Wake up! Bless Austin sucked, and we should he happy he's gone thread.

[Alka]

5 minutes ago, Obrien2Toon said:

I thought the dismay they showed over josh Adams getting cut was much stranger

I completely agree with you.  I didn't quite understand it.  I mean, he is nothing special, so cutting him was no big deal as far as I can tell.

[joewilly12]

Rich Cimini

 

@RichCimini

Marcus Maye, leader of the #Jets secondary, reacts to the Bless Austin news.

 

 

4:32 PM · Sep 2, 2021

 

 

[Beerfish]

I like Maye.  I still do not want to pay him a premium safety contract but I like the guys attitude.

[clayton163v]

6 hours ago, Alka said:

Some facts to begin with:

1. In the season of 2020, Austin had an overall PFF grade of 51.1, which ranked 105th out of 136 cornerbacks.

2.  In coverage, Austin was even worse.  His PFF grade was 47.4, which ranked 112th out of 136 cornerbacks.

I don't know about you, but I think this was a great reason to draft a bunch of cornerbacks to battle Austin for the second starting spot.

What is curious about all of this is that Austin had a decent year in his rookie season of 2019.  He digressed in his play, and if you are talking about "all gas, no brake", then you would expect things to get better in year #2, not worse.  

Now let's talk about Austin's tackling abilities, shall we?

From a great article I ready by Michael Nania from 5/15/2021, he stated that "Austin was tied for 17th among cornerbacks with 11 missed tackles, despite ranking 56th in snaps played.  He had a PFF tackling grade of 47.5, which ranked in the 24th percentile". (meaning I believe that 76 percent of cornerbacks were better than him at tackling)

Let's continue, shall we?

Again, in the Michael Nania article, "Austin tied for 6th among cornerbacks with 8 penalties.  Austin committed a penalty every 85.1 defensive snaps, the 3rd highest frequency among 87 cornerbacks to play at least 500 snaps".

So, although he sucked last year, I'm sure the defenders of Austin are saying to themselves by now that as bad as Austin was last year, he still has more game experience than the rookies on the roster?  

This is true, but I for one am not interested in repeating the mistakes of 2020.  Austin had his chance in preseason to show that he is really the player from 2019, not 2020.  I guess he showed the Jets brass that he really is the player from 2020, and that is probably why he was cut.
 

Alka, I love ya.  I do.  We agree more often than not.  But your take on Bless is off the mark. 

Bless got cut for one of two reasons.  Either there is something that we do not yet know about - could be fellas - or Bless's unrealistic sweeping pronouncements of superiority made him difficult to coach.  Saleh is going to get fired or extended based on the performance of the team.   He is putting in his defense.  He is going to TRAIN these young corners in what he BELIEVES to be the TOP TREND in the NFL.  You see, Saleh thinks he is somebody very special.  I do too.  The pass defense he is implementing is the future of the NFL.  The rules favor the pass.  Defenses have to create a pass defense and the matchup zone is intended to prevent one-on-one coverage.  Saleh is not going to waste his time on somebody with a bad attitude.

I also know what it is like to train people.  It is hard to train somebody who has a bad attitude about the work or an unrealistic view of their role on the team.  Bless and his pronouncements of grandeur sounded a lot like some of the young people I have trained.  The ones who listen perform better even when they have less talent.  Perspiration beats inspiration and not just in professional sports.   Creativity and superior talent only come to the fore when the work ethic and positive attitude are already present.

Yes, Blless has had poor performance relative to his peers.  Not surprising to me.  Nothing in his scouting report suggested he would be successful playing off coverage in a man to man scheme.  The guy is a press corner.  Exactly what Saleh intends to utilize.  It looked to me to be a perfect marriage.  That Bless and Lamar Jackson were asked to play off coverage was downright odd.  Especially for Jackson who knew the coach was nuts.  Lamar is a press corner and that is about it. 

Something went badly wrong.  Either the other shoe will soon drop - something we do not know - or it will drip out from Bless.  Unless he has learned to keep his mouth shut.   Which I doubt.  Nobody here is a bigger fan of his play than I am.  To me a key moment for a draftee is the second year.  Did you come to camp as a professional?  Or did you puke during the conditioning run?  The transformation his Bless rookie year to his second was obvious.  He made the jump.  He  is possessed about his physical conditioning.  There is so much potential.  But I also saw the bad attitude and I have trained people.  There was a roomful of trainees.  We knew there would be cuts.   

It is also possible that you are correct about his tackling.  I freely admit that - to our new coach - every defensive back is a linebacker on running plays and every linebacker is a defensive back on passing plays.   The back seven is in tight communication to cover the entire back end.  If one guy is out of alignment or is confused, these things can be blown out by average players.  To quote Voldermort "I will not put you out there until you demonstrate that you consistently know what you are doing." 

I think Saleh lacked that confidence.  His scheme is complex and mistakes are magnified. 

[Alka]

16 hours ago, clayton163v said:

Alka, I love ya.  I do.  We agree more often than not.  But your take on Bless is off the mark. 

Bless got cut for one of two reasons.  Either there is something that we do not yet know about - could be fellas - or Bless's unrealistic sweeping pronouncements of superiority made him difficult to coach.  Saleh is going to get fired or extended based on the performance of the team.   He is putting in his defense.  He is going to TRAIN these young corners in what he BELIEVES to be the TOP TREND in the NFL.  You see, Saleh thinks he is somebody very special.  I do too.  The pass defense he is implementing is the future of the NFL.  The rules favor the pass.  Defenses have to create a pass defense and the matchup zone is intended to prevent one-on-one coverage.  Saleh is not going to waste his time on somebody with a bad attitude.

I also know what it is like to train people.  It is hard to train somebody who has a bad attitude about the work or an unrealistic view of their role on the team.  Bless and his pronouncements of grandeur sounded a lot like some of the young people I have trained.  The ones who listen perform better even when they have less talent.  Perspiration beats inspiration and not just in professional sports.   Creativity and superior talent only come to the fore when the work ethic and positive attitude are already present.

Yes, Blless has had poor performance relative to his peers.  Not surprising to me.  Nothing in his scouting report suggested he would be successful playing off coverage in a man to man scheme.  The guy is a press corner.  Exactly what Saleh intends to utilize.  It looked to me to be a perfect marriage.  That Bless and Lamar Jackson were asked to play off coverage was downright odd.  Especially for Jackson who knew the coach was nuts.  Lamar is a press corner and that is about it. 

Something went badly wrong.  Either the other shoe will soon drop - something we do not know - or it will drip out from Bless.  Unless he has learned to keep his mouth shut.   Which I doubt.  Nobody here is a bigger fan of his play than I am.  To me a key moment for a draftee is the second year.  Did you come to camp as a professional?  Or did you puke during the conditioning run?  The transformation his Bless rookie year to his second was obvious.  He made the jump.  He  is possessed about his physical conditioning.  There is so much potential.  But I also saw the bad attitude and I have trained people.  There was a roomful of trainees.  We knew there would be cuts.   

It is also possible that you are correct about his tackling.  I freely admit that - to our new coach - every defensive back is a linebacker on running plays and every linebacker is a defensive back on passing plays.   The back seven is in tight communication to cover the entire back end.  If one guy is out of alignment or is confused, these things can be blown out by average players.  To quote Voldermort "I will not put you out there until you demonstrate that you consistently know what you are doing." 

I think Saleh lacked that confidence.  His scheme is complex and mistakes are magnified. 

Clayton, I appreciate your kind remarks, and love back to ya!

Before I talk about Austin, although I didn't train people as much as you did, I managed people for many years, and groomed my replacement before I retired this past year.  

There are 2 basic kinds of people I found:  a. Those that have an inner sense of responsibility, and really don't need much managing and B. Those that will work hard as long as you are there lurking in the background.  These people will test you, and the more rope you give them, the more they will take.  Of course, you also have C.  The people who will not work hard, no matter what you do, and these people need to go find another profession.

I don't know what category Bless Austin filled, but one thing I do know is that Austin was not a good player last year, at least not according to PFF, and according to what I witnessed as a fan.  The pass defense was awful, and Austin had a part of that defense. 

But, I do agree that Austin is a professional football player, and yes, I do believe that he could have remained with the team as a solid backup player, but not a starter.  

Cutting him was not a loss, because I did not view him as a starter, and I doubt he would have been able to handle that downgrade as a backup.  

Saleh needs go-getters!  All gas, no brake!  Austin would have fought that narrative on the team, and I believe that is the reason he was ultimately let go.