Does Jordan Jenkins have any untapped potential left? | New York Jets 2020 primer

Jordan Jenkins‘ career strengths and weaknesses as told by the advanced analytics and film.

New York Jets training camp/2020 primers:

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• Blake Cashman
• Bless Austin
• Bradley McDougald
• Braxton Berrios
• Chris Herndon
• Connor McGovern
• Foley Fatukasi
• Greg Van Roten
• Josh Doctson
• Sam Ficken vs. Brett Maher
• Quincy Wilson
• Quinnen Williams

Here’s everything you need to know about Jordan Jenkins as he heads into yet another season as the leader of the Jets’ outside linebacker group.

Three positive stats to maintain

Finishing against the run

In 2019, Jenkins made 16 tackles against the run while being credited for just one missed tackle. That’s a miss rate of 5.9%, which ranked 10th-lowest out of 62 qualified edge defenders (85th percentile).

Fumble forcing propensity

Jenkins is not a fumble-forcing machine, but he has knocked the ball loose at a solid level. He has six career forced fumbles – one each in 2016-17 and two each in 2018-19. Only 14 other edge rushers have forced multiple fumbles in each of the past two seasons.

It’s a very small plus, but a plus nonetheless.

Sack progression

I am an advocate of the idea that pass-rushers should not be judged based solely on their sack totals, but in Jenkins’ case, his performance in that column is one of the only notable positives he has going for him.

After posting 5.5 sacks over his first two seasons, Jenkins has improved his sack total to a new high in back-to-back seasons, collecting seven over 16 games in 2018 and climbing up to eight over 14 games in 2019.

Three negative stats to improve

Pressure rate

Jenkins struggled to make an impact in the passing game this past season. He picked up 31 pressures (61st among EDGE) on 318 pass-rush snaps (51st), generating a pressure rate of 9.7% that ranked at the 22nd percentile among qualified edge rushers.

In 2018, Jenkins was more successful as a rusher, collecting 35 pressures (49th) on 305 pass-rush snaps (58th) for a pressure rate of 11.5% that ranked at the 53rd percentile.

Pass-rush grade

While Jenkins’ pressure rate suggests that he was an average rusher in 2018 and a poor one in 2019, Pro Football Focus’ pass-rush grade suggests the inverse.

In 2019, Jenkins posted a respectable PFF pass-rush grade of 67.4 that ranked at the 55th percentile, while in 2018, his grade of 60.6 placed way down at the 24th percentile. This suggests that Jenkins’ pass-rush victories in 2019 were more impressive than those he collected in 2018, even if they were collected less frequently.

When you combine Jenkins’ pressure rate and pass-rush grade over each of the last two seasons, he averages out to somewhere around a 40th percentile-caliber pass-rusher. He is certainly not awful at getting after the quarterback, but he is definitely below-average.

Run defense

Jenkins is known as a strong run defender, but outside of his efficient tackling in that phase, his numbers against the run have not been good.