Can La’Mical Perine emerge for the New York Jets in 2021? (Film)

After a shaky rookie year, can La'Mical Perine make a leap in Year 2 and rise to the top of a crowded New York Jets running back room? Taken with 120th overall pick in the fourth round of Joe Douglas's inaugural draft as the New York Jets' general manager, La'Mical Perine had a rocky rookie season. Perine spent much of the year buried behind an ancient Frank Gore on the depth chart, but when he did get opportunities, he was unproductive. Perine rushed for 232 yards on 64 carries, an average of 3.6 yards per carry that tied him with Cordarrelle Patterson for 76th out of 96 qualified running backs (21st percentile). He also struggled to make anything happen as a receiver, catching 11-of-15 targets for 63 yards and ranking 81st out of 96 running backs (16th percentile) with an average of 4.2 yards per target. The rookie failed to outplay Gore and was significantly outperformed by teammates Ty Johnson and Josh Adams. While Perine had a lackluster season overall, it wasn't all doom and gloom for the all-time great Florida Gator. He showed intriguing flashes of potential every once in a while. There are moments of promise on tape that the Jets' new coaching staff can work off of. Perine has a difficult challenge ahead of him as he is set to compete against a crowded running back room that features Johnson, Adams, Tevin Coleman, and Michael Carter. Can he beat out the competition and earn a featured role in the Jets offense early on? Or, will he find himself buried on the depth chart once again? Could he even be a surprise cut candidate? Let's dig into the good, the bad, and the ugly of Perine's rookie-year film to get an idea of where he stands entering the 2021 season. Positive flashes Perine generally had poor vision throughout his rookie season (more on that later), but there were a handful of plays where he showcased very good vision, inspiring confidence he could turn that weakness around in the future. Perine aims for the left-side B-gap. He reads the linebacker crashing down into the B-gap, who Mekhi Becton pins inside, so he bounces outside. Perine then reads that the defensive back on the edge has beaten Breshad Perriman to the inside, shutting down the edge, so he cuts vertically up the field, darting behind Chris Herndon through the C-gap for the touchdown. In addition the vision, Perine shows impressive short-area burst and quickness here. The Jets run zone-split (inside zone with the tight end pulling to the back side). Perine aims for the middle, but there's nothing there. He turns his eyes to the left side - still nothing. Knowing there's nothing available up the middle or to the left, Perine decisively snaps his head, flips his hips, and turns his feet to the right to burst in that direction. He hits the B-gap and gets upfield for 11 yards. Once again, great short-area burst by Perine. Perine does a good job manipulating the defensive end here. He takes the handoff on the draw and reads inside-out, noticing a massive edge to the left side. The only obstacle is the DE against the tight end, Herndon. Perine presses inside to lure the DE inside, and it's successful. The DE works into the C-gap, compromising the edge, and Perine cuts outside the moment that he sees the DE declare. Nice job by Perine hitting the edge and turning upfield on the outside zone play. He switches the ball from his right hand to his left to stick it over the pylon for the touchdown. Great downfield block by Denzel Mims as well. The edge opens up thanks to nice work by the tight ends, Trevon Wesco and Chris Herndon, who pin their defenders inside. Perine takes advantage. The only unblocked threat to the play-side is the linebacker who initially lines up across from the C-gap. Perine sees him attack downhill into the C-gap, so he makes the correct decision to bounce outside and hit the edge. Perine didn't show much elusiveness in 2020, but he makes a nice little juke here to turn a potential loss into a 6-yard gain. He sets up outside, drops his hips, and gets his feet pointed inside so he can quickly cut in that direction. Weaknesses Vision As I discussed in yesterday's breakdown of Ty Johnson, one of the biggest reasons that Johnson was more successful than Perine and Gore was his vision. Johnson routinely made good decisions and took full advantage of the blocking presented to him while Perine and Gore left plays on the field due to their poor vision. Summarizing this difference, Johnson averaged 2.4 yards before contact per carry (3rd out of 76 RBs with 50+ carries) while Perine averaged 1.1 (56th). Perine was consistently meeting defenders near the line of scrimmage when there was space available elsewhere, leading to his poor before-contact average. On this outside zone play, Perine's eyes stay locked onto the front side and he misses a hole on the back side. Out in front, all of New England's defenders have clear outside leverage, which should prompt Perine to work to the backside, but he just runs straight into the wall. If Perine had looked to the back side, he would have seen that a big hole was open in the B-gap thanks to a great block by George Fant, who was able to work his hips around the 3-tech and seal him outside. As Perine takes the handoff on this draw play, a clear hole develops in the right-side A-gap between Connor McGovern and Greg Van Roten. McGovern gains inside leverage on the blitzing linebacker who attacks the left-side A-gap while Van Roten works around the 2i-tech defensive tackle to seal him outside. Perine should jet directly between McGovern and Van Roten, but he instead bounces directly into traffic on the back side. Perine takes the toss out of shotgun on a pin and pull with the right guard (Van Roten) and tight end (Herndon) blocking down while the center (McGovern) and right tackle (Fant) pull out in front. Herndon does a decent job of momentarily pinning the defensive end inside while Fant takes a great angle on the safety to create a ton of space to the outside. Perine should work vertically to the outside and ride straight behind Fant's back to get upfield, but for whatever reason, he slows up and puts his head down into the traffic on the inside, wasting Fant's effort. Denzel Mims also had a good downfield block. That play could also be seen as an example of Perine's lack of breakaway speed. Perhaps a faster back would have hit that hole. Perine ran a 4.62 in the forty, ranking at just the 28th percentile among running backs since 2000. Perine takes the handoff on a draw and has a pretty well-defined pair of options with Greg Van Roten in a stalemate with a linebacker and two huge gaps to either side of him. Perine could go outside, where the edge defenders are sealed outside and Breshad Perriman has solid positioning on his block a few yards downfield, or he could go inside, where an unblocked defensive back is sitting down ready to make a play. He goes inside, straight into trouble. This went in the books as a solid 6-yard gain for Perine in the box score, but he left yards out there. Elusiveness Not only did Perine struggle to capitalize on what was presented to him, but he also rarely created extra yardage beyond what was presented to him. Perine forced seven missed tackles over 64 carries, an average of 0.109 per carry that ranked 65th out of 76 qualifiers. He also ranked 59th with 2.5 yards after contact per carry. Perine looks to bend this run back inside, but he is a little late to do so and is caught by the linebacker before he can hit the hole. Additionally, we see one of the problems for Perine in regards to his elusiveness. As he looks to set up his cut to the inside, his steps are very long/out in front, limiting his change-of-direction quickness and allowing the defender time to catch up. Compare this to the two plays against the Chargers at the start of this review, where Perine executed fluid jump-cuts by staying compact, using shorter steps, and keeping his feet underneath him. A huge B-gap forms, where Perine is faced with a one-on-one against a safety. He tries to cut inside, but once again, we see Perine's long strides limiting his ability to change directions on a dime. Perine's feet are way out in front of his body and he barely generates any explosion on his inside cut. The safety easily makes the tackle for no gain. Perine's lack of elusiveness extended to the passing game. He didn't force any missed tackles over his 11 receptions and ranked 72nd out of 92 running backs (22nd percentile) with 6.2 yards after catch per reception. Perine faces a safety one-on-one in the flat (Daniel Sorensen, the same safety he faced in the play above) and is unable to make anything happen as he is brought down for a one-yard gain on third-and-9. Perine elects to try and win to the sideline with speed rather than throw a move, and once again, his lack of top-end speed shows up. He does try to fend Sorensen off with a stiff arm, but Sorensen swats Perine's arm down to render it completely ineffective. Sorensen is a bad tackler. He tied for second among safeties with 17 missed tackles in the 2020 regular season. It's not a good sign that he was able to bring down Perine with ease in two separate one-on-one battles. Perine struggled in his rookie season. He has a lot of progress to make before he can be considered a starter-quality NFL running back. There are some things Perine does decently that make him worthy of placing on the field in certain situations - he was about league-average in pass protection, he didn't fumble the ball, and he was fine at converting in short-yardage situations - but in a league where running backs are a dime a dozen, a guy who does not offer any truly special skills is not adding much value. Ty Johnson has impressive vision and top-end speed that makes him a great fit for a wide-zone scheme. Josh Adams showed excellent elusiveness over his small sample of opportunities last year and had a good season with 100-plus touches as a rookie for the Eagles in 2018. Tevin Coleman is a top-notch pass-catcher for the position. Michael Carter was the best home-run hitter in college football last year. What is Perine's signature trait? It would be very surprising to see Joe Douglas give up on Perine after only one season, but with four other interesting options at his disposal, I do not think the idea of Perine hitting the chopping block should be completely ruled out. Ultimately, Perine will likely make the roster, but he may start the season at the bottom of the depth chart if we are going off of what each player in the position battle has shown in the past. If Perine is going to avoid that fate and earn a prominent role, he will need to win the support of the new coaching staff by showing throughout the offseason that he has made substantial improvements to his vision, elusiveness, and passing-game ability.

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Can La’Mical Perine emerge for the New York Jets in 2021? (Film)

After a shaky rookie year, can La’Mical Perine make a leap in Year 2 and rise to the top of a crowded New York Jets running back room?

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