New York Jets film breakdown: The reliable Chris Hogan | Blewett’s Blitz

Blewett’s Blitz breaks down one of the New York Jets’ newest wide receivers, the professional and reliable Chris Hogan.

While Chris Hogan may not the long-term No. 1, 2 or 3 weapon the New York Jets are looking for and hope to add in the coming years, he was added as a depth wide receiver who offers solid route running and reliability for third-year quarterback Sam Darnold.

Blewett’s Blitz showcases Hogan’s reliability in his route running and route adjustments as a preview to the podcast and YouTube show.

***The clips come first with Blewett’s text analysis to follow. Only SUBSCRIBERS can view the entire article. 

***The FULL film breakdown in video form can be found at the bottom of this article (subscribers only) or on the Blewett’s Blitz homepage. A free preview can be found at the YouTube and Podcast episodes.

Hogan (No. 2 up top, outside slot) speed releases off the ball to get onto Jalen Ramsey’s toes. As he gets onto Ramsey’s toes, he starts to show Ramsey “high knees” which both slows down Hogan’s route pace while still giving the elusion that he is moving fast.

On Hogan’s fifth step, he drops his hips (nice and low), throws his break-foot in a good spot (leading his body while also lateral), works his drive foot (left) underneath of his frame allowing for a sharper break plus more power.

Hogan beats Ramsey inside and brings in the ball for the touchdown.

Hogan (No. 3 on the field side, bottom) stems inside to square up the defensive back who is on the hash mark. As Hogan closes ground, he “skips” to close ground but limits the ground he covers for two very important reasons.

Firstly, he doesn’t want to close enough ground to allow the DB to contact him. Secondly, he doesn’t want the DB to “jet stream” him, which is following directly behind him—typically a technique against mesh concepts to avoid any traffic.

If the DB were to “stream” him, he wouldn’t be able to break outwards on the whip route. I needed to highlight this to show the very small details of route running.

Now for the actual break …

Hogan does a good job cutting flat inside as I described, but he also does a good job on the break outside.

Hogan shortens his stride, throws his right foot in front of his body while turning it into the inside. This allows his hips to turn close to 180 degrees (hips can’t work over toes). Hogan also drops his weight/hips into the turn, gets out of his break and makes the catch. Nice tight break and really well-run whip route.