Michael Carter breaks out for New York Jets
Michael Carter‘s breakout performance was one of the brightest positives from the New York Jets‘ disappointing 25-6 defeat at the hands of the New England Patriots in their 2021 home opener.
The rookie running back carried the rock 11 times for a team-high 59 yards and caught two passes for 29 yards, logging 88 yards from scrimmage.
Aged just 22 years and 135 days old on the afternoon of the game, Carter became the youngest Jet to eclipse 80 scrimmage yards in a game since future Hall-of-Fame fullback John Riggins did it in 1971.
The franchise record in this particular category is held by Dewey Bohling, who posted 158 scrimmage yards for the Jets at 22 years and 62 days old in Week 7 of the New York Titans’ debut 1960 season.
Carter has collected 108 yards from scrimmage on 18 touches through two games. His average of 6.0 yards per touch currently ranks second-best among the eight rookie running backs with at least 10 touches, trailing only Baltimore’s Ty’Son Williams (6.9).
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John Franklin-Myers continues ascension to stardom
John Franklin-Myers‘ transition to the EDGE position is off to a good start. After recording a sack in the season opener against Carolina, he logged another against New England in Week 2.
Aged 24 years and 358 days old on Sunday, Franklin-Myers is the youngest Jets defender to post a sack in each of the team’s first two games since John Abraham did it at 23 years old in 2001. Franklin-Myers is the first Jet of any age to do that since Bart Scott in 2011.
Dating back to Week 15 of the 2020 season, Franklin-Myers has picked up a sack in four of his last five games. He is tied for seventh in the NFL with four sacks since Week 15 of 2020.
Franklin-Myers joins Brian Burns, Haason Reddick, Montez Sweat, and T.J. Watt as the only players in the NFL who have posted a sack in four of their last five games.
New York Jets cornerbacks continue to shine
The Jets allowed New England’s wide receivers (Jakobi Meyers, Nelson Agholor, Kendrick Bourne) to catch only nine passes for 69 yards. The previous week, the Patriots’ wide receivers caught 12 passes for 133 yards against the Miami Dolphins’ expensive cornerback unit.
Through two games, the Jets have allowed 232 receiving yards to opposing wide receivers, ranking as the third-fewest among the 30 teams to play two games behind only the Eagles and Chargers.
It was a great day for Bryce Hall and Michael Carter II in particular, who refrained from getting beaten over the top and consistently made good stops short of the first down marker.
Hall and Carter II each had a tackle for loss and combined for 14 tackles. Usually, it’s a bad thing when your cornerbacks make that many tackles, but this was not one of those games. The duo kept everything in front of them and consistently rallied to make stops for short gains.
