Allen Lazard’s struggles in his first year with the New York Jets hardly need an introduction. Robert Saleh has been asked about Lazard ad nauseam. Lazard continues to lack a certain level of humility in his press conferences, furthering Jets fans’ disgust with him. The only hope the team and its fans alike have is that Aaron Rodgers’ return will cure all of the ills from 2023.
As poorly as Lazard played, though, one game immediately stuck out as different from all the others. Just take a look at his game-by-game Pro Football Focus grades.
Visit our New York Jets Film page to become the smartest football fan in the land.
Lazard’s game grades are all in the yellow or below, except for his performance against the Chiefs in Week 4. While I don’t generally use PFF grades for analysis, they do provide a zoomed-out look at possible trends to investigate.
Mind you, a 71.4 game is hardly elite. As a season-long grade, it would have ranked 42nd out of 81 receivers with at least 48 targets (which is how many Lazard had). Still, it’s worlds better than his 52.7 season-long grade, which ranked 80th.
This outlier game for Lazard warrants some study. He caught all three of his targets for 61 yards and a touchdown. How did he perform as a whole, and why was that his only game in the green? Is there anything the Jets can learn from that game in terms of how to use him?
Targets and route-running
Lazard is not a good route-runner. He has stiff hips and rarely causes a defender to move with his release. Still, in this game, you can see what he is decent at, how Zach Wilson took advantage of that, and how Rodgers could have gotten the ball to him even more.
Lazard actually did a pretty good job of getting outside leverage here, starting inside and then using a throw-by. He then beat Trent McDuffie, a first-team All-Pro cornerback, over the top. It’s hard to tell if this was a designed out-and-up or if Lazard improvised based on McDuffie’s and Mike Edwards’ (No. 21) positioning. Still, once Edwards came down to cut off Lazard’s outside leverage, Lazard was wide open deep for a potential touchdown.
Wilson woefully underthrew it, putting it in a place where not only did Lazard get turned around, but McDuffie could have deflected it or even intercepted it. It looks like McDuffie overran it, although Lazard may have pushed him to the ground for offensive pass interference. Either way, Lazard used his larger frame to fight back for the ball and make the contested catch.
This likely would have been a 60-yard touchdown from Rodgers. Lazard doesn’t get that open often, and it takes a blown coverage for it to happen, but still, the chemistry between Rodgers and Lazard would ensure that this connection wouldn’t have been missed.
Lazard rarely gets over the top straight go balls, but he often has enough space for the back-shoulder throw underneath. Here are two examples where Lazard was potentially open on a back-shoulder throw.
Of course, on the first one, Garrett Wilson was the No. 1 read and wide open, but this is just to illustrate how Lazard could be useful at times. On the second one, Zach Wilson was flushed from the pocket, but there was actually more room to hit Lazard on the back shoulder than to hit Garrett Wilson at all.
This was a very risky throw into tight coverage. Still, it’s one of the rare times Wilson threw with decent timing and trusted Lazard to get to a spot first. It was a Cover-4 look pre-snap, and Wilson just fit the ball between the two quarters defenders.
Lazard stemmed the route just wide enough that the safety couldn’t get over in time. He could have come back to the ball and attacked it, giving the safety less opportunity to deflect it. Still, he caught the contested touchdown by a hair.
There’s no real effort on Lazard’s part, but this could have been a big play if not for the instant pressure on Zach Wilson.
Lazard throws an inside step, freezes the cornerback’s feet, and wipes away the hands to gain outside leverage. He then stems vertically to hold the defender inside before breaking outside. He’s not wide open, but there’s a lane for Zach Wilson to get the ball to him on the deeper throw rather than hitting Garrett Wilson on the shorter ball (although Wilson was more open).
Here’s an example of Lazard getting open on a slant. Zach Wilson was looking at Garrett Wilson all the way, which is generally a good idea on third down. Still, it’s an example of why Lazard was so successful on slants in Green Bay even without great route-running technique. Although Wilson is the slant master for the Jets, they should run more slants with Lazard to take advantage of what he can do.
Lazard certainly has wasted movement in his breaks, but he stemmed this route vertically just enough to cause L’Jarius Sneed (No. 38) to be late. Sneed also kept his eyes downfield on Garrett Wilson a little too long, allowing Lazard to get open underneath.
That’s not to say Lazard was all sunshine and rainbows in this game. He bowed out way too many vertical routes to the sideline, giving the quarterback no room to throw.
This is also an example of Lazard failing to move the defender at all with whatever moves he tried. A bunch of foot-firing without threatening the DB.
Rodgers can make Lazard look better
It’s hard to say the Jets should have thrown Lazard more contested balls when he went 4-for-17 on them for the season. Still, there were opportunities for Wilson to hit Lazard in this game, some of which he took advantage of and some of which he didn’t. This is why Lazard was productive on a low target volume with Green Bay: he does have his moments when he gets open, and Rodgers will hit him when that happens.
It’s hard to know why Lazard was able to hang on to the football in this game but not in others. It’s not even that the ball was placed better, as Wilson woefully underthrew the first contested catch to Lazard. Still, that play in and of itself shows Lazard’s potential for contested catches.
I’m not saying Lazard will have a great year or even come close to justifying his contract. He’s a poor route-runner, he’s slow, and he has bad hands. But more than showing why his performance in this game was better than the rest of his season, it demonstrates how he could be an adequate No. 3 receiver and No. 4 or No. 5 option in the passing game.
