The 2016 National Football League preseason got underway last night and the New York Jets opened their season with a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. After holding out all offseason long, Fitzpatrick has made the right decision by signing with the NY.
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With the team facing a brutal opening stretch to start the season, fans want to see some successes though and they did get some Thursday night. The early results are encouraging, with veteran offseason acquisition Jeremy Ross returning a kickoff 51 yards and impressive rookie Jalin Marshall taking one back 84 yards. It looked like old times right away when Fitzpatrick threw a 3-yard pass to Brandon Marshall, who set franchise records last season with 109 catches and 1,502 yards receiving.
“I took a silly sack”, he said.
The Jaguars, after talking throughout training camp about the need to start faster on offense, scored 10 points on their first two possessions. Enunwa had two receptions for 69 yards and ran an wonderful route ending with a 43-yard reception. Powell then scooted up the middle for a touchdown. He is already suspended for the first four games of the season, so missing any time he has to get into game shape isn’t good.
It was very nice to see a composed Jets team in the first week of the preseason, as they only committed two penalties and didn’t have any turnovers.
Generally there’s fewer reps to go around for backups in the second and third preseason game, as starters begin to play longer.
“We’ve got a lot of playmakers”, Fitzpatrick said. We tried to do a two-minute on the second series of the game and Quincy was open both times, so we got down the field pretty quickly. The problem is, Skrine is only successful when he is against slot receivers, and for some reason the Jets do not like to arrange players in positions where they feel the most comfortable and can succeed. Enunwa, a sixth-round draft pick out of Nebraska in 2015, was used in a hybrid receiver/tight end/H-back role and caught 22 passes for 315 yards. In fact, no other Jets’ receiver had more than two touchdown catches.
Bradley on Friday said the offense showed better tempo against the Jets than in a scrimmage last Friday, something that was a pregame emphasis. I have to keep running down on special teams and go out and still be able make plays regardless if you’re winded.
The 6-foot-2, 225-pound receiver spent most of his rookie season on the Jets’ practice squad. New offensive coordinator Chan Gailey found a role for Enunwa last season, using his size and athleticism to provide some mismatches. Enunwa missed four games for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy during his first season, but he came back and established himself as a valuable part of the offense.
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“With the way he’s catching the ball, the way he’s running his routes”, Fitzpatrick said, “the understanding that he has for the game – all that stuff has grown”. “Defensively, there were some things we’ve been doing all during training camp – going for the ball, rip attempts, things like that – that didn’t quite carry over like we hoped”. “He’s so versatile, and we saw that past year with everything we asked him to”. “But he can really develop into a big-time weapon for us”.
