Going into yesterday's game we had the 22nd ranked offense in the league. Of the 10 teams lower than us, 9 have started more than one QB this year and the 10th is Cleveland with a new coach and new system. Our starting TE is sixth in the league in receiving yards at his position, ninth in both YPC and YAC. This despite playing with the 29th ranked QB in completion percent and splitting targets with Burress, Holmes, LT, Green and Kerley. He is tied with 10 other TEs for 23rd in dropped passes. I wish we had this kind of problem at more positions.
keller is better than most TEs in the league and he's been a good blanket for nacho. granted he needs to get better with pass blocking, overall i am happy w/ his performance yesterday and this year
Thats a very narrow view of the positon. Looking purely at Keller's receiving stas we look fine, but there is a bigger problem here. We need a good to very good blocking TE. Mulligan is not it. I was interested to see if we could create match up problems with Cumberland adn Keller in two TE sets, but the injury deralied this. ATM we have Keller who is only a decent blocker and Mulligan who is at best a decent blocker and no threat in the passing game. Adding a solid blocking TE will greatly help the runnign game. If we can find a solid blocking TE who also is capable of doing something in the passing we become much more dangerous out of our Jumbo type sets.
He probably wouldn't be tearing up the league like he is now but he would definitely be a big, big help to Sanchez. Big target, good hands. Just the type of security blanket Sanchez could use.
after watching the Chiefs game last night, perhaps the Jets should make a run at this Anthony Becht guy? 5,4,3,2,1....
We have many more positions that need an upgrade over our #1 tight end. Keller is no where near perfect, but he is a weapon that can be utilized, and a weapon that Sanchez has had for years - more than we can say about most of the skill positions around him. We do need a better blocking tight end, but there are a lot more places to look for upgrades than at receiving tight end.
Keller had a good game yesterday, but imo he's still underwhelming for the season as a whole. Given his limitations as a blocker, he doesn't really make up for that receiving the ball. He disappears too often. Still, he's not in the top tier of problem areas for the Jets, imo.
Keller and Cotchery both had 9 drops last year. Holmes had 5 and Edwards had 4. Sanchez was the 33rd ranked QB in terms of accuracy among QBs that played more than 25% of snaps. 9 put Keller tied for third with Hernandez who had Brady throwing to him and had 30 less targets. Hopefully you get the correlation.
By the way, I never said this was our primary need. I just think we sorely need a tight end who can play 30-50 snaps. We are sorely missing a #2 TE on this team, someone who can take more blocking responsibilities and let Keller do his thing as a receiver. On a Rex Ryan team, a big, blocking tight end who can make some, plays in the red zone would be a huge help. I would love the Jets to play more 2 tight end sets, but they need a complement to Keller who can actually play
Mulligan is one of the best run blocking TEs in the league. He commits too many penalties and is a poor pass blocker. Keller is an adequate pass blocker but a poor run blocker. There are only about 10 good run blocking TEs in the league and only two are in the top 20 in receiving, Gronkowski and Todd Heap. Gronkowski is a poor pass blocker, Keller grades out better. Keller is paid to produce in the passing game and to force Defenses to account for him. No one in the league has a TE that is a top run blocker, pass blocker and stretches the field. Gronkowski this year is the closest but he also has Tom Brady throwing to him. If we need to over haul the TE position, it is because we have more talent in Keller than we can capitalize on and we should trade him to address other problem positions. I think that is a mistake unless you are moving on past Sanchez. I don't like Sanchez's chances without Keller or a threat like him.
Again, your completely missing the point, neither Mack in the OP or I are suggesting Keller needs to go, but that the talent drop off in the second TE slot is huge. If we still are a power running team (and thats open for debate lately) then we need to have a viable second TE to take advantage of it. Mulligan is not a great blocking TE. He's average in the run game and piss poor at pass blocking. Add that to being absolutely no threat in the passing game itself and he is cometely repalceable if not a negative when he is on the felid.
I don't disagree that it would be nice to have an upgrade over Mulligan who was more of a passing threat and didn't make his mistakes. I also don't think he is a great blocker. My point is that he is one of the top run blocking TEs in the league this year. He gets his job done consistently in the run game. That gets over looked, maybe rightfully so, because he makes mistakes and doesn't pass block well. Beyond that, there are not a lot of talented blocking TEs in the league. This is why we often use interior lineman in TE positions.
DK is a beast...in a real offense he is a pro bowl player... its a real shame he doesnt get used consistently. on the other hand. mulligan is just about useless... on the bright side, at least we dont have anthony becht :rofl: anyone else see him last night, he couldnt get out of the way of his own guys
Lets see Gronk averages 14.4 yards per reception, Keller averages 14.4 yards per reception....Gronk does have the advantage on TD's 11 to 4 but then again he's got Brady throwing to him instead of Sanchez. Give Brady Keller and Kellers numbers would blow Gronk away.
