NFL Open Thread: Gregggggg Edition

Amazingly, Adam Gase wasn’t even the first Jets coach of the year to be fired. You know things are bad when Rex Ryan can dunk on you:  

One of the harshest reviews came from ex-Jets head coach Rex Ryan on ESPN’s “Get Up!”

“Dumbest call I’ve ever seen,” Ryan said. “Been around the thing for 58 years, 30 years as a coach. That’s the dumbest call ever. There’s no other way of putting it.”

The Jets clung to a 28-24 lead over the Las Vegas Raiders when Williams’ playcall included an all-out blitz. That left cornerback Lamar Jackson matched up one-on-one with rookie receiver Henry Ruggs, the first wideout selected in this year’s draft. Ruggs used his 4.27-second 40-yard dash speed to blow by Jackson and settle under quarterback Derek Carr’s rainbow heave in the end zone.

The Raiders took a 31-28 lead with five seconds left and sent the Jets to 0-12 on the season, which puts New York in prime position for the No. 1 pick in the 2021 draft. 

On Monday, the Jets fired Williams.

All kidding aside they weren’t tanking, except in the meta-sense that having Gase (who, after all, could have called timeout and asked for a real play once he heard the call) Williams coach your team is going to minimize your chances of winning. The specific matchups and execution make what is already a bizarre risk-reward calculation — a completed pass short of the end zone in bounds is as good as a sack in that situation — even worse. Carr was able to pick up the blitz, so the Raiders had seven blockers, giving him plenty of time. And while, as Domonique Foxworth explained on the Barnwell podcast this week, you could maybe sorta defend the call if you had two good veteran corners (say, Foxworth and Champ Bailey in their primes) to handle the man coverage, in this case the fastest wideout in the league was matched up against an undrafted rookie.

But that’s Williams for ya:

I humbly submit that Cover-0 blitz vs. Ruggs isn’t Gregg Williams’ worst call of the year. I reserve that for Ashtyn Davis vacating hook/curl to give Jakobi Meyers a pitch and catch with 0:08 left in Week 9 to set up the game-winning field goal. pic.twitter.com/TLrwXBtGwx— Doug Farrar (@NFL_DougFarrar) December 6, 2020

If the Jets go 0-16 this year, Gregggggg will have been the DC for 2 of the 3 0-16 teams in NFL history. Heckuva job!

…and yes, this is the funniest SNL sketch I’ve seen in a while: