tackler throughout his career. In four of his five seasons, Williamson has ranked top-10 among linebackers in tackling efficiency. He ranked seventh-best for the Jets in 2018, posting a miss rate of just 4.8% (120 tackles made, six missed). In 2018, C.J. Mosley (for the Ravens) and Williamson (for the Jets) combined for 133 tackles and seven missed tackles against the run. That’s a miss rate of 5.0%. If accumulated by an entire linebacker unit in 2019, that would have ranked second-best. Mosley and Williamson can be that good as a tandem. Elite run defense Williamson's toughness, strength, and play recognition make him a strong force against the run. In 2018, his first season with the Jets, Williamson earned Pro Football Focus' fourth-best run defense grade among linebackers (82.8). The season prior, he ranked second-best with a 90.2 grade. He placed ninth in 2016 with a 79.1, making it three consecutive seasons in the top-10. Effective blitzing From 2017-18, Williamson created pressure on 24 of his 145 pass-rush snaps, a strong pressure rate of 16.6%. The 2019 positional average was 14.5%. Penalty minimization Over his past four seasons (following the conclusion of his 2014 rookie year), Williamson has committed only four penalties over 3,690 defensive snaps, an average of 1.08 per 1,000 snaps. The 2019 league average for linebackers was 2.22. The trio of James Burgess, Blake Cashman, and Neville Hewitt combined for eight penalties on 1,848 snaps (4.33 per 1,000) in 2019. Limiting targets in his direction Williamson's lack of athleticism or pure cover talent makes him vulnerable when thrown at (more on that later), but his proficiency in the mental side of the game has allowed him to mitigate those weaknesses. He does a great job of executing his role in zone concepts, always staying disciplined to his assignment, and thus rarely committing a major blown coverage. Additionally, Williamson has a natural feel for what is going on around him, consistently gliding to the correct spot to neutralize threats in his area. All of that is to say that Williamson adds value in coverage through his ability to minimize the number of throws in his direction. He covers up his area and forces the quarterback to move on to his next read. These skills are best evidenced by the following highly-impressive stat, which squashes a lot of doubt regarding Williamson's coverage ability. In 2018, Williamson dropped into coverage on 550 snaps and was thrown at 56 times. That's one target every 9.8 snaps in coverage, which ranked ninth-best out of 93 qualified linebackers (91st percentile). Williamson has ranked in the top-10 of cover snaps per target in every season of his career. Two negative stats to improve On-ball coverage When Williamson does get beat in coverage, he typically gets beaten badly. Over the course of his career, Williamson has allowed 158-of-199 passing in his direction for 1,890 yards, 14 touchdowns, and three interceptions - 9.5 yards per target and a 123.4 passer rating. The 2019 league averages at linebacker were 7.7 yards per target and a 104.5 passer rating. In 2018, Williamson allowed 45-of-56 passing for 533 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception, adding in five pass breakups for a career-best of six passes defended (fifth-most among linebackers). However, his passer rating allowed of 116.7 still ranked 17th-worst out of 70 qualifiers. Early career blitzing ineffectiveness As mentioned above, Williamson was an effective blitzer in his two most recent seasons. However, prior to 2017, pass-rushing was an area where he struggled. Over the first three seasons of his career (2014-16), Williamson picked up 40 pressures on 365 pass-rush snaps, a pressure rate of just 11.0%. For reference, if that mark were posted by a single team's linebacker group in 2019, it would have ranked between the 28th-ranked Cowboys (12.4%) and 29th-ranked Titans (9.9%). The Jets will be hoping that the post-torn ACL version of Williamson does not lose the newfound pass-rushing zest he had added to his game. Three plays that showcase Williamson's ceiling Williamson shows off many of the traits that make him a superb run defender on this play in Cleveland - recognition, block-shedding, and finishing. He instinctively mirrors the pulling left guard, sheds the left tackle's block by getting his hands into the chest and ripping underneath with his inside arm, and then finishes the job with a diving stop on Nick Chubb. Williamson throws a nasty swim move to make the back look foolish on this A-gap blitz, picking up a sack on Brock Osweiler. A glimpse into his improvement as a blitzer in the latter portion of his career to date. Here is an example of a productive off-the-stat-sheet coverage rep by Williamson. Miami attempts to sell the outside run and roll Ryan Tannehill back towards the middle with the play-side tight end coming across the formation as the primary target. Williamson recognizes Miami's intent at the last moment and picks up the tight end, using physicality to impede the route and then flipping his hips to stick tightly to the tight end's back pocket. Tannehill's only possible throwing option is shut down, and he is strip-sacked by Jordan Jenkins. Two plays that showcase Williamson's floor Williamson is not the type of linebacker who is capable of hanging with a running back down the field. After some miscommunication leading into this play, Williamson is toasted by Patriots RB Rex Burkhead in man coverage on a simple deep fade route out of the slot. Williamson takes Colts tight end Eric Ebron man-to-man on this play. He is put at a major disadvantage as he is forced to come from the middle to cover Ebron's out-breaking route from the end of the line. However, Ebron runs a poor route that is extremely rounded, opening up a huge window of opportunity for Williamson to undercut the throw. Williamson fails to take advantage as he simply does not have enough speed to make up the ground, and Ebron hauls in the pass. Defensive usage Williamson was a true every-down linebacker for the Jets in 2018, leading all linebackers with 1,114 total defensive snaps and 69.6 snaps per game. After sitting out for six snaps in Week 1 as the Jets rested some starters near the end of a 48-17 blowout win over Detroit, Williamson played every single defensive snap throughout the next 15 games. The Jets used Williamson frequently as a rusher, as he ranked 14th at the position with 99 pass-rush snaps. He blitzed on 99 of his 687 snaps in the passing game, a 14.4% portion. Health/off-field Prior to his ACL tear in Week 2 of the 2019 preseason, Williamson had missed only one out of 82 possible regular season and playoff games over his first five seasons. From 2016-18, Williamson not only played in every single game for the Titans and Jets, but he was never even listed on his team's injury report ahead of a game. Battle for depth chart positioning It seems likely that Williamson will start alongside C.J. Mosley, as was expected heading into 2019, but the Jets do have a lot of depth at the position. The combination of James Burgess, Blake Cashman, Neville Hewitt, and Patrick Onwuasor will most likely demand at least a few sub-package snaps per game. Considering the depth at the position, Gregg Williams could decide to play Williamson in more of a two-down role rather than the three-down role that he took on in 2018. This is how the Titans used Williamson back in 2017. Williamson played only 60.1% of the Titans' defensive snaps that year, coming off the field on most third downs. Tennessee looked to minimize Williamson's weaknesses in coverage and emphasize his prowess attacking downhill. In 2017, 47.2% of Williamson's snaps came against the run, compared to 38.3% with the Jets in 2018 (a product of Tennessee taking him off the field in obvious passing situations). The Titans also leaned more heavily towards using Williamson as a rusher rather than in coverage on passing downs, as Williamson blitzed on 22.4% of his passing game snaps with the Titans compared to 14.4% with the Jets. Barring injury, Williamson is a near-lock to rank second among the team's linebackers in snaps (behind Mosley), but it remains to be seen what his role will be under Williams. Williamson could share the field with Mosley on every single play, or he could be limited to a smaller role that is more suited to his strengths. Keep an eye out for how Williams manages the linebacker position throughout training camp. Contract/future Williamson, who turned 28 years old in March, will have a cap hit of $8.5M in 2020, which is currently slated to rank fourth-highest on the Jets roster and 12th among off-ball linebackers league-wide. He will become an unrestricted free agent in 2021. If the Jets cut or trade Williamson, they would open up $6.5M in cap room while taking on a dead money charge of $2.0M. The time has passed in which that cap space may have been of value to the Jets. Keeping Williamson is the obvious move at this point. In peak form, he is far-and-away the second-best linebacker on the roster, skilled enough to form one of the league's best duos alongside Mosley. Should Williamson prove to be a far cry from the player he once was, he is off the books after the season, anyway. In 2020, what the Jets need most from Williamson is for him to help them maintain their status as one of the league's most dominant run defenses, or even elevate that facet to a historically great level. The 2019 Jets defense was elite at stopping the run (2nd in DVOA) in spite of Williamson's replacements struggling mightily in that phase. Throw in an upgrade to Williamson's top-notch run defense - plus the similarly-great Mosley - and the potential exists for the Jets to have a record-setting year against the run. Even if the run defense does not get better - it was already so good that improving it will be very difficult - the drastic upgrade in tackling efficiency from players like Burgess and Hewitt to Williamson should help mitigate possible regression from other defensive position groups and ensure the run defense remains in the top 5-10 range at worst. To boot, Williamson's presence should chop down penalty totals, improve blitzing efficiency, and decrease the number of targets to tight ends and running backs. He is a smart, fundamentally-sound, and hard-nosed linebacker that brings discipline and toughness to any defense. The Jets sorely missed both of those traits at the linebacker position in 2019. New York Jets training camp primers: Bless Austin Chris Herndon Connor McGovern Foley Fatukasi Greg Van Roten Sam Ficken vs. Brett Maher Quinnen Williams Quincy Wilson