There were a ton of issues in coverage for the New York Jets defense against Las Vegas, but the pass-rush was absolutely electric.
John Franklin-Myers cannot be stopped
Thinking you can hold the great John Franklin-Myers in check is about as foolish as selecting Christian Hackenberg in the second round. Perhaps you can hope to contain him to an extent. That’s feasible. But completely shutting him down? Nearly impossible.
In 10 of his 11 games this season, Franklin-Myers has recorded a pressure rate above the 2020 league average for interior defensive linemen (7.3%). He ranks ninth among IDL in pressures (39) despite getting the 35th-most pass-rush snaps (233).
Against Las Vegas, Franklin-Myers went to a place that most defensive linemen can only dream of. Playing season-highs of 54 total defensive snaps and 40 pass-rush snaps, he racked up a whopping 10 pressures, tied with Aaron Donald‘s Week 1 performance against the Cowboys for the most by an IDL in a game this season. That represents a 25.0% pressure rate for Franklin-Myers, his second-best of this phenomenal campaign (28.6% with 6 on 21 vs. Denver in Week 4 is his season-best).
On the season, Franklin-Myers’ 16.7% pressure rate trails only Donald (17.0%) among all qualified IDL. The man known to Jets fans as “JFM” is a no-doubt-about-it star in the passing game.
Franklin-Myers had a promising rookie season for the Rams in 2018, collecting 28 pressures on a solid 11.6% pressure rate as a situational 5-tech defensive end, but he was waived during final roster cuts in 2019 with Los Angeles having a stacked group up front. Joe Douglas and the Jets claimed him off of waivers the next day, but Franklin-Myers missed the entire 2019 season due to injury. Fast forward a year, and he is one of the best pass-rushers in all of football, period.
Still only 24 years old, Franklin-Myers is under contract in 2021 at a cap hit of just $920K, making his contract one of the biggest bargains not only on the Jets’ roster, but in the entire NFL.
To date, claiming Franklin-Myers is certainly one of Douglas’ most impressive moves as the head honcho in New York.
Bryce Hall shows some promise yet again
With teams going hard after Bryce Hall over his first three NFL starts, there have been plenty of on-ball reps put on tape to evaluate the tantalizing fifth-round rookie. Hall saw 10 targets thrown his way against the Chargers, eight against the Dolphins, and seven more against the Raiders. He has been targeted once every 6.4 snaps in coverage over that span, slightly more frequent than the 2020 average for cornerbacks (6.9).
While Hall had some blatant rookie mistakes against Las Vegas, there were also plenty of promising things to take away from his performance.
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