5 New York Jets Players Who Should See Their Roles Expand in 2015
The New York Jets' offseason is far from over. They've already made a number of moves to bolster the roster at wide receiver (trading for Brandon Marshall), on the offensive line (signing guard James Carpenter) and of course at cornerback (Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie, anyone?)
But there's still the small matter of the 2015 NFL draft, where the Jets hold the No. 6 overall pick and can help shape their roster for 2015 and years to come. With holes remaining at quarterback, guard, safety and running back, the roster is not yet complete.
Sometimes, though, the best bet isn't to just draft a player, throw him into the starting lineup and hope for a miracle. Instead, it can be more beneficial to give that opportunity to a veteran or a younger player who has experience in the system. That way, a rookie doesn't have to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders in his first year in the league.
Here are some of the players who could take on bigger roles in 2015.
Bilal Powell
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The Jets should not be content with their backfield as presently constructed. On their own, Chris Ivory and Bilal Powell will not be enough. The Jets need someone who can contribute a bit more on passing downs, an explosive threat who can take a short catch and turn it into a long gain, and a consistent pass-protector who can take on linebackers in the backfield.
Ivory and Powell offer strong options between the tackles, and with running back Chris Johnson out of the picture, Powell is the only one left to split carries with Ivory. Johnson carried the ball 155 times in 2014; those carries will not replace themselves.
Powell is not a game-changer, averaging only 3.9 yards per carry in his career, but he's been effective when given a bigger role (286 carries for 1,134 yards (4.0 YPA) and five touchdowns from 2012 to 2013). If he can get upwards of 100 carries again in 2015, he could resume that level of effectiveness, but the Jets should still consider adding more depth to their backfield.
Jace Amaro
2 of 5
You would expect a 6'5", 265-pound tight end to be a physically imposing monster. Those are almost the exact same measurements of New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, for reference.
Why, then, is Jets tight end Jace Amaro still not polished as a blocker? Probably because he hasn't been asked to do it much. At Texas Tech, he functioned primarily in the slot; in his rookie year with the Jets, he only blocked 126 times (115 run, 11 pass), according to ProFootballFocus.com.
Amaro has a load of athletic potential as a pass-catching tight end, which should see him in an increased role in the passing game even if he's not fully rounded out his game as a true three-down tight end just yet. He caught only 38 passes for 345 yards and two touchdowns in 2014, but he dropped six passes and still caught 73.1 percent of the passes thrown his way.
That's a far cry from the video game numbers he put up at Texas Tech (106 receptions, 1,352 yards, seven touchdowns in 2013), but we've seen the potential. If he can become a more involved player on offense after playing only 380 snaps his rookie season, Amaro could pay dividends for the new regime.
Calvin Pryor
3 of 5
The Jets' 2014 first-round pick, safety Calvin Pryor, should see his role expand in more ways than one in 2015. As a rookie, Pryor was deployed mainly as a free safety, but his strong suit is in the strong safety spot. That misuse of his talents resulted in a rookie season that left a bit to be desired and also left a bit to the imagination with regard to how exactly he will fare at the NFL level.
But fear no longer; with safety Marcus Gilchrist in the fold, the Jets plan to deploy Pryor at his natural position, while Gilchrist mans the free safety spot now that Dawan Landry is gone.
Pryor played a vast majority of the snaps last year, participating in 71.5 percent of the Jets' defensive plays, according to ProFootballFocus.com. He should be close to an every-down player in his new role, where his skills as a hard-hitting safety will be maximized and his deficiencies in coverage will be minimized.
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Quinton Coples
4 of 5
The Jets need help at the outside linebacker spot. That being said, there's at least one quality player they can hang their hat on at the position. Quinton Coples, the Jets' first-round pick in the 2012 draft, has slowly but surely developed into the stud the Jets hoped he would be three years ago.
In the past two seasons, he's played in every game but two, and has participated in 1,542 snaps (roughly 71 percent of the team's total) in that time. To argue that his role should expand would be to argue that he should be an every-down player—and that's exactly what I'm arguing here.
Coples may not be suited for a role in coverage, but given the potential he's shown as a pass-rusher, there's no reason he shouldn't be in on every pass play to get after the quarterback. Likewise, he's a 6'6", 285-pound edge-setting monster who doesn't often let runs get past him.
With head coach Todd Bowles leading the charge for the Jets, Coples should fit nicely into a role similar to that of Alex Okafor, who played 81.9 percent of the snaps in the games he played for the Arizona Cardinals last season.
Oday Aboushi
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The Brian Winters experiment is nearing its end, and Oday Aboushi may be the one who puts the final nail in its coffin.
From Weeks 7 to 17, Aboushi participated in 100 percent of the Jet' snaps each week at left guard. That was thanks to a season-ending torn ACL that stopped Winters' season short at six games. But for the better part of Winters' first two years in the league, he was getting beaten like a drum week after week.
In his first two seasons, Winters yielded 51 quarterback hurries in 638 snaps in pass protection. That's one pressure in every 12 snaps. Aboushi, on the other hand, yielded 23 pressures in 395 snaps in pass protection, or one pressure per 17 snaps in pass protection.
The Jets have already solved one of their holes at guard by signing James Carpenter, and they still have veteran Willie Colon on the roster after re-signing him to another one-year deal this offseason, but the time may be now to initiate the youth movement with Aboushi as a starting guard on either the left or right side.
Unless otherwise noted, all advanced statistics provided by ProFootballFocus.com.
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