The New York Jets have some Pro Bowl-worthy talent despite their disappointing season
Voting for the 2024 Pro Bowl Games is underway. New York Jets fans can vote for their favorite players at the NFL’s official website. Starting on December 11, fans can vote directly on “X” (formerly Twitter) by tweeting the first and last name of the player, tagging the player’s official Twitter handle, or creating a hashtag including the player’s first and last name. All three of these methods must include the hashtag: #ProBowlVote.
Without further ado, let’s highlight the New York Jets players who are most deserving of consideration. Despite their 4-8 record, the Jets have a talented roster featuring plenty of players who deserve to be in the Pro Bowl conversation.
Definite Pro Bowlers
Sauce Gardner
Sauce Gardner not only made the Pro Bowl in his rookie season, but he was also named a first-team All-Pro while earning more first-team votes than any other cornerback.
Here in year two, Gardner has performed at essentially the same level that he did in his acclaimed debut campaign. After allowing one touchdown and 0.56 yards per cover snap in 2022, the 2023 version of Gardner has allowed one touchdown and 0.55 yards per cover snap (third-best among qualified cornerbacks and second-best among outside cornerbacks).
Gardner’s box-score production has declined – falling from a league-leading 20 passes defended in 2022 to only seven through 11 games in 2023 – but that is not due to a decline in the quality of his performance. This has mostly occurred simply because teams have become deathly afraid of challenging Gardner.
In 2022, Gardner was the nearest defender on 43 passes that were thrown at least 10 yards downfield, ranking as the second-most among cornerbacks. But so far in 2023, Gardner has only seen 11 targets that were thrown at least 10 yards downfield, ranking 80th at the position. Due to the elite quality of his coverage and the sheer amount of respect opponents have for him, Gardner isn’t getting many chances to make flashy plays.
Pro Bowl and All-Pro voters alike viewed Gardner as the top cornerback in football last season. Nothing has happened in 2023 to warrant a change in that viewpoint.
Gardner probably won’t be quite as beloved among voters this year, simply because voters are narrow-minded and love surface-level things they can easily see (i.e. box-score stats and highlights), but he has still been dominant enough to warrant his second consecutive Pro Bowl appearance and, at the very least, a second-team All-Pro bid. His massive popularity should get him in with ease even if his surface-level resume isn’t sexy.
Fully deserving Pro Bowlers with a strong chance of making it, but might get overlooked by casual voters
Quinnen Williams
Quinnen Williams’ issue in regards to Pro Bowl voting is that he plays a position where box score stats are very important to make the Pro Bowl (probably more so than cornerback) and his box score stats have taken a steep nosedive. Williams only has 2.0 sacks this year after finishing with 12.0 last season. Casual fans scrolling through the voting page are going to see that number and choose to overlook Williams.
However, true ball-knowers are aware that Williams has been the same dominant force that he was in 2022 even if the sack column doesn’t show it.
Williams is one of the best two-way threats in the sport, ranking seventh among defensive tackles in total pressures (42) and second in run stops (29). Jeffery Simmons is the only other player ranked top seven in both categories. It’s worth mentioning that Simmons has played 73 more defensive snaps than Williams, yet his combined total of 70 pressures-plus-run-stops is fewer than Williams’ 71, which ranks third-best at the position behind Dexter Lawrence (75) and Aaron Donald (84).
Williams should be an indisputable Pro Bowler based on his actual impact, although we all know that actual impact is not necessarily what gets players into the Pro Bowl. Fortunately, his reputation as a reigning Pro Bowler will give him a good chance of overcoming his low sack total to make it in. Still, the lack of sacks will hurt him in the annual “Casual Fan Popularity Contest”, so I would not consider it a guarantee that Williams gets in.
Quincy Williams
The elder Williams brother faces the same obstacle. His box score stats won’t jump off the page to the average fan scrolling through the voting screen. There are 10 linebackers with more total tackles than Quincy Williams, who is tied for 11th with 105. He has two sacks, zero interceptions, and one forced fumble. If you judged Williams off those numbers alone, you would not vote for him.
But just as with Quinnen, anybody who has watched Quincy this year knows he is certainly a Pro Bowler, and there are plenty of advanced metrics that prove the point.
For starters, while Williams is 11th in total tackles, he is first in tackles that actually matter – and it’s by a mile. Per PFF, Williams leads all linebackers with 60 defensive stops – i.e. tackles on plays that constitute a failure for the offense. That’s nine more than second-ranked Foyesade Oluokun.
Not only does Williams lead the 2023 pack by a wide margin, but Williams’ current pace puts him on track to finish with the most stops in a season by any defensive player since PFF began tracking the stat in 2006. With his current average of 5.0 stops per game, Williams is on track to finish with 85 stops over 17 games, which would break Luke Keuchly’s record of 81 stops in 2014 (although Keuchly played 16 games). Even in 16 games, Williams would fall just one stop shy of the record if he maintains his pace.
In coverage, Williams has excelled at keeping everything in front of him. He is allowing only 6.3 yards per reception, tied with Demario Davis for third-best among 64 qualified linebackers.
Quincy Williams is a Pro Bowler. Hopefully, he earns the recognition he deserves.
Despite relatively unspectacular box score stats, one thing Williams does have going for him is his penchant for highlight-reel plays. Williams is a big-play machine who posts viral highlights on a weekly basis. That will score him a lot of points with the casual fans.
Jets fans, help the Williams brothers out and cast your votes. If either player misses out, it would be a shining example of how the Pro Bowl voting system fails to accurately pinpoint the league’s best players.
Pro Bowl-caliber but will likely be overlooked by casual voters (Help them out, Jets fans)
Thomas Morstead
While Thomas Morstead‘s net punting average has dipped in recent weeks (he is now 13th out of 32 qualifiers this season at 42.4 yards), that has largely occurred due to porous coverage from the Jets’ punt team. Individually, Morstead has been excellent this year, and he’s done it despite a heavy workload.
The 37-year-old Morstead is third in the NFL with 71 punts. Yet, the ageless wonder has still managed to rank eighth among 32 qualified punters in gross average (49.3 yards) and ninth in average hang time (4.41).
Morstead’s blend of distance and hang time is unique. Typically, punting the ball further correlates with a decrease in hang time and vice versa, but Morstead has managed to kick the ball far without line-driving it, giving his teammates ample time to catch up to his deep kicks. He is one of only three punters with a gross average of over 49 yards and a hang time of over 4.4 seconds, joining Ethan Evans and Bryan Anger.
PFF’s grading system for punters – which attempts to isolate the punter from his coverage team – has Morstead ranked as the league’s fourth-best punter with a 79.7 grade. While PFF’s grades can be shaky at times (to say the least), I think they’re on the right track here because the grade aligns with the rarity of Morstead’s distance/hang-time blend.
To boot, Morstead has contributed in other subtle ways. In overtime of the Jets’ win over the Giants, Morstead corralled a low snap on a field goal attempt and successfully set it up for Greg Zuerlein to nail the game-winning kick. A few weeks later, Morstead completed a pass for a first down on a fake punt in Buffalo.
More than anything, Morstead deserves a Pro Bowl appearance for this reason: Somehow, the legendary punter has only made one Pro Bowl in his career, coming back in 2012. This is despite Morstead ranking eighth all-time in gross punting average and consistently being mentioned as one of the greatest punters to ever play.
Morstead deserves another Pro Bowl appearance on his career resume.
D.J. Reed
D.J. Reed has been playing like a true Pro Bowler for three years now and it’s a shame that he will probably be snubbed yet again.
In regards to Pro Bowl voting, Reed is up against the eight ball in so many ways. He was an unknown fifth-round draft pick from Kansas State who did not break out until his fourth season. He’s played the last two seasons on a bad Jets team. There isn’t much about his game that’s flashy – he’s only 5-foot-9 and does not get many interceptions (although he was robbed of one last week). For all these reasons, he isn’t incredibly well-known among average NFL fans.
None of these things should matter for Pro Bowl voting, but they unfortunately do. NFL fans don’t watch film or analyze advanced metrics. They just go off the storylines that are fed to them by the national media, and since the national media is thirsty for clicks, they don’t highlight guys like Reed who achieve their success in a workmanlike fashion.
Despite not getting many interceptions or pass deflections, Reed’s coverage is undoubtedly Pro Bowl-worthy. He’s allowed only 256 yards on 364 snaps in coverage this season. That’s an average of 0.70 yards per cover snap, which ranks fifth-best among the 70 cornerbacks who have played at least 300 coverage snaps. This is nothing new for Reed, who allowed 0.71 yards per cover snap in 2022 and 0.63 with the Seahawks in 2021.
On top of that, Reed has yet to allow a touchdown pass this season. Only three cornerbacks have played more coverage snaps without allowing a touchdown, and all three of them are allowing more yards per cover snap than Reed.
Playing opposite Sauce Gardner only helps Reed’s case. As we mentioned earlier, teams have become afraid of challenging Gardner downfield. This pushes more downfield throws in Reed’s direction, and yet, Reed remains one of the most efficient cover corners in the NFL.
Last but not least, Reed provides fantastic support against the run. He is tied for sixth among cornerbacks with eight run stops. He’s done it efficiently, too. Reed has missed only two tackles against the run, giving him a missed tackle rate of 8.7% as a run defender. That is the second-lowest missed tackle rate among the nine cornerbacks with at least eight run stops.
If Pro Bowl voting was based on choosing the best football players, D.J. Reed would be in. Jets fans, help the man get the recognition he deserves.
Michael Carter II
Michael Carter II is in the same boat as Reed. Purely based on the quality of his coverage, he is a deserving Pro Bowler, but a lack of flashy stats and name recognition will likely keep him out.
Carter II has allowed the second-fewest yards per cover snap among all cornerbacks at 0.54. When lining up in the slot, Carter II is allowing only 0.43 yards per cover snap, which is the best mark in the NFL among the 50 players with at least 100 snaps in slot coverage.
However, with zero interceptions and only three passes defended to his name, casual fans just won’t know that Carter II is as special as he is. It’s up to Jets fans to vote like crazy and ensure Carter II earns the recognition that he deserves for being the best at what he does.
Honorable mentions
And there you have it, Jets fans. These are all of the Jets players who I believe could make a legitimate case for the Pro Bowl by way of the statistics to their name.
Other players such as Jermaine Johnson, Bryce Huff, C.J. Mosley, John Franklin-Myers, and Quinton Jefferson have all been great, but it would be a stretch to claim any of them should make the Pro Bowl. Johnson has a strong chance of pushing for an appearance in 2024 if he takes another leap of a similar size to the one he took this year. Huff can do it if he receives more snaps.
Greg Zuerlein has somewhat of a case to make the Pro Bowl this year. He is tied with two other players for third in field goal percentage at 96%, having made 24 of his 25 attempts. However, Zuerlein’s job has not been very difficult.
Not only has Zuerlein made just two field goals from 50+ yards (tied for 24th), but he has only attempted eight extra points all season – yes, eight – and he missed one of them. Among the top six kickers in field goal percentage, Zuerlein has the fewest made kicks from 50+ yards and the lowest extra point conversion rate (with the fewest attempts – obviously). He’s been awesome, but the circumstances just haven’t allowed him to have a real shot of outshining his fellow elite kickers.
On offense, Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall definitely have Pro Bowl-caliber talent, but the unfair situation around them eliminates any chance of putting up Pro Bowl-caliber production. Hopefully, the Jets can put Wilson and Hall in a better situation next season so they can generate stats that are reflective of their talent level.
