Important young pieces played instrumental roles in the New York Jets’ win over Washington
The New York Jets’ Week 16 win over the Washington Commanders was a divisive one among Jets fans.
Regardless of your thoughts on tanking, all fans can take solace in how some of the team’s key young players performed.
Here are there three promising long-term takeaways from the Jets’ victory.
1. Joe Tippmann continues to show great flashes
Joe Tippmann‘s rookie season has certainly not been perfect. He’s had some rough games, especially against high-level defensive lines. Even this game wasn’t perfect, as an inaccurate snap from Tippmann led to a turnover.
However, Tippmann’s peak moments have been special. He continues to provide flashes of the type of player he can become in the future once he receives ample time to develop.
Outside of the bad snap, Tippmann was stellar against Washington. He pitched another shutout in pass protection, allowing zero pressures over a very large total of 55 pass-blocking snaps.
This was Tippmann’s fourth start of the season in which he allowed zero pressures (excluding a fifth game where he left early due to injury). That is the most such starts in one season by a rookie Jets offensive lineman since Nick Mangold in 2006.
Mangold did it 12 times back in his rookie year, so let’s be clear: Tippmann isn’t necessarily having a Mangold-esque rookie year. Still, whenever you’re mentioned in the same sentence as Mangold, it’s a good thing. Tippmann is proving he has the talent to become a star. Going forward, the challenge is to figure out how he can play like a star on a weekly basis.
Tippmann is showing potential that the Jets have not seen from the center position ever since Mangold retired.
2. Breece Hall is THAT dude
Before this game, I wrote a long feature on Breece Hall that explained why he has been one of the NFL’s best running backs this season despite a lack of box-score production to back up that claim.
At long last, Hall’s stellar individual play was complemented by the necessary support to allow him to post tremendous stats in the box score. The Jets had one of their best run-blocking performances of the season and peppered Hall with a career-high 16 targets, resulting in a classic performance from the young star.
Hall rushed 20 times for 95 yards and two touchdowns while snagging 12 receptions for 96 yards. It’s just the third time in Jets history that a player posted at least 95 rushing yards and 95 receiving yards in the same game. The last player to do it? That would be Breece Hall, who did it against the Miami Dolphins in Week 5 of the 2022 season. Prior to Hall, Johnny Hector was the only Jet to ever pull it off, doing it against the Bills in 1986.
Hall is also the only player in the NFL with a double-95 game this season, and since the start of 2020, he owns two of the three such performances in the entire league. The only other player in this decade to do it is… Dalvin Cook, who dropped exactly 95 rushing yards and 95 receiving yards in the Vikings’ overtime win over the Colts last season.
Reaching the end zone twice is what puts this performance over the top as an all-timer. Hall is the first player in Jets history with 95-plus rushing and receiving yards to go with two total touchdowns. The last NFL player to do it was Christian McCaffrey in 2018. It’s only been done 29 times in the Super Bowl era.
Just give Hall a fair shot and he will show you the type of game-changer he is.
3. Israel Abanikanda provided some juice
His performance wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but rookie running back Israel Abanikanda finally got his chance to play a role in the offense, and he delivered some solid moments.
Getting a season-high nine carries (he had eight all season before this game), Abanikanda ran for 43 yards, averaging a healthy 4.8 yards per carry. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, Abanikanda generated 11 rushing yards over expected (RYOE), giving him an average of 1.2 RYOE per carry.
Dalvin Cook has carried the rock 67 times this season and could only muster up one run for more than 10 yards. Abanikanda has toted the pigskin 17 times and he has already recorded two runs for more than 10 yards.
Cook’s abysmal performance as the Jets’ RB2 was a massive detriment this season. The Jets need to get better production out of that spot in 2024 if they want to make a push for the playoffs. Any offense will struggle to muster consistency if it completely loses any threat of an explosive play whenever its best running back comes off the field.
Abanikanda will be at the forefront of the competition to earn that RB2 role. His performance against Washington was a nice start as he aims to use these final three games to make a good impression on the coaching staff before that competition begins.
Hey Michael, I see Tippman getting praised for his pass protection which is awesome. Curious how his run blocking has been doing at center?
There are flashes but definitely some inconsistency with first level communication and landing open field blocks at the second level. Normal for a rookie though, especially with bad guard play next to him and inconsistency at QB. But I’m optimistic he’ll be a good run blocker in the long run as he develops. He gets out of his stance really quickly and has smooth hips. Some really impressive reach blocks on his film. Tools are there
Hi Michael…your recent rantings sounded like the team broke you over the past few weeks. Totally understand, but after watching negative football, try not to be too negative in the analysis. We look to empirical guys like you to stay beyond the emotions to the degree that is possible. There’s enough guys who rant for click bait and just because. That said, I’m curious on your statistical take on Jake Hansen over the last 2 weeks. He didn’t appear “lost” to the eye test. Would be a pleasant development if he’s shown improvement and could be an asset moving forward.
That’s a very fair critique, I definitely let myself get too emotional in some of my analyses recently. I’m trying my best to steer clear of that.
Hanson has been hit with 9 pressures and a 6.1% pressure rate this year. It’s worse than average for a guard but not horrendous. It’s actually better than Laken’s 7.3% this year. Watching the film, I wouldn’t say he’s been good, but I feel like I’ve singled him out as a culprit less often than others. Maybe a candidate to compete for a backup spot next year. I’d say he looks like an average backup guard which would be an upgrade for this Jets team compared to what they’ve had recently.