"It's Like Watching Picasso Paint"

[peekskill68]

Cimini just posted this long article.  Suspect many will TLDR, while others will cut it to pieces as a convenient plant orchestrated to provide cover for Woody to run it back with JD, Saleh and Hackett (Cimini is an interesting choice).  But some may see it as a reasonable explanation for the thought process.  Personally, I've hated watching the Hackett offense all season.  But I can see the point that it is so Rodgers-centric (minimal motion, minimal mis-direction, etc.) that it would be VERY difficult for any backup QB to really make it work, not just Wilson.  It seems very similar to what Manning did in Indianapolis where he basically ran everything from the line of scrimmage based on what he saw with his football brain.  

How Aaron Rodgers' practices refueled New York Jets' hope

·         Rich Cimini, ESPN Staff Writer 

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- In their final three practices of the season, the New York Jets were reminded of what might have been. And what might be.

Late-season practices can be a slog for teams out of the playoff picture, but they juiced it up by incorporating a "competition" period into each day and having Aaron Rodgers lead the way. The Jets didn't publicize it -- practices were closed to the media -- but soon word started to leak because players were buzzing about what they saw from Rodgers.

Until then, Rodgers had been limited to scout-team work -- running the opponents' plays -- but he was moving so well on his surgically repaired Achilles that the coaches decided to let him cook. It was first-team offense against the first-team defense, no coaches, just Rodgers calling plays for the offense and linebacker C.J. Mosley calling plays for the defense.

"It's like watching Picasso paint," tackle Mekhi Becton after one of the practices.

Everyone was transported back to a happier time. Early in training camp, when Rodgers' left Achilles was healthy and their Super Bowl dreams were whole, the Jets conducted a handful of practices that included competition periods. Best-on-best always raises the energy level, and so they tried to recreate that vibe before everyone scattered for the offseason.

By all accounts, Rodgers was magnificent.

"At some points, he was picking us apart and throwing dimes in there," Mosley said. "You kind of catch yourself, looking at it again, like, 'Dang, that's Aaron Rodgers throwing the ball.'"

The end-of-the-year surprise produced mixed emotions. There was a hint of melancholy, as players witnessed what was taken from them in 2023 -- a future Hall of Fame quarterback with the ability to galvanize the team. Without Rodgers, the Jets started four different quarterbacks, finished 31st in total yards and went 7-10, eliminated from the postseason with three games to play.

Mostly, they saw the last three practices as a sneak preview of 2024, a Rodgers trailer, so to speak -- something to dull the disappointment of a lost season and inspire hope for next year. Rodgers, too, said there was excitement, but he also acknowledged, "The 'what if?' kind of hits you in the face pretty hard because, obviously, if you saw what we were able to do, there's a lot of what could have been."

Operating from a wristband that included six to eight different plays each day, Rodgers was in total command on Wednesday (mixed downs), Thursday (third down) and Friday (red zone). Players said Rodgers was so into it that it seemed like he was trying to make up for lost time, slinging the ball around the field, pointing out would-be blitzers and even calling plays that weren't on the script. He challenged Sauce Gardner -- not many quarterbacks do that -- and completed a back-shoulder throw that amazed the All-Pro cornerback.

Rodgers being Rodgers, he couldn't resist a brag.

"[I] proved I can maybe still play a little bit," he said, grinning.

SEVEN OF THE 32 teams are looking for a head coach, but the Jets -- with the NFL's fourth-worst record over Robert Saleh's three seasons (18-33) -- are running it back with Saleh because ownership believes the formula it created last year with Rodgers still can work. Indeed, his anticipated return has fueled optimism. Maybe "refueled" is a better way to put it.

"It's really not as far away as it looks right now," general manager Joe Douglas said.

The Jets are counting on Rodgers to make a full recovery and perform at a level closer to his 2021 MVP season (74.1 QBR) than to his 2022 Green Bay farewell (a career-low 41.3 QBR). That's a big ask, considering his age (40) and the severity of his injury, but they believe the commitment is there.

"He's on a mission," Saleh said, "and he's not going to stop until his mission is complete."

Rodgers isn't a magician, though. As he said, "We need some pieces."

Specifically, he mentioned wide receiver and the offensive line, where they could add two or three new starters. The Jets allowed 64 sacks (tied-28th), including league highs at center (8.5), right tackle (14) and left guard (9.5, tied for the most), according to Next Gen Stats.

A quadragenarian quarterback behind a leaky offensive line is bad news waiting to happen. And yet there's a sense in the locker room that Rodgers will make everything better, that his experience and expertise will elevate those around him. They still believe in his leadership; his teammates voted him the Dennis Byrd Award for the most inspirational player, moving him to the verge of tears when it was announced.

"I do think Aaron is going to come back and make some big changes to the team, for lack of a better explanation," center Connor McGovern said. "It was kind of built around him. The offense is tailored to him."

Wide receiver Garrett Wilson took it one step further, saying in a radio interview, "Aaron is the offense."

Indeed, some talk about Rodgers as if he's the offensive coordinator, not Nathaniel Hackett. McGovern used a Formula One racing analogy to describe Rodgers' importance to the offense, saying it's akin to a Red Bull racing car driven by someone other than world champion Max Verstappen. The car, customized for Verstappen, isn't as fast with someone else behind the wheel, according to McGovern.

With Rodgers behind center, the Jets have a "fixer" -- or at least that's how he's viewed internally. Without the use of pre-snap motion, he can take a still photo of the defense with his mind's eye, diagnose potential issues and make adjustments before the snap.

The Jets prepared this way for five months, from OTAs through training camp. It was a race against the calendar, knowing Rodgers -- with his sophisticated hand signals and cadences -- needed all that time to get the offense installed to his liking.

The all-in approach conjured up memories of a famous quote from former Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore. Once asked why Peyton Manning's backups didn't get more reps, Moore replied, "Fellas, if 18 goes down, we're f----d. And we don't practice f----d."

THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT happened to the Jets when Rodgers was injured on the fourth play of the season. They were painfully slow to adjust on the fly, as the offense hit an eight-game stretch where it failed to produce more than one touchdown in any one game. The desperation reached a crescendo when Zach Wilson was replaced in Week 12 by Tim Boyle, a former practice-squad player. Eventually, Hackett tweaked a couple of things over the second half of the season.

He utilized running back Breece Hall as a pass-catcher, sometimes splitting him wide in empty formations. He finished with 76 receptions, tops among all backs. Hackett also utilized more pre-snap motion with Wilson and Trevor Siemian at quarterback. In the last six games, they used some form of motion on 27.5 plays per game, up from 19 plays in the first 11 games, per ESPN Stats & Information.

One problem that never got solved was the rash of pre-snap penalties; the Jets tied for the league lead with 52. They're convinced that Rodgers, with his command at the line of scrimmage, will be able to cure that epidemic.

The coaching staff recognizes it could've done a better job in the aftermath of the Rodgers injury and it will study ways to make the offense more quarterback-friendly for quarterbacks not named Rodgers, who sounded eager to take part in the process.

"Nate and I will spend some time really taking a deep dive into the offense and kind of what we want to do moving forward," he said.

There's a sense among players that they can build on the foundation set last offseason, that they've already moved past the get-acquainted stage with Rodgers and can focus on fine-tuning. One area that needs attention is the offensive line, with some players saying there needs to be a better sync between Hackett's system and line coach Keith Carter's blocking scheme.

Rodgers' attendance for voluntary workouts will be critical. A year ago, he attended every workout as he assimilated into his new surroundings and tried to rebuild the culture. He hasn't mapped out his offseason yet, but he said he'd like to attend as many days as possible.

Once again, the expectations will be massive. Rodgers fueled them last spring by famously noting the "lonely" Lombardi Trophy in the team's showcase -- a 55-year-old trophy, lonelier than ever.

"It's still sitting in the same spot," Rodgers said. "By itself."

 

[The Crusher]

Man, this toilet just needs to be flushed already,,  yeesh! 

[slimjasi]

11 minutes ago, The Crusher said:

Man, this toilet just needs to be flushed already,,  yeesh! 

Naaaaah, we just need some more Febreze to mask the smell!

[Barry McCockinner]

33 minutes ago, The Crusher said:

Man, this toilet just needs to be flushed already,,  yeesh! 

[Beerfish]

Some early picasso was okay the stuff he was famous for is garbage.

[bitonti]

For those who did not attend such a fine academy of learning as louisville like Becton there really was a documentary in 1956 that recorded Picasso painting live 

If you're high enough, it's very entertaining 

 

[Waka Flocka Flacco]

32 minutes ago, Beerfish said:

Some early picasso was okay the stuff he was famous for is garbage.

Hence the Rodgers analogy.

[Vader]

"certainly no Salvador Dali"

[Dunnie]

Some early picasso was okay the stuff he was famous for is garbage.

Divisive for sure ... But absolutely an artist.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[slimjasi]

5 minutes ago, Dunnie said:

Decisive for sure ... But absolutely an artist.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk
 

Decisive or divisive? 

[Dunnie]

Decisive or divisive? 

.. I pushed the go back in time button and changed history ... Thanks

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[playtowinthegame]

The Jets know how to sell tickets. Their good. 

[Integrity28]

Insert narcissist.

Go all in on confirmation bias.

Start sounding like a cult.

So weird.

[peekskill68]

This article explains just about everything we saw this year:  1) The signings of Lazard, Cobb and Boyle (clearly based on familiarity with this "system"), 2) The non-signing of some of the known quality back up QBs that were available (Minshew/Brissett/Wentz/etc who had no prior experience with it), 3) The long delay between signing Siemian and him actually taking the field (probably took weeks for him to get the basics), 4) Zach sucking even worse than we could have imagined (take a QB with mental processing issues and put him in an offense where the QB has to make multiple pre-snap decisions among multiple position groups to execute the play), 5) The retention of the staff (it would make zero sense to fire Hackett and have a new OC install a new offense at this stage).  I'm sure there are others.

I speculate each position group (OL, WR, TE, RB) has 2-3 different options in any given play.  And I see Rodgers standing there, looking at the D and basically deciding on each option for each group pre-snap.  All Hackett does is send in the base play.  Unlike a Shanahan or McDaniel type offense, which uses all sorts of different looks and motions to offer QB's easier reads and completions, this offense sounds so specific to Rodgers, the season was basically over after 4 plays....

[Maxman]

Cimini puts out good stuff when he takes deep dives. Man, I hope all of this is right.

I feel like running it back is absolutely the right decision. The offensive line needs help, a wide receiver two must be added.

I think next year could be fun though. Keep the QB healthy.

[rex-n-effect]

Rodgers painting Jets fans

 

[BurnleyJet]

39 minutes ago, Maxman said:

Cimini puts out good stuff when he takes deep dives. Man, I hope all of this is right.

I feel like running it back is absolutely the right decision. The offensive line needs help, a wide receiver two must be added.

I think next year could be fun though. Keep the QB healthy.

Fun like finishing third in the AFCE 😁

[Hex]

Picasso is proof that art has value in novelty, not beauty.

[T0mShane]

1 hour ago, Maxman said:

Cimini puts out good stuff when he takes deep dives. Man, I hope all of this is right.

I feel like running it back is absolutely the right decision. The offensive line needs help, a wide receiver two must be added.

I think next year could be fun though. Keep the QB healthy.

As bleak as it looks right now, it needs to be noted that the clown-shoes stupid, Nate Hackett-Zach Wilson, garbage-ass, virtual tanking-ass Jets beat the living sh*t out of two of the four remaining AFC playoff teams, should have beat the Chiefs if not for a bullsh*t call on Sauce, and—with Rodgers—would probably be favorites against the Texans, Bills, and Chiefs this coming weekend. The argument that they’re “close” isn’t so crazy when you consider that they were playing with the league’s 32nd ranked passer and, presuming Rodgers was simply operating at a median QB level, would likely have won 11 games and been a nightmare playoff matchup. In isolation, it doesn’t make them a top-tier team talent-wise, but if you combined their ability to choke off opposing passing games on defense with Rodgers keeping drives alive on third down and scoring 21-24 points on offense, they’d be very, very tough to beat. 

[Creepy Lurker]

3 hours ago, T0mShane said:

As bleak as it looks right now, it needs to be noted that the clown-shoes stupid, Nate Hackett-Zach Wilson, garbage-ass, virtual tanking-ass Jets beat the living sh*t out of two of the four remaining AFC playoff teams, should have beat the Chiefs if not for a bullsh*t call on Sauce, and—with Rodgers—would probably be favorites against the Texans, Bills, and Chiefs this coming weekend. The argument that they’re “close” isn’t so crazy when you consider that they were playing with the league’s 32nd ranked passer and, presuming Rodgers was simply operating at a median QB level, would likely have won 11 games and been a nightmare playoff matchup. In isolation, it doesn’t make them a top-tier team talent-wise, but if you combined their ability to choke off opposing passing games on defense with Rodgers keeping drives alive on third down and scoring 21-24 points on offense, they’d be very, very tough to beat. 

The eye opening thing this year was the amount of parity and how weak the rest of the NFL was. That made the AR injury sting so much more. Everyone was worried about strength of schedule this year and rightfully so. It ended up being easier than thought and the Jets could have done well.
 

I’m still convinced the OL/lack of weapons would have destroyed the team in the end anyways. They would have done better though and HAVE to fix there glaring issues that JD created over the last few years. 

[TheNuuFaaolaExperience]

We are the undisputed champions of hopes, dreams, and inspiration during the off season. 

"Best shape of my career."

"Put on 30 lbs of muscle."

"Lost 20 lbs, and flying around in practice."

"Looking like an all-pro in his reps with the first team."

"Like watching a Picasso."

 

[varjet]

The Jets PR machine is quite the machine, and they are working this story.  
 

This confirms my view that spending $ on a backup QB is not worth it.  Just go with Siemian.  Boyle should have done the job though.  
 

this really was an all the AR8 Marbles plan.  I can’t say I agree with it. 

[southparkcpa]

5 hours ago, Maxman said:

Cimini puts out good stuff when he takes deep dives. Man, I hope all of this is right.

I feel like running it back is absolutely the right decision. The offensive line needs help, a wide receiver two must be added.

I think next year could be fun though. Keep the QB healthy.

We said this last year and in fact, every year for the past 13 years.   

[southparkcpa]

55 minutes ago, TheNuuFaaolaExperience said:

We are the undisputed champions of hopes, dreams, and inspiration during the off season. 

"Best shape of my career."

"Put on 30 lbs of muscle."

"Lost 20 lbs, and flying around in practice."

"Looking like an all-pro in his reps with the first team."

"Like watching a Picasso."

 

You forgot to mention how chiseled Becton has become.....   

[Barton]

How was the BBQ after practice though?

[Jimmy 2 Times]

Picasso???

 

If it was like watching Bob Ross paint my levels of excitement would be uncontrollable! 

[K_O_Brien]

Watching the Jets in December

Watching Rodgers running around in shorts in December, after everyone has packed it in for the year

 

 

[BurnleyJet]

7 hours ago, T0mShane said:

As bleak as it looks right now, it needs to be noted that the clown-shoes stupid, Nate Hackett-Zach Wilson, garbage-ass, virtual tanking-ass Jets beat the living sh*t out of two of the four remaining AFC playoff teams, should have beat the Chiefs if not for a bullsh*t call on Sauce, and—with Rodgers—would probably be favorites against the Texans, Bills, and Chiefs this coming weekend. The argument that they’re “close” isn’t so crazy when you consider that they were playing with the league’s 32nd ranked passer and, presuming Rodgers was simply operating at a median QB level, would likely have won 11 games and been a nightmare playoff matchup. In isolation, it doesn’t make them a top-tier team talent-wise, but if you combined their ability to choke off opposing passing games on defense with Rodgers keeping drives alive on third down and scoring 21-24 points on offense, they’d be very, very tough to beat. 

Ok, ok, who hacked T0m’s account, fess up!

[JohnnyLV]

8 hours ago, Maxman said:

Cimini puts out good stuff when he takes deep dives. Man, I hope all of this is right.

I feel like running it back is absolutely the right decision. The offensive line needs help, a wide receiver two must be added.

I think next year could be fun though. Keep the QB healthy.

Not with you on this line of reasoning. Saleh and JD should have been fired. Rodgers should never have been traded for in the first place.  We are WAY more likely to suck again next year than all of a sudden become a playoff team and we will start completely from scratch. Since the Rodgers trade my excitement for this team (even before he was injured) is at an all time low. And now 90% are obsessed with wasting our first rounder on the 3rd OT in the draft. Going to be a brutal year

[maury77]

7 hours ago, T0mShane said:

As bleak as it looks right now, it needs to be noted that the clown-shoes stupid, Nate Hackett-Zach Wilson, garbage-ass, virtual tanking-ass Jets beat the living sh*t out of two of the four remaining AFC playoff teams, should have beat the Chiefs if not for a bullsh*t call on Sauce, and—with Rodgers—would probably be favorites against the Texans, Bills, and Chiefs this coming weekend. The argument that they’re “close” isn’t so crazy when you consider that they were playing with the league’s 32nd ranked passer and, presuming Rodgers was simply operating at a median QB level, would likely have won 11 games and been a nightmare playoff matchup. In isolation, it doesn’t make them a top-tier team talent-wise, but if you combined their ability to choke off opposing passing games on defense with Rodgers keeping drives alive on third down and scoring 21-24 points on offense, they’d be very, very tough to beat. 

Additionally, how much better does the Jets defense look if they aren't on the field the entire game and they can focus on rushing the passer because the other team is behind and how to throw to catch up?

[peekskill68]

3 hours ago, varjet said:

The Jets PR machine is quite the machine, and they are working this story.  
 

This confirms my view that spending $ on a backup QB is not worth it.  Just go with Siemian.  Boyle should have done the job though.  
 

this really was an all the AR8 Marbles plan.  I can’t say I agree with it. 

Agree with you.  I fully expect Siemian to be the backup next year. 

[bitonti]

The guy who dyed salehs beard 

He's the real Picasso 

[playtowinthegame]

51 minutes ago, bitonti said:

The guy who dyed salehs beard 

He's the real Picasso 

Oh yeah!

[Dcat]

3 hours ago, Jimmy 2 Times said:

Picasso???

 

If it was like watching Bob Ross paint my levels of excitement would be uncontrollable! 

@Happy Clouds

[Maxman]

1 hour ago, JohnnyLV said:

Not with you on this line of reasoning. Saleh and JD should have been fired. Rodgers should never have been traded for in the first place.  We are WAY more likely to suck again next year than all of a sudden become a playoff team and we will start completely from scratch. Since the Rodgers trade my excitement for this team (even before he was injured) is at an all time low. And now 90% are obsessed with wasting our first rounder on the 3rd OT in the draft. Going to be a brutal year

You can only move forward from where you are.

Rodgers is here. So blowing it up now makes no sense.

Double down on Rodgers, you have an elite defense and if you can keep him healthy the Jets will have a real shot.

Big ifs along the way for sure. But if they fire everyone now, Woody just hires the wrong guys and the never ending cycle continues.