5 player-vs-player mismatches in opponent’s favor on Jets’ schedule

These individual players on the Jets’ 2020 schedule will require some creative maneuvering to neutralize.

Week 1: Bills CB Tre’Davious White vs. Breshad Perriman

Buffalo’s top corner is coming off of a phenomenal 2019 season. He allowed a passer rating of 46.3 into his coverage, which ranked second-best among qualified cornerbacks (New England’s J.C. Jackson topped the list at 37.0). Across 84 targets, White allowed 47 catches for 552 yards, zero touchdowns, and six interceptions.

Thanks much in part to White, the Bills allowed only 6.6 yards per target to wide receivers, second-best behind only the Patriots.

White shows off his fluid hips on this play as he breaks up a slant intended for Courtland Sutton.

On the Jets’ side, Breshad Perriman will be entering Week 1 as his team’s top outside wide receiver for the first time in his six-year career.

Perriman has a limited track record of No. 1-caliber production. He has only five career games with five catches or more, and all five of them came in December of 2019. The Central Florida product did not hit five receptions in a game until his 46th career appearance and did not hit 100 yards until his 48th.

However, there is a very legitimate ceiling with Perriman. In Weeks 15-17 of 2019, Perriman had the first three games of his career in which his team put him on the field for over 85% of the offensive snaps, and he delivered in the featured role with 116.3 receiving yards per game.

The issue is that Perriman’s exciting ceiling is accompanied by a scarily low floor. Of his 51 career appearances, Perriman posted fewer than 10 receiving yards in 17 of them (exactly one-third). It’s not even as if he didn’t play much in those games – Perriman averaged 30.4 offensive snaps (about 45% of snaps on average) in his 17 games with single-digit receiving yards.

Over 16 career games in which he played at least 60% of his team’s snaps, Perriman averaged only 35.3 receiving yards. Prior to Week 14 of 2019, he averaged 12.1 yards when playing over 60% of the snaps. The downside here is terrifying.

With a highly inconsistent wideout making his debut in a new offense against one of the league’s few shutdown corners, the Jets would be best-served running their passing attack through Jamison Crowder, Chris Herndon and Le’Veon Bell in Week 1.

The smart move for Adam Gase would be to hold off on heavily featuring Perriman until he gets enough time to sufficiently acclimate. Considering that Week 2 features another elite secondary in Richard Sherman and the 49ers, perhaps Perriman’s breakout will come against the Colts in Week 3.

Now, let’s move on to a mismatch on the defensive side of the ball.

Gregg Williams did a masterful job in 2019, but he needs to tweak this one particular tidbit in his deployment preferences when the Jets head to Arrowhead Stadium. Otherwise, they would be facing a massive mismatch that could result in an even more embarrassing outing than you would expect.