Gang Green Nation
One of the big surprises for me during the first three weeks of the season is how little the Jets have gotten from the screen game on offense. Before the start of the regular season, I named it as one of the big four areas the Jets needed to exploit to put together a productive offensive season. With Justin Fields in at quarterback the first two weeks, the Jets barely threw a screen.
I counted four last week with Tyrod Taylor. Unfortunately, those plays barely amounted to anything.
Sometimes there are concepts that look better on the chalkboard in the coach’s office than they do on the field.
You can understand why the Jets would want to utilize the athleticism of Armand Membou. There are limits to the types of blocks you can ask a player to hit, though.
On this play, the Jets have Breece Hall motion out of the backfield. The ball is going to him on a screen.
Membou has to go a long way to hit a block.
It’s just too much to ask.
You can see it all here.
Later on it’s Arian Smith going across the formation.
He gets a screen thrown to him. Membou has to run an even longer way.
Again it’s too far.
On this play, the Jets offensive line started to run block. It made me wonder for a second whether this was called a run play, and Taylor switched it on his own because he thought Smith had more room to work. Membou is on his way out to block before the ball is thrown, though. It looks like a screen all the way after a few viewings.
The Jets aren’t overloaded with talent at wide receiver so they might need to get the screen game working for this offense to function well. They will need to be more realistic about what their players can execute going forward, though.
