Key advanced metrics for New York Jets defense in 31-28 loss to Las Vegas Raiders

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. Most notably, Hall had a bad missed tackle on a catch allowed to Darren Waller that resulted in a 38-yard touchdown. However, outside of that one awful mistake, Hall was mostly solid. His overall stat-line was 6-of-7 passing for 71 yards, two first downs, and one touchdown over 55 coverage snaps. Take out the Waller play, and Hall allowed 5-of-6 passing for 33 yards and two first downs over 54 coverage snaps, averages of just 5.5 yards per target and 0.61 yards per cover snap. Hall was matched up against Waller frequently in the first half before the Jets switched their approach in covering the dynamic tight end later in the game. Of Hall's 71 yards allowed, 65 were to Waller. Hall did not allow a first down completion to any other player. On the downside, Hall had a defensive holding penalty on Nelson Agholor that allowed the Raiders to convert a third-and-3 in the first quarter. Hall has committed one penalty in each of his first four career games. In the first half, Hall had a trio of strong tackles in coverage that held the receiver to four yards or less and no first down. His tackling when breaking downhill continues to impress. Over the past three weeks, Hall has made nine tackles shy of the first down marker in coverage, second-most among cornerbacks behind Indianapolis' Kenny Moore. Obviously, we cannot just completely write off the Waller play. It happened. It matters. Nevertheless, it should not get in the way of the fact that Hall was mostly good outside of that one snap. He continues to show high-upside flashes on a weekly basis, which is all you want to see from a fifth-round rookie. To expect top-tier production from any rookie right off the bat is expecting too much - you just want to see the potential that he could become that type of player down the line with some year-over-year development. Hall is doing just that. Davis, Langi, Jackson at the root of coverage problems Ashtyn Davis, Harvey Langi, and Lamar Jackson were at the core of the Jets' issues in coverage. Davis left the game with an injury after playing only 56% of the snaps. Across his 44 snaps, he only covered on 19 of them, as he was sent after the quarterback on 11 of his 30 snaps in the passing game (36.7%). Davis had decent success as a rusher with two pressures over his 11 opportunities. The Raiders chewed Davis up over his limited time in coverage. He yielded four completions on six targets for 55 yards and three first downs over just 19 cover snaps, an atrocious 2.89 yards per cover snap. That's a target every 3.2 snaps in coverage, more than four times as frequent as the 2020 average for safeties (13.9). Langi played every defensive snap and covered on 40 of 55 reps in the passing game, rushing on the other 15 (rather unsuccessfully, posting only one pressure). He allowed 5-of-6 passing for 63 yards and three first downs. On the season, Langi's Pro Football Focus coverage grade of 45.0 ranks at the 22nd percentile among qualified linebackers. Jackson allowed 4-of-7 passing for 86 yards, two first downs, and two touchdowns. That includes the game-sealing play that will live on in Jets lore forever, a 46-yard strike to Henry Ruggs with five seconds on the clock. It has been a rough season for the undrafted rookie out of Louisville, who has allowed 24-of-34 passing for 381 yards (11.4 per target / 1.57 per cover snap), five touchdowns, and no interceptions (147.2 passer rating). Water is wet, Quinnen Williams is dominant Each week, Quinnen Williams continues to further legitimize his second-year breakout. It is no longer a surprise when he comes out and wrecks an opposing team's offensive line. With six pressures against the Raiders, Williams has 20 over the past three weeks, the most of any player in the league over that span regardless of position. He had 19 pressures in all of 2019. On the season, Williams has a combined total of 61 pressures, stops, and pass breakups, which ranks fourth among interior defensive linemen behind only Grady Jarrett (64), Stephon Tuitt (67), and Aaron Donald (82). Gregg Williams wraps up his Jets tenure Fired less than 24 hours after his baffling all-out blitz call on the game's deciding play, Williams wraps up a volatile two-year tenure at the position that featured a universally acclaimed 2019 season and an erratic 2020 season that was ultimately poor but still featured some positives. In 2019, Williams led the Jets to 11th in defensive DVOA despite season-ending injuries to C.J. Mosley and Avery Williamson, very little talent at EDGE or CB, and a limited interior pass-rush. The Jets ranked second in rush defense DVOA, allowing the third-lowest opposing yards per carry average in franchise history (3.34). They managed to land at 20th in pass defense DVOA despite the obstacles listed above. It was a masterful season of work by Williams. The 2020 season has been a different story. The Jets entered Week 13 ranked 27th in defensive DVOA, including dead-last against the pass and a drop to eighth against the run. To be fair to Williams, he has had to deal with the loss of Jamal Adams and a severe lack of talent overall, but his team's poor tackling technique, penalty proneness, and undisciplined zone coverage have all stood out from the very beginning. On the positive side, the Jets defense moves into the future with quite a few promising pieces that developed their games under Williams. Quinnen Williams and John Franklin-Myers have improved massively under him this season. Folorunso Fatukasi has grown into an excellent nose tackle. Marcus Maye has rounded out into a solid free safety. Although he is a free agent after the season, Brian Poole took his game to a level we did not see from him in Atlanta. Bryce Huff, Bryce Hall, and Ashtyn Davis have shown some flashes. While the overall body of work for his unit this season was bad, Williams leaves the defense in a good position going forward thanks to the development of key young players that occurred under his watch.