New York Jets cornerback D.J. Reed is criminally underrated in league circles
New York Jets cornerback D.J. Reed has a message for the NFL: you keep giving accolades to the wrong guy.
Owner Woody Johnson tried to make that point, but Reed pointed out that even he is underrating his own player.
Johnson tweeted that Reed should have been a Pro Bowler last season. When considering that Xavien Howard made the Pro Bowl, that is a foregone conclusion.
Don’t forget this guy played at a Pro Bowl level last season too @D7_Reed pic.twitter.com/nL1NYG3znL
— Woody Johnson (@woodyjohnson4) June 27, 2023
Reed, though, took it a step further.
All Pro level Woody!! https://t.co/3t4Vee5bOX
— DJ Reed (@D7_Reed) June 27, 2023
Is he right?
This is the second consecutive offseason in which Reed made such a claim—and also the second straight where he wasn’t too far off.
Here are Reed’s numbers and percentile ranks in 2021 and 2022:
- Yards per cover snap: 0.632 (96th percentile), 0.709 (92nd percentile)
- Yards per target: 5.63 (88th percentile), 5.63 (95th percentile)
- YAC per reception: 3.26 (88th percentile), 2.55 (95th percentile)
- Yards saved over expected: +241.18 (97th percentile), +211.77 (95th percentile)
Compare those numbers to All-Pro Sauce Gardner‘s rankings in these categories in 2022.
- Yards per cover snap: 0.562 (100th percentile)
- Yards per target: 4.88 (99th percentile)
- YAC per reception: 3.09 (87th percentile)
- Yards saved over expected: +300.26 (100th percentile)
Obviously, Sauce was better, but was he the only All-Pro cornerback on the Jets in 2022? At the very least, Reed could have garnered a second-team nod over Jaire Alexander (29th percentile in yards per cover snap, 32nd percentile in yards per target, 49th percentile in YAC per reception, 29th percentile in yards saved over expected).
Reed isn’t just trash-talking. Though Jets fans know how good he was in 2022, the NFL still hasn’t taken notice.
