Latest / The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views / OPPOSITION TERRITORY: New York Jets

Transcript

OPPOSITION TERRITORY: New York Jets · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
What's going on? Everybody. Welcome to this episode of Opposition Territory here at
0:04
the PST podcast show. It is Tuesday, June fourth, twenty twenty four.
0:09
By the time you hear this, some things may have changed here there,
0:11
but we hope you enjoy the show. All right, folks, welcome
0:30
to Opposition Territory here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running
0:34
weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world, eleven years strong. We got
0:39
a great discussion coming your way this week on Opposition Territory. I can't wait
0:43
to see what's gonna happen to this New York Jets team heading into this twenty
0:47
twenty four twenty twenty five season. Really, I mean, look, we're
0:50
gonna get our conversations started off with our guest with regard to the quarterback situation,
0:54
for sure, because it's a huge story coming into this NFL season in
0:58
general, but what it actually means for this New York Jets team. We're
1:00
gonna get into some offensive talk, some defensive talk. Let's get right to
1:04
it. It is great to have back on the podcast. It has been
1:07
way too long since we have talked to him, and you can find him
1:11
on Twitter slash x at Thomas cp Underscore NFL. He covers the New York
1:17
Jets for gangree Nation dot com, also Jets x Factor and Jets Uncovered as
1:23
well. He's got his own company as well. The league winners. Check
1:27
out everything he's doing over on the Twitter slash x and on these other sites.
1:32
We've got Thomas Christopher. How are you doing, Tommy, Hey,
1:36
Jiv, thanks for having me on man. I appreciate it. I'm doing
1:38
great as always, and I'm glad to be on the pod. It's great
1:41
to have you back. Man. Like I said to you before we hit
1:44
the record button, you know, thinking to myself, I really want to
1:46
get into this Jets team because there's some really interesting storylines heading into this upcoming
1:51
season. I figured what better individual to reach out to than you to get
1:55
into this team. What's been happening with the Jets during this offseason. So
2:00
I guess, first and foremost, we got to get into one of the
2:01
biggest storylines basically in the NFL as it pertains to the Jets, and that's
2:06
the quarterback position of the Jets. It's Aaron Rodgers. Of course, he's
2:09
going to be making his return this season. After suffering that achilles injury only
2:14
after four snaps. As we all know during the first week the twenty twenty
2:19
three season. Tommy, he's another year older, He's one year removed from
2:24
actually playing the game of football at a very high level. What are your
2:29
thoughts about Aaron Rodgers. What's Jets Nations thoughts about Aaron Rodgers here coming into
2:34
this season and how it's going to perform under center this coming here for the
2:38
Jets. You know, I think a lot of Jets fans are hoping for
2:40
the best and praying that the worst doesn't happen. But more realistically, I
2:45
think we're bound. Does he a slow start from Aaron Rodgers? You know,
2:47
he's still he mentioned that he's still not comfortable with his achilles and his
2:52
leg there. So I think until he gets some like real contact going and
2:54
out this OTAs and even part of training camp stuff, until he gets to
2:58
like a real game, maybe in the preseason a bit, and he gets
3:00
to actually have that pressure, that real pressure, not the simulated stuff.
3:05
Yeah, we'll see where he goes, but I'm predicting kind of a slow
3:07
start for him. Yeah, I think with Aaron Rodgers too, you know,
3:12
I think Jets Nation and those of us who look outside of the periphery
3:16
stuff that is kind of nonsense sometimes with Aaron Rodgers. Quite frankly, I
3:21
think a lot of us from a football standpoint, we want to see the
3:23
guy do well because of who he's been in the NFL, who he has
3:27
been not only to the Green Bay Packers, but hopefully to the New York
3:30
Jets in terms of being able to get this team to the next level.
3:34
From a football perspective, Aaron Rodgers is a guy I think that a lot
3:38
of us can root for. And I just kind of wanted to put that
3:40
out there because I'm hoping that he has one of these comeback stories that is
3:45
actually really good for this Jets team. And I say this because my best
3:47
friend is a Jets fan, quite frankly, and the poor guy is just
3:52
constantly downtrodden year after a year after a year, and it'll be great if
3:58
they get some stability at the quarterback position. Oh man, I'm really hoping
4:01
so like, for what it's worth, during ot as, he's looked really
4:04
good throwing the ball, so we know he can still throw the ball really
4:06
well. It's just the rest of the stuff that we really got to figure
4:10
out, and who knows how that offense might look. Nathaniel Hackett as the
4:14
offensive cordner has to be able to either do his job better or it's going
4:18
to be like all on the shoulders of Aaron Rodgers. So that's going to
4:20
be an interesting dynamic to see how it unfolds during the season. Yeah.
4:24
Absolutely, And the one critical aspect of this offense and the critical component of
4:30
how Aaron Rodgers is going to perform. Let's get into the offensive line here,
4:34
because the offensive line is going to need to provide that stability not only
4:39
for him, but I think for the offense in general. Tommy. I
4:42
mean, when we look at some of the top offensive lines in the NFL,
4:46
folks can certainly point to the Detroit Lions. They arguably are they going
4:49
to be the top offensive line this year. The Philadelphia Eagles, you know,
4:54
me being an Eagles fan, you know we always have a top you
4:57
know, at least top five offensive line in the league. But the Jets
5:00
have spent a significant amount of money and put some resources behind rebuilding the offensive
5:04
line during the offseason, and after last year's offensive line allowing a ten point
5:11
sixty five percent sack rate that was twenty ninth in the NFL. They needed
5:15
to go out and get Tyron Smith. You know, Morgan Moses. John
5:18
Simpson used that first round pick to draft Alignment of the Future, which they
5:24
did. These guys are going to be protecting Aaron Rodgers. So what are
5:29
your thoughts about this newly constructed offensive line and with the expectation should be for
5:33
this new crew looking to protect one of the best passers in the game,
5:36
what are your thoughts here. You know, I'm a little bit concerned about
5:41
injuries because you know, there are a lot of they are great players in
5:44
Tyrone Smith, Morgan Moses, but they do they could be potentially an injury
5:47
prone at least on Tyrone's side. He hasn't played as many games as I
5:50
know he would like to in the past couple of seasons with Dallas, but
5:54
even when he plays, he's still an all Pro caliber player. We got
5:56
Morgan Moses, who performed at a great level with Baltimore last year, and
5:59
John On Simpson. Although the numbers may not specifically show it in terms of
6:01
PFF and stuff, he really sets the tone in the run game. And
6:05
one guy I really want to bring out too, is Joe Timan. He
6:09
started at guard for the Jets and then ended up playing center. Now that
6:13
Covin Connor mcgovernor's gone, he's now slid in there. He's going to be
6:16
the full time center. Actually saw Nick Mangold working with him at OTAs today
6:19
nice, so I have high hopes for him potentially being the center of the
6:24
future and kind of creating that line following that lineage of Mangold and Kevin Mawaii.
6:29
But if the guys can stay healthy, man, this should be a
6:30
top five, top ten unit. There's no reason they shouldn't be. Injuries,
6:34
you know, it is one thing, but that's why they drafted that
6:36
tackle in the first round. Hopefully he can step up, learn a thing
6:40
or two during the office, and in god forbid, if Moses or Tyrone
6:44
get hurt, he can step in and potentially be, you know, a
6:46
capable replacement. Absolutely. I mean, as we've talked about year after year
6:50
after year on this podcast show, if you do not have a solid offensive
6:54
line, the offense just isn't going to work, whether it's the passing game,
6:58
whether it's the running game as well. And I think with this offensive
7:01
line, and like you said, it all comes down to health. Tyron
7:03
Smith. Morgan moses, they can stay healthy. I think Breece Hall is
7:08
going to have himself a very very nice year. We know how talented he
7:12
is. He's extremely talented, and I think in general, the passing game
7:15
can actually work well and I think Aaron Rodgers is going to be able to
7:19
get the ball out. I think he's going to be well protected. Again,
7:23
like you said, if these guys are able to stay healthy, this
7:26
is an offensive line. I think that could really raise some eyebrows here.
7:29
Tommy. Yeah, that's kind of the point, right, and it all
7:32
depends on if they can stay healthy. We know Aaron Rodgers should be able
7:35
to do his job, and they've really got to the step up for that
7:39
least the first I would say, quarter of the season, make sure that
7:42
Rogers is okay, and from there, you know, the sky could be
7:44
the limit. Absolutely. Well, let's get into another aspect of this offense
7:47
that I wanted to dive into. As we're moving along with our conversation here
7:51
and sticking with the passing game, I do wonder if there will be an
7:57
emerging or maybe somewhat of a surprising talent coming out of this Jets offense from
8:01
a pass catching perspective. I mean, Mike Williams is new to the team
8:03
and he could make, you know, a quote resurgence. Garrett Wilson,
8:09
I think it's that quietly, you know, had ninety five receptions last season
8:11
for over one thousand yards given the quarterback situation, not too shabby. But
8:18
you know a lot of folks they look at their fantasy football numbers with Garrett
8:20
Wilson at times and they're like, oh boy, however, you know,
8:24
we know that those guys are capable of doing some good things with the ball.
8:30
However, you also have in the background, I think too, Tyler
8:31
Conklin, the tight end who could take a step forward this year with Aaron
8:35
Rodgers throwing to him. But as you look at the depth with regard to
8:39
receiving on this Jets team, there doesn't seem to be too too much depth.
8:45
And I wanted to kind of get into that as well. I'm wondering,
8:48
who do you see as the next kind of critical pass catcher for the
8:52
New York Jets this coming season, Tommy, for this offense to really really
8:56
see some consistency. Yeah, I know, Jet fans are a lot higher
9:01
on the receiving group than I am personally. I do think we'll see something
9:05
with Garrett Wilson potentially hitting like the fourteen fifteen hundred yard mark, which would
9:09
be great. You know, I often considered everything is healthy. We're talking
9:11
in this little simulation here, everything is healthy. But for for the other
9:15
guys, it's hard to tell. Man, Mike Williams might not even be
9:16
ready for week one. I know Robert Sala has suggested that he's not even
9:20
ready to start doing any part of the training camp yet. And then it
9:24
comes down to you know, Alan Lazard, Malachi Corley and and Xavier Gibson.
9:28
Gibson could potentially be a sleeper there. I'm not so sold on Alan
9:31
Lazard. Man. He I know Rogers has been trying to get him involved
9:35
early during OTAs and stuff. You know, they had that chemistry in Green
9:39
Bay. But he's just dropping the ball, man, He's not. He's
9:43
the timing correct with back shoulder throws and things like that and a lot of
9:46
stuff that Aaron was actually pretty ticked off about during OTA. So I'm not
9:52
and hey, the coaching staff didn't even want to mention the guy's name towards
9:54
the end of the last season. That's how bad, That's how brutal it
9:56
was. So I'm hoping, you know, maybe he has a little resurgence
9:58
with chemistry that he had prior with Rodgers, at least to start the season.
10:03
They'll need it from a receiving standpoint. They also got Malachi Corley,
10:05
who you know, he's a good, yeah guy. I know a lot
10:09
of people are comparing him to Deebo Samuel, but you have to see the
10:11
guy do that kind of work against NFL talent first, not just pure FBS
10:16
talent. So I'm kind of pressing the brakes on him a little bit there
10:20
as well. There's also concerns that he was a late the Claire player,
10:24
and for wide receivers, being a late declaire usually means that it's gonna be
10:28
a Rockie Rocky road for them to get, you know, set up in
10:31
the NFL. But I think he hit the nail on the head with Tyler
10:35
Conklin. I think he's probably the biggest sleeper here on the team. You
10:37
know, he's averaged sixty catches the past three years. He's been really consistent
10:41
about six hundred yards. I wouldn't be shocked. Man if we see him
10:43
have like an eighty catch thousand yard season, decent red zone option for the
10:48
Jets. I know that him and Aaron have really connected so far in camp,
10:52
and that's one of the things that Aaron Rodgers I think has been able
10:54
to do with his career in terms of a pass catcher, is really getting
10:58
the tight end involved with this in the course of the offense and really bringing
11:01
out the best within the tight ends that he's played for. I mean up
11:05
until like in Green Bay. I mean Robert Tanyan. You know, I
11:11
wasn't the greatest talent in the world, but boy, he brought some stuff
11:13
out in terms of Tanyan, and I was very, very surprised that.
11:18
You know, we've seen some of those numbers with Tanyan over the years,
11:20
you know, when he was with Aaron Rodgers. I think the same thing
11:24
can happen for Conklin. Quite frankly, I think again a sleeper for sure
11:30
with regard to the receiving corps on this Jets team. But let's move over
11:33
to the defense here. There are two players in particular that I think the
11:39
Jets need to have healthy throughout this upcoming season in order for them to be
11:45
successful overall. CJ. Moseley and Quincy Williams right in the middle of the
11:50
field. If those two guys stay healthy, I think that's Jets defense and
11:52
the team overall are really going to see some success. I mean, outside
11:58
of Sauce Gardner and Quinnin Williams, two extremely talented gentlemen at their positions.
12:03
I'm wondering, Tommy, is there another defender who the Jets cannot afford to
12:07
lose this coming season because it can't afford to lose again CJ. Mosley and
12:11
Quincy Williams. Who's that player for you? And why that they just cannot
12:16
afford to lose this coming year? For me, it has to be Michael
12:20
Carter to the second. He's our slot cornerback. He's honestly one of the
12:24
best slot cornerbacks in the NFL. He's one of the best guys against man
12:26
coverage in the NFL too, And if he goes down, I'm not really
12:31
sure if Dj Reieder saus Gardner could pick up that slack out of the slot.
12:35
You know, they drafted Stiggers in the fifth round. I don't.
12:37
I kind of project him more as a you know, an outside cornerback or
12:41
a potentially guy who can move over to safety. I don't really see him
12:43
as a slot guy yet. Who knows he could develop into that. It
12:48
all depends how they use him during training camp. But they really have to
12:50
figure out what they're gonna do in the off chance that perhaps, Hey,
12:54
you know, if Michael Carter goes down, what are you gonna do there?
12:58
You know you're gonna slot in the old reader, You're gonna try to
13:01
place as Gardner out of position a little bit. That's where things could get
13:03
a little difficult. And teams that have really good slot receivers or big tight
13:07
ends that play in the slot, that's where the mismatches could happen. So
13:11
I'm kind of worried if Michael Carter gets injured. I think that's a really
13:13
good player to really put to pin down on. If you lose him,
13:18
it's gonna it's gonna be rough from a defensive standpoint for sure. Again,
13:22
folks talking to Tommy Christopher, he covers the New York Jets for gangreen Nation
13:26
dot com, The Jets X Factor, the Jets Uncovered, and check out
13:31
everything he's doing over at the League Winners dot Com. Great, great stuff
13:35
that he's got going on. And as we're moving along with our conversation with
13:39
regard to the defense, looking at the safety position, and I know the
13:43
safety position has been getting uh some looks at by by certain media sources and
13:50
just by some fans as well. You've got Chuck Clark and Tony Adams there.
13:54
I think they are looked at, and correct me if I'm wrong.
13:58
The top safeties on this team kind of heading into here to this season.
14:01
But head coach Robert Sala recently said that there's going to be an open competition
14:05
at the safety position. I'm wondering, how do you think this competition is
14:09
going to be taking shape, you know, whether it's throughout the mandatory mini
14:13
camps or even training camp itself here. Yeah, it's interesting because Chuck Clark
14:18
was supposed to be slated as a starter last season and then of course he
14:20
went down with that injury. He's another year older now, he's on the
14:22
older side of the players at that position. It's interesting to see how he
14:26
develops if he's ready. That's always a key thing as well, because for
14:31
guys who get injured, you know, the first year back isn't always the
14:33
same. Not everybody has a Breeze Hall type of bounce back after year one.
14:37
You know, that's kind of a rarity. I kind of like Tony
14:39
Adams winning one of the position jobs. And it's interesting too, they brought
14:43
back Ashton Davis, which kind of surprised a lot of Jets fans and analysts
14:46
as well. He picked up his pace a little bit last season. I
14:50
wouldn't be surprised to see him as the third rotational guy there. I'm also
14:52
interested to see if they double dip in free agency. I know Justin Simmons
14:56
from the Broncos has been really tagged a lot with the Jets lately. I
15:00
don't know if that happens. Joe Douglas doesn't seem like a guy who really
15:03
will pay that much for a safety position. But if they do bring him
15:07
in, hey man, that's a game changing starter right there. It's interesting.
15:09
I wasn't planning on asking you, but you mentioned a front office executive
15:13
in Joe Douglas who came from the Philadelphia Eagles front office. And before we
15:18
get to the last topic here, what are your impressions of Joe Douglas so
15:22
far? You know, I don't think he certainly had the most perfect couple
15:26
of seasons as the Jets general manager in terms of team building, and he
15:31
faced a lot of challenges too. Have to say that to be fair,
15:33
But what are your thoughts on where Joe Douglas has really taken this team from
15:37
a front office perspective? Yeah, I think Joe does a really good job
15:41
working with the coaches that he's with. He really does a good job trying
15:45
to bring them the personnel that fits that scheme that the coaches are trying to
15:48
run. He did it with Adam Gaze to a fault, and we saw
15:50
how that worked out. But I can't really blame Douglas on that. He
15:54
didn't really even get the pick Gase either, So yeah, that's a whole
15:56
situation there. But you know, moving forward to Robert Sally, he's done
16:00
a really great job helping build that team to the way that Robert Sala likes
16:04
to have his team. His one fault has been the quarterback position, where
16:07
he kind of fell in love with Zach Wilson. He fell in love with
16:11
James Morgan. I believe a fourth I think as a fourth round pick as
16:14
well, and he didn't last so long. But the outside of the quarterback
16:17
position. Man, he's done a great job. You know, he's got
16:19
Garrett Wilson, saus Gardner, both were rookies of the Year in their respective
16:22
seasons. You know, Jermaine Johnson, people thought he was a bust.
16:26
He came back last season at seven and a half sacks, turned out to
16:29
be pretty well. The Joe Tittman finding in the second round, Breese Hall
16:33
in the second round. He's done a surprisingly good job. And he's also
16:36
a master at trading man. He does a great job being able to get
16:38
trades that you won't think will ever happen, and he just happens to get
16:42
it done. That's been my biggest impression of him. And I really I
16:47
was not as high on Douglas after the Gaye years, but he's really turned
16:51
me around. That's good to hear. I guess maybe you can learn something
16:55
from the Philadelphia Eagles front office every day. And again, as you're smiling,
17:00
Well, the last topic to get into before I let you go here,
17:03
Tommy. The Jets have six primetime games in the first eleven weeks of
17:07
this upcoming season. Again, it's a season of high hopes. I mean,
17:11
I've seen a number of, like, you know, different graphics and
17:14
articles putting the Jets right into the playoff picture. As we're only here in
17:18
June, but it's still fun to think about. So, you know what,
17:21
what what do you think are the realistic expectations for this Jets team and
17:26
where should Jets Nation really be mentally coming into this season in terms of those
17:30
expectations. Yeah, I know that a lot of people wanted the Jets to
17:36
go. A lot of Jet fans kind of wanted the team to fly under
17:37
the raidar, not get as many primetime games and maybe takes them. But
17:41
that obviously, you know that's not happening. But if you're a fan watching
17:47
the team and everything's healthy, you got to assume that, hey, this
17:49
is a team that can actually make a run in the playoffs if they can
17:52
stay healthy. There's little reason to believe not to. In Rogers, four
17:56
time NFL MVP, it's only three years removed from his last one. You
17:59
know, it's not like it was a decade ago, even half a decade
18:02
ago. He still has the juice in him and he know, he still
18:04
seems like he wants to be competitive. I got the Jets finishing ten and
18:08
seven, maybe it's it's good enough to get a wild card, maybe it's
18:11
good enough to win the division. The vision is kind of taking a step
18:15
down with the Bills losing stuff on digs and going through their transition phase that
18:18
they're going through right now. But you know, I think it might be
18:22
a Jets Miami type of AFC East this season and if hey ten to seven,
18:26
eleven and six, that could get it done. And from there,
18:29
you know, with the way the playoffs have changed and they got seven seeds
18:32
now, it's going to be a long battle. So if they don't get
18:33
the first seed, Jets fans buckle in. It could be a long season
18:37
regardless, it could be and again, it all depends on health. It
18:41
does, just as it does with every NFL team. Again, folks,
18:45
we got Tommy Jets here on Twitter at Thomas cp Underscore NFL A great,
18:52
great follow Thomas Christopher. Thank you, buddy for joining us so much here
18:56
at the PST podcast show on our Opposition Territory Pod. I'd love to talk
18:59
to you down the way, my friend. Oh yeah, absolutely, Jeff.
19:02
I appreciate you always having me on. I love doing this show with
19:04
you. That's gonna do it for us here on Opposition Territory this week.
19:10
Please share our podcast with your friends and family members who are Philly sports fans
19:14
or sports fans in general. We thank you our listeners for being part of
19:18
this online community with us and within this space. Make sure to check out
19:22
our website, Philadelphia Sportstable dot com for all of our podcasts, and follow
19:26
us on our social sites. You can follow the show on Twitter at Philadelphia
19:32
PST, on threads at Philadelphia Sports Table, and over on Instagram as well
19:37
at Philadelphia Sports Table. Take care, we will catch you next time.