I've been meaning to make this post for weeks. It'll probably get buried today, but whatever. We need a total overhaul of this position. If we want to be a ground and pound team, we need a tight end who can block people. We don't have a single tight end on this roster who can block worth a damn. I'm sick of Keller. He's a decent receiving tight end, but nothing special. It would be one thing if he were a big matchup problem, but at 6'2", he can be taken out of games way too easily. And he can't block either. I don't even need to get started on Mulligan. We all know he sucks. Cumberland, Nelson, and Baker are decent prospects, but none appear to be a big, two-way tight end that are blockers first but can also catch the ball in a pinch. We need to completely overhaul this position. Keller isn't a good fit for this team. He's not a big receiver, and he's not a good blocker. On a team that wants to be run-first and move the chains, he's not a huge help. Give me a big, blocking tight end who can make a play or 2 in the passing game. If we can get a 4th or something for Keller in the offseason, I would take it. Bring in someone new who can play for us, make Cumberland or someone the receiving tight end, and get me a blocking tight end. This isn't the biggest issue on the team. But it definitely is a problem. Ideally, Keller would be a receiving tight end who split time with a better all-around tight end. Having 2 tight end sets makes sense for a team that runs the ball. But when neither tight end can block, that's a problem.
I think so. Bump that down to a 5th then. I'd still probably take it. This team does have a lot of issues, but tight end is one of them. I'm not saying Keller sucks. But for a receiving tight end, he drops too many passes, and he's not a dominant athlete physically. Trading up to draft a 6'2" tight end in the 1st round who can't block was really stupid. Mulligan, on the other hand, completely and totally sucks. If we had Hartsock, or a different blocking tight end, this wouldn't be a total issue. But having 2 TEs that can't block is a recipe for disaster, especially since the OL isn't really helping.
I think our offensive system should be evaluated first before we start overhauling our skilled positions. Maybe Schotty's system is the square peg and not the players within it. I do agree that we need a TE that can block, and that certainly needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.
Well then you gotta get rid of Sanchez also because Keller is about the only guy he throws well too at this point. I just can't believe that the Jets offense has dissolved into such a big pile of shit and Schotty just rides the wave, always tranquil and above the smell somehow.
Keller just isn't physical enough to get open when he is jammed at the line by any LB. He got destroyed on the Ninkovich TD last week and the Denver LB constantly pushed him around and off his routes all game long. He has great ability but he is much more of a weapon in a spread offense.
That's because Schotty's the scapegoat, and since we've always had a scapegoat that somehow makes it okay for Schotty to stick around. If that makes sense. IF WE BLAME HIM THEN FIRE HIM WE'LL JUST HAVE TO BLAME SOMEONE ELSE FOR STUFF SO WE SHOULD JUST KEEP HIM
Well, if we fire him, and the offense still sucks, the burden falls on Rex more. The problem is, I can also write about Safety, OL, Quarterback, Runningback, Receiver, and DL need overhauls as well.
We could have a hall of fame QB, WR, TE, and RB and they couldn't do shit with a crappy offensive line.
Keller gets lost in games too easily with this offense. The problem is that this offense is likely going to change schemes after this season and I can see Keller having some success on a team that utilizes TEs more than Schottenheimer does. I completely agree we need to bring in someone who can block as well as catch. However, I'd give Keller a 2nd round tender and let him play out one more season if the Jets bring in an offensive coordinator with a system that utilizes TEs. I wouldn't have a problem with keeping him around as the #2 TE and given his lack of production I doubt it would be difficult to sign him for a contract as such. However, if for some reason the Jets resign Schottenheimer(I just made myself cry) then Keller should be let go or given a lower tender so we can at least get a late draft pick out of him. He's useless in this offensive system and there is no reason to keep him around if we're not changing the scheme. Then again, Holmes also appears to be useless in this scheme.
I forgot Pittsburgh had such a great OL last year. The problem is our offense is predicated on out-physicalling the team in front of you. And we can't do that. Keller is a part of that. Mulligan is the bigger problem, but I'm not sure Keller is a great fit in this offense. If we had a big complementary TE who could block, Keller wouldn't be a huge issue (even though he's better off in a spread offense as mentioned above). But we don't.
Good thread. I wish I could add some more insight but I think you pretty much nailed it in the OP - a good blocking TE is much more crucial to this offense than a good pass-catching TE. I liked Keller from the start and I kept hoping that he would become a bigger weapon than he has, but at this point I'm feeling like he's expendable - his big games have been few and far between.
I agree with all of this, especially the middle paragraph. Keller would be great as a #2 TE. And that's not necessarily a bad thing, considering a team that runs the ball as much as we want to SHOULD run a bunch of 2 tight end sets. But I'm sure he'd want more money for that. I just don't think he's the ideal #1 TE for this team. And if we don't have the right #2 TE - Hartsock wasn't ideal, but he was fine - then his issues become even more problematic for us. Everyone appears useless on this offense. The OL is the biggest issue. But I would kill to get a Brandon Pettigrew, Rob Gronkowski, Heath Miller, Zach Miller, Jason Witten, etc, on this team. It's not as if Keller is Jermichael Finley. He's undersized for a tight end, basically a wide-bodied receiver.
I mentioned this in other thread, but let me summarize it again: 1. Jets OL is a finesse OL, not a physical OL. Case in point? Physical OLs do not get blown up at the point of attack, like current Jets OL does. Jets OL, in current status, does not generate any kind of push at the point of attack. 2. To make the matters worse, Keller is lost in terms of identity. He is a glorified WR in a run-heavy offense. He cannot block. He IS indeed the square peg . And worse yet, once he is jammed at LOS, he disappears completely. To use him effectively, you need to deploy him a full yard behind the LoS, like a slot receiver. 3. When the right half of OL + your TE cannot block for shit, your QB will play like shit. 4. Unless Jets land Peyton Manning next year, (Of course, that's not happening by the way.) Keller should be sent packing. Jets need a TE that can a) block and b) make tough catches in the traffic.
Is that really the truth this season, though? We're not running the ball like we usually do, and by that I mean we're flat-out forgetting to run the ball on most of our losses. Hunter is an inch shorter and only 8 lbs bigger than Brick and he sure as hell didn't have much of an experience with a running game at Hawaii. The OLine used to be that exact identity with Faneca, Mangold, Moore and Woody. Brick was our lone finesse guy but that was fine because he was pretty much asked to concentrate solely on protecting Favre's then Sanchez's blind side and got a reprieve from the running game because we were consistently running to the right with Faneca pulling. However, the identity of the offense changed with the OLine and I think that is a huge part(not the sole reason) for the offense's struggles. Now the OLine is bookended by two smaller(in this league, anyway) tackles and Brick is having to take on some extra responsibilities as we're running more toward the left side than usual. We're calling more passes more often where we'd usually just run the ball and we have another Tackle whose previous experience in college was a run-and-shoot offense and was forgotten about in Seattle because he struggled with a pro-style system. In his place used to be a big road-grader who could actually man-handle people in the running game and still keep the pressure off of Sanchez. I'm not trying to say that we should go out and beg Woody to come back here, he's unemployed because he was having injury problems and he's lost a step which made him a liability in his own right but this offense changed its face when we tried to go with a different style of player on the outside and not for the better. I honestly think that that is the type of OLine we need to get back to being. We still have guys on the team who can do it. Slauson is developing nicely; he has some kinks to work out on his pass-pro but he's a fucking mauler in the running game and he's much less of a liability in the passing game than he was last year. Mangold is the best center in the league right now and an asset as a pass blocker or clearing a path for the RB, and Moore is still the dependable workhorse who loves to drive DLine off of the PoA.
Good enough to lose the Super bowl. We might have made the super bowl if our OL could have blocked the Pittsburgh pass rush. Pittsburgh's line is shitty this year too, they could be lucky to make a wildcard.
He probably will command more money than his rookie contract but I don't see it being prohibitive for a #2TE. He has no leverage to get paid more than he deserves and frankly he hasn't proven that he deserves that much.
