New York Jets offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand has incorporated some encouraging things into the team’s offense. Early on, Engstrand looks like he could be a smart hire by head coach Aaron Glenn.
The first-year OC has still experienced his share of struggles, though.
Despite Engstrand’s promising start in Week 1, the Jets are still 0-2. The offense looked good in the season opener, but Sunday’s lifeless offensive showing against the Buffalo Bills (87 total yards before the fourth quarter) highlighted just how far the team still needs to go from a schematic standpoint.
On one particular play, the Jets had rookie tight end Mason Taylor blocking Pro Bowl edge rusher Joey Bosa one-on-one on third-and-long. The former Los Angeles Charger star promptly blew right through Taylor en route to a massive strip-sack on Justin Fields. The hit caused New York’s starting quarterback to leave the game with a concussion, which will hold him out of Week 3 action.
Following the game, Bosa chided the Jets by saying how shocked he was when Taylor went up against him with no added help.
As rough a moment as it was for Engstrand, the first-time play-caller believes there’s a method to his madness.
Tanner Engstrand explains blocking mistake
Engstrand is not the first offensive play-caller to request a tight end to block an edge rusher, despite the differences in size and strength. He will not be the last.
That doesn’t make it right.
Games have been won and lost in key moments due to organizations trying to create play designs that ask tight ends to block bigger and faster edge rushers. It’s a difficult choice to justify to fans and analysts.
Ahead of practice on Thursday, Engstrand explained what the thought process was for putting Taylor on an edge rusher.
“I think there’s a few different things that go on in that, with the breakdown in protection,” Engstrand said. “Not necessarily always designed to do that. But there was some different schematic stuff we were trying to do that unfortunately didn’t work out exactly how we wanted to in that case.”
READ MORE: New York Jets’ offense allowed Bills to guess correctly far too oftenThe former Lions passing game coordinator has done some good things since coming over to the Jets. Despite the 0-2 start, New York has had receivers running open in both games, and their run game has been excellent when committed to.
That doesn’t mean Engstrand gets a pass for his critical design error that led to an injured quarterback.
Under no circumstances should a tight end be put in a situation where they are tasked to pass-block one-on-one against one of the most skilled pass rushers in the NFL. San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has learned that the hard way, along with several other strong play-callers.
The defense for that type of play design is that the quarterback needs to get the ball out quickly. While Taylor was beat cleanly by Bosa, Fields was sacked because he did not get the ball out quickly enough.
New York needs better poise from the quarterback position in those scenarios, but it would behoove New York to rip up any play-call that could put them in that situation again.
