The New York Jets haven’t done a ton this offseason. The Jets offseason to this point can be summarized swapping out Brandon Shell for George Fant. Then swapping out Robby Anderson for Breshad Perriman. The Perriman deal was a heck of a lot smarter than the Fant deal. That’s basically been the Jets offseason. New York did get one thing right this offseason. Bringing back Brian Poole was incredibly smart.
The Jets re-signed Poole to a one-year deal worth $5 million. Based on how Poole played last year, he should have gotten a hell of a lot more. The 2019 Jets were terrible. On the defensive side of the ball, when CJ Mosley went down, so did everything else. Quinnen Williams had his moments and Jamal Adams is a playmaker, but that wasn’t really the storyline. The one good thing to come out of the 2019 Jets was the play of Brian Poole.
Poole really was the one bright spot on the Jets defense a year ago. The former undrafted cornerback from Florida was a revelation in the slot a year ago. Next Gen Stats explains how good Poole was a year ago. When Poole served as the primary slot corner, the Jets allowed a passer rating of 87.7 to wideouts who came out of the slot or out of a tight split. That was the third best mark in the NFL. On throws out wide, the Jets ranked 22nd in that same category.
For whatever reason, the NFL hasn’t figured out that slot cornerbacks matter. Outside corners get paid all the time. The corners who cover slot receivers never get paid. Don’t ask me why but their job is just as important. Wide receivers like Julian Edelman can wreck a gameplan. Nobody seems to pay cornerbacks to cover players like him.
Poole started his NFL career with the Falcons but found a home with the Jets after being nontendered last year. For whatever reason, Poole has never been appreciated. He should have been drafted and had a nice predraft performance at the East-West game in 2016. Poole, 27, is one of the biggest pieces to the Jets defense and nobody really knows who he is. The biggest move of the Jets offseason was bringing back their slot corner. Brian Poole is really good and one of the few bright spots on this Jets defense. Time will tell if he can bring the same level of performance in 2020.
