From out of Nowhere; Did Joe Douglas Poach Defensive Starter From his old Boss?

[JetNation]

Because so many NFL fans are known for obsessing over their favorite team’s general manager’s ability to draft quality young talent, they often overlook other options to improve a roster without having to give up assets or pay big money.   One of the lesser-utilized methods is of course poaching a player for another club’s practice squad.  It’s not a move that teams make very often because it requires that player to be placed on the 53-man roster immediately despite what is likely a lack of game experience.

When Joe Douglas found himself down a pair of safeties with projected starters Lamarcus Joyner and Marcus Maye on season-ending IR, he turned his attention to his former employers, the Philadelphia Eagles, and snagged little-known safety Elijah Riley.

An undrafted free agent pickup out of Army, Riley had never appeared in an NFL game, but that changed in a hurry one he arrived at 1 Jets Drive.  Less than two weeks after joining the Jets, Riley found himself starting against the Miami Dolphins in a week 11 loss.  In his debut, the Jets showed plenty of confidence in their new addition.  Riley moved around quite a bit, playing deep, in the slot (16 snaps) and in the box (19 snaps).   Riley showed impressive awareness and a willing to charge downhill to mix things up around the line of scrimmage.

Then this Sunday, it was game number two and more of the same.  Riley earned the team’s fifth-highest PFF grade at 76.1 for players with at least 20 snaps and did it while playing 17 snaps in the slot and another 17 in the box.  His debut effort earned him a respectable PFF grade of 67.

Credit Emory Hunt of Football game plan for mentioning Riley as a player who was good enough to grab the starting job a few weeks ago when he appeared on JetNation RadioAM here.  Having played on the outside as a corner for Army, the expectation is that his cover skills will be adequate to hold up in the NFL as a safety.  His 3 interceptions, 4 sacks and 3 forced fumbles suggest he could have the tools to be a solid jack of all trades in the Jets secondary.

With plenty of holes to fill this offseason, Douglas will be watching closely to see if Riley continues to improve and show himself to be worthy of a roster spot next season.  If it’s as a starter, the GM will be elated.

 

The post From out of Nowhere; Did Joe Douglas Poach Defensive Starter From his old Boss? appeared first on JetNation.com (NY Jets Blog & Forum).

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[AFJF]

20 passes broken up to go with 7 INT's and 17 tackles for loss while at Army.  Versatility makes him intriguing.

[rangerous]

douglas seems to be very good at evaluating younger players.  you gotta be impressed with the many late round draft picks and udfa's he's pulled in.

[mrcoops]

Riley has looked pretty good so far, and the coaches seem to have confidence in his abilities.

An encouraging start - looking forward to seeing what he can do over the final 6 games of the season.

[Copernicus]

15 minutes ago, rangerous said:

douglas seems to be very good at evaluating younger players.  you gotta be impressed with the many late round draft picks and udfa's he's pulled in.

John Franklin Myers

Huff

Guidry

Lamar Jackson

Dunn

Quincy Williams

Hamiclar Rahshad

Ty Johnson

Amendola

and now Riley

All castoffs or udfa(s) and have contributed. Arguably part of this team's future moving forward

Pretty impressive

Am I forgetting anyone? 

 

[k-met57]

Douglas only has 1 issue... Zach Wilson....if he hits, Douglas will be here for a long time...if he flops he will be gone.

I think Douglas has done pretty well in everything outside of drafting in the middle rounds, which lets be honest is a crapshoot of all crapshoots.

[Barton]

The defense is not far off from being good to very good. Just needs an electric passrusher or two.

[johnnyjet]

Lawson may be that guy. I was looking forward to seeing him before he got hurt. Draft an edge.  A heathy Lawson.  I like what we are building. 

[UnknownJetFan]

21 minutes ago, k-met57 said:

Douglas only has 1 issue... Zach Wilson....if he hits, Douglas will be here for a long time...if he flops he will be gone.

I think Douglas has done pretty well in everything outside of drafting in the middle rounds, which lets be honest is a crapshoot of all crapshoots.

Not quite sure he definitely is gone if Zak become a miss if he shows he has built the whole rest of the team and gets some QB to run the team and start getting wins more consistently. Everyone knows picking QBs in the draft has very high risk potential.

[slats]

15 minutes ago, johnnyjet said:

Lawson may be that guy. I was looking forward to seeing him before he got hurt. Draft an edge.  A heathy Lawson.  I like what we are building. 

Coming back from that Achilles, Lawson’s no lock to be 100% next season. The Jets absolutely need to make Edge a priority in the offseason. If they can draft a stud, all the better. It was nice to see JFM wake up this week, too. 

[Scott Dierking]

Create a ***Extend Joe Douglas*** thread?

[Chrebetfan80]

Talked about this in the draft thread about speed and run fits.  The safety play up until this game had really been abysmal, and a big part of that was the run fits where the safeties needed to fill downhill. 

 

Davis has been getting better in this regard, but he's clearly more comfortable playing deep, but Riley has made a nice difference with his ability to play the run.  You saw it several times in the texans game where he was able to come up and fill cut back lanes and be the force player on the edge.  We'll see what he becomes, but so far he's had some good flashes. 

[Joe W. Namath]

48 minutes ago, k-met57 said:

Douglas only has 1 issue... Zach Wilson....if he hits, Douglas will be here for a long time...if he flops he will be gone.

I think Douglas has done pretty well in everything outside of drafting in the middle rounds, which lets be honest is a crapshoot of all crapshoots.

This just isnt true.  If he keeps bringing in talent via the draft and free agency, he will get to choose another qb if zach fails.

You dont fire a talented gm who has stacked ur roster because 1 qb didnt pan out.

[Jethead]

Safety play has been much better the last two games. Jets lack of depth was exposed by early season injuries.

"Step by step, inch by inch..."

[Sammybighead]

1 hour ago, Copernicus said:

John Franklin Myers

Huff

Guidry

Lamar Jackson

Dunn

Quincy Williams

Hamiclar Rahshad

Ty Johnson

Amendola

and now Riley

All castoffs or udfa(s) and have contributed. Arguably part of this team's future moving forward

Pretty impressive

Am I forgetting anyone? 

 

It's impressive but I'm also wondering if these guys look good because we have no other options?

[Copernicus]

3 minutes ago, Sammybighead said:

It's impressive but I'm also wondering if these guys look good because we have no other options?

I see your point, however if these named players were not a possible part of the future I think Douglas cuts bait with them. One of the many qualities I like about Douglas is that he is not afraid to admit fault publicly (Robbie Anderson although I was fine with not signing him) and privately (when we as fans try to figure out why moves are made). Most recently, I (along with other fans maybe) were shocked that Perine did not play Sunday for an unknown PS player in Austin Walters. Perine not playing leads me to believe that Douglas has cut bait with him rather than forcing him in the line up when Douglas believes he is not worthy. GMs are not usually this humble to admit failure. I think its a successful characteristic 

[elvispookie]

1 hour ago, UnknownJetFan said:

Not quite sure he definitely is gone if Zak become a miss if he shows he has built the whole rest of the team and gets some QB to run the team and start getting wins more consistently. Everyone knows picking QBs in the draft has very high risk potential.

I agree 100%.  If you can get all the other holes filled (or most of them) and the team is competing and showing wins... yeah, he might not be soley tied to Zach (if it doesnt work out). 

[JoeDouglasFart]

Riley > Jamie "best in the nation" Adams

[TuscanyTile2]

1 hour ago, Barton said:

The defense is not far off from being good to very good. Just needs an electric passrusher or two.

Getting 2 electric pass rushers in here should be a piece of cake.  I mean, look at how many this franchise has had since John Abraham.

[Copernicus]

12 minutes ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

Getting 2 electric pass rushers in here should be a piece of cake.  I mean, look at how many this franchise has had since John Abraham.

Considering that currently there are 3 prospects worthy in the top 10 makes our odds pretty good if we want. Hopefully we already have 1 in Lawson. 

[k-met57]

1 hour ago, Joe W. Namath said:

This just isnt true.  If he keeps bringing in talent via the draft and free agency, he will get to choose another qb if zach fails.

You dont fire a talented gm who has stacked ur roster because 1 qb didnt pan out.

If Zach flops next year and the jets again win like 4 games...he will be on the hot seat big time.

[TheNuuFaaolaExperience]

24 minutes ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

Getting 2 electric pass rushers in here should be a piece of cake.  I mean, look at how many this franchise has had since John Abraham.

Sign me up for two more pass rushers. Saleh likes to rotate his line to keep them fresh and having fresh pass rushers on the field at all times is only going to solidify this defense. 

[sciond]

Give Saleh a chance to coach him down....

[Copernicus]

2 minutes ago, sciond said:

Give Saleh a chance to coach him down....

Yes, because John Franklin Meyers, Quinnen, Quincey, Michael Carter II and Bryce Hall have all crapped the bed each week. Got it

[slimjasi]

3 hours ago, rangerous said:

douglas seems to be very good at evaluating younger players.  you gotta be impressed with the many late round draft picks and udfa's he's pulled in.

Yep, lots of late round contributors. 

 

1 hour ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

Getting 2 electric pass rushers in here should be a piece of cake.  I mean, look at how many this franchise has had since John Abraham.

And how many premium picks has this franchise used on edge rushers since Abraham? 

[TuscanyTile2]

7 minutes ago, slimjasi said:

Yep, lots of late round contributors. 

 

And how many premium picks has this franchise used on edge rushers since Abraham? 

Aaron Donald was picked 13th overall.

[slimjasi]

2 minutes ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

Aaron Donald was picked 13th overall.

Mmmk. Not sure how this is relevant to my question. (13th overall is a premium pick, but Donald is not an edge rusher and the rams are not the Jets . . . )

I'll repeat: How many premium picks has this franchise used on an edge rusher since Abraham? 

[TuscanyTile2]

1 minute ago, slimjasi said:

Mmmk. Not sure how this is relevant to my question. (13th overall is a premium pick, but Donald is not an edge rusher and the rams are not the Jets . . . )

I'll repeat: How many premium picks has this franchise used on an edge rusher since Abraham? 

First off, he said "Just needs an electric passrusher or two." (not necessarily edge)

Second, maybe part of the difficultly getting these types of players is that there aren't that many of them out there, they're difficult to identify, etc.  All of that is part of the equation.

[kevinc855]

1 hour ago, Sammybighead said:

It's impressive but I'm also wondering if these guys look good because we have no other options?

AHHHHHHH

[Drums]

3 hours ago, k-met57 said:

Douglas only has 1 issue... Zach Wilson....if he hits, Douglas will be here for a long time...if he flops he will be gone.

I think Douglas has done pretty well in everything outside of drafting in the middle rounds, which lets be honest is a crapshoot of all crapshoots.

I disagree. If Wilson sucks but the roster is solid, JD should keep his job. He can still find a QB later. The buck doesn’t stop with Wilson. 

[IndianaJet]

3 hours ago, Copernicus said:

John Franklin Myers

Huff

Guidry

Lamar Jackson

Dunn

Quincy Williams

Hamiclar Rahshad

Ty Johnson

Amendola

and now Riley

All castoffs or udfa(s) and have contributed. Arguably part of this team's future moving forward

Pretty impressive

Am I forgetting anyone? 

 

The thing many people overlook is that a lot of these young guys may not be starters in the years moving forward as JD drafts better players and signs better players in FA, but the experience they are getting now, will make our roster very very deep in the coming years.

[slimjasi]

1 minute ago, TuscanyTile2 said:

First off, he said "Just needs an electric passrusher or two." (not necessarily edge)

Second, maybe part of the difficultly getting these types of players is that there aren't that many of them out there, they're difficult to identify, etc.  All of that is part of the equation.

Right - I said edge . . . because we need an edge. (and have basically needed one since Abraham left two decades ago)

Fortunately, this draft has a few very talented edge rushers. Aidan Hutchinson looks like a realistic target based on where we could be picking, but we'll see. 

Also, since you brought up Donald, QW actually has as many sacks as he does right now, so hopefully QW continues to improve and impact games. 

[Drums]

2 hours ago, Jethead said:

Safety play has been much better the last two games. Jets lack of depth was exposed by early season injuries.

"Step by step, inch by inch..."

Can that be called progress? Is that allowed?

[jgb]

2 hours ago, Sammybighead said:

It's impressive but I'm also wondering if these guys look good because we have no other options?

Big improvement over Macc and Idzik who couldn’t even find guys to contribute on the least-skilled team in the league with holes everywhere.

[sciond]

21 minutes ago, Copernicus said:

Yes, because John Franklin Meyers, Quinnen, Quincey, Michael Carter II and Bryce Hall have all crapped the bed each week. Got it

give it time

Saleh is not their first coach