Earlier this week White Darron Lee Jerseys , the Jets signed former Miami and Tennessee receiver Rishard Matthews. We’re going to take an in-depth look at his strengths and weaknesses.The 29-year-old Matthews is listed at 6-foot-0 and 217 pounds, and was a seventh round pick in 2012 out of Nevada. He spent his first four years with the Dolphins and then joined the Titans in 2016, but they released him earlier this month. Matthews caught 53 passes for almost 800 yards and four touchdowns last year.BackgroundMatthews initially went the junior college route, graduating from Bakersfield College before transferring to Nevada. He was one of Colin Kaepernick’s favorite targets during his two years there, catching 147 passes for over 2,200 yards and 13 touchdowns in his two seasons. Matthews was a second-team all-WAC selection.Matthews participated in the scouting combine even though he still wasn’t fully healthy following an injury at the end of the season. He performed well at his pro day and was selected by the Dolphins in the seventh round in the 2012 draft, although he had been a projected mid-rounder.With Miami, he caught 12 passes in his rookie year, but started to emerge in year two, with 41 catches for 448 yards and two scores. After a disappointing year in 2014 saw his production fall again, he broke out in his contract year with 43 catches for 662 yards and four touchdowns, despite missing the last five games. At this stage, he was starting to earn a reputation as one of the NFL’s most underrated receivers.The Titans signed Matthews to a three-year deal and it paid off immediately as he posted career bests of 65 catches, 945 yards and nine touchdowns in his first year with them. While his production dipped slightly in 2017, he still had a good year and he led the team in touchdown catches with four. He also finished third on the team in receptions and second in receiving yards.Although he signed an extension which gave the Titans a team option for $8 million in 2019, Matthews fell down the depth chart due to a training camp injury and didn’t get many opportunities once the season began. He had just three catches for 11 yards in three games before his request to be released was granted. The Jets, with injury issues at the receiver position, signed him a few days ago.Let’s move onto some further analysis of what Matthews brings to the table, based on in-depth research and film study.Measurables/AthleticismMatthews ran just 4.62 at the scouting combine, which damaged his reputation, even though he ran in the mid-4.4’s a few weeks later at his pro day. He reportedly still wasn’t fully healthy at the time, although his agility Darron Lee Jerseys 2019 , strength and explosiveness numbers were actually above average-to-good across the board.A lot of scouting reports from when he entered the league cast doubt upon whether he has the speed and acceleration to be able to create separation at the pro level, but these reports seem to have been proven incorrect.UsageMatthews is a versatile player, capable of producing both out wide and in the slot. While in Tennessee, the majority of his production came from when he was out wide, although he still had some decent production whenever he was targeted in the slot, including four of his nine touchdowns in 2016.He would also motion over to the tackle’s shoulder to operate as an H-back from time to time and has carried the ball from time to time, mostly on jet sweep type plays.Deep threatMatthews came into the NFL with a reputation as more of a possession receiver but he has had some decent success on downfield routes at the pro level.He doesn’t necessarily display the speed to blow past and run away from a defender but does possess a second gear that can get him a step on his man. Generally speaking, he mostly relies on play-action or double moves to get behind the defense, although he’s also proven capable of going up to catch contested throws down the field.As you can see, he runs a good route to get himself open here, but doesn’t have the speed to outrun the defender to the end zone, although he still finds a way to score.RoutesMatthews is a decent route runner who has had success on a variety of different routes. Here’s a good example of a crisp route to lose his man.He runs his routes with good precision and is capable of making sharp breaks and using a burst of speed to get open on intermediate routes.HandsMatthews is capable of making some spectacular catches and seems especially adept at making contested catches in a crowd or over a defender. He also shows good dexterity when making catches over by the sideline and getting his feet inbounds. He lays out for a nice diving catch here.Matthews has a catch rate of 64 percent over the course of his career, which is an acceptable number for someone who runs a lot of downfield routes. Although his hand size is below average he looks natural catching the ball and he’s never had many issues with dropped passes with just 14 in his career so far. In fact, his drop rate was the sixth lowest in the league two seasons ago.He also displays some good ball security as he has only fumbled twice in his career so far, losing just one.Red zoneMatthews’ ability to make contested catches or get a step of separation on short/intermediate routes makes him a dangerous red zone threat. 13 of his 21 career touchdown catches have come in the red zone, including six from inside the five-yard line.Yards after the catchMatthews has good strength and will often be able to turn his man upfield to fall forward for a few extra yards after the catch, often to secure the first down.He can be a big play threat, even on short passes, because while he perhaps lacks true gamebreaking speed, he can accelerate into the open field and is a creative open field runner who can break tackles.BlockingMatthews has graded out well for his blocking over the years and was in the top 10 for run blocking at the wide receiver position a few years ago, according to Pro Football Focus.Again, he is able to exploit a strength advantage over many defensive backs and he generally seems to take good angles White Jordan Jenkins Jersey , extend his arms and make an effort.PhysicalityMatthews has improved his physicality at the pro level, as the book on him coming out of college was that he was easy to jam or bump off his route. Since being in the NFL, he’s shown an ability to be strong at the point of the catch and fights for yardage with the ball.One of Matthews’ best traits is that he’s not afraid to go over the middle and can hang onto the ball when making a catch in traffic.Matthews has only been flagged for five penalties in his career, three of which were pre-snap penalties. The other two were a face mask and an offensive pass interference call.Special TeamsMatthews is a possible return option, having returned 48 punts for 551 yards and two scores at Nevada. He was working as the Titans’ punt returner earlier this season and has 47 yards on five returns in his NFL career. He also had seven special teams tackles in kick coverage in his first six NFL seasons, with five of them coming in 2014.InstinctsWorking with a quarterback who can extend plays like Marcus Mariota has given Matthews opportunities to work on his ability to improvise and there are examples of him finding open spots in the defense on such plays.Matthews also displays some good instincts as a ball carrier in the open field, perhaps from his time as a punt returner.AttitudeMatthews has courted controversy off the field a few times and may have some teams concerned about his commitment after he asked to be released by the Titans, having previously asked the Dolphins to trade him in 2015. However, the Jets have praised how hard he has been working since he arrived with the team, as he prepares to hopefully give the Jets some immediate contributions while they need them the most.On the field, Matthews can be a fiery player, who has been involved in a few scuffles with opposing players.InjuriesMatthews missed nearly all of training camp and all four preseason games due to a knee injury, which had him placed on the PUP list until late August. That’s what led to him falling down the depth chart. It was also a knee injury that slowed him down at the combine, as he had suffered an MCL injury at the end of his senior year.In 2017, Matthews missed two games with a hamstring injury and he missed the last five games in 2015 after Calvin Pryor’s hit left him with multiple broken ribs.Scheme FitThe Titans installed a west coast style offense this year, although Matthews missed most of camp and preseason. Prior to that, he had enjoyed his best success with the Titans in a non-west coast offense. However, his precise route running should lend itself well to the Jets’ own system.Former teammates of Matthews include Deontay Burnett, Neville Hewitt and Avery Williamson.ConclusionsMatthews is a talented player who fell out of favor early in the season. He was slow to return from a knee injury and then frustrated with his reserve role in Matt LaFleur’s new system, leading to him requesting his release.However, he almost had a thousand-yard season in 2016 and was almost as productive in 2017. The Titans instead opted to give most of the reps and targets to younger players in 2018, but Matthews will be determined to prove he still has plenty left in the tank.Once Robby Anderson and Quincy Enunwa are healthy again Jordan Jenkins Jersey 2019 , Matthews might once again find himself in a situation where he’s no longer getting the looks he desires, but for now, he’s under pressure to produce so that he can continue to get opportunities. While he may not be part of this team’s long-term future, he has every reason to be motivated to do well.Jets QB Davis Webb looked like a practice squad project in preseason As you probably know, the Jets have a new developmental quarterback. Davis Webb was a third round pick of the Giants just last year. He was surprisingly waived last weekend and went unclaimed. The Jets signed him to their practice squad earlier in the week.I found myself curious about this situation. It isn’t every day that a team gives up on a day two pick after just one season. Even Christian Hackenberg got two seasons to try and prove he was worth something. Some Giants fans suggested this move was a power move by new general manager Dave Gettleman. Webb was drafted by the old general manager. Gettleman selected his own developmental quarterback this year, Kyle Lauletta. That made Webb obsolete for reasons that went beyond merit. Things like this do happen in the NFL. It wouldn’t be the first time a general manager made a move based on ego. Still, something didn’t seem right. Almost every team in the NFL is looking for talent at the quarterback position. Surely it reasoned that some team would be willing to give up a late round pick for somebody with potential at the most important position on the field. Webb was a third round pick just last year after all. The Giants ended up cutting him, however, indicating there was no trade interest.Even more strikingly, every other team then had a chance to claim Webb off waivers, acquiring him for nothing. Nobody did. Even though he was a guy who seemed to have potential on paper, not a single one of the 32 teams in the league was willing to offer him a spot on the 53 man roster. He ended up settling for a practice squad spot instead.I wanted to get to the bottom of this. The first place I looked was at Webb’s preseason stats, and boy they were ugly. Webb only completed 52.8% of his passes and averaged 5.3 yards per attempt. That’s brutal. Still, stats at the quarterback position don’t tell the whole story. Sam Darnold’s efficiency was just a hair better at 5.4 yards per attempt in the 2018 preseason. Yet when you went play by play with Darnold, there was a competency that the numbers didn’t show. Was Webb the victim of a similar misfortune? I decided to take a look at his preseason passing attempts. After doing that, I came to a simply conclusion. Webb is an enormous project who has a very, very long way to go if he ever wants to find success on the NFL level. He has a remedial grasp of some very basic elements of the quarterback position. Maybe Gettleman was influenced a bit by not wanting somebody else’s project on his team, but Webb made the decision easy by showing so little promise in the preseason.I’ll spare you being forced to watch all of the snaps, but I will take you through a few of the major issues I saw.Pocket CommandWebb has a pretty clean pocket on this play.There’s plenty of room for him to step up in the pocket.Instead he bails on the pocket for no reason and runs himself right into defenders who would been pushed out of the way had he hung tough. His pocket panic leads to a sack.Here you’ll see pressure off the edge, but Webb once again has plenty of room to step up in the pocket to try and find something down the field. Instead he sees pressure and dumps it off for a minimal gain. AccuracyA 52.8% completion percentage is ugly and indicative of extreme inaccuracy. To be certain, there were a number of open receivers whom Webb targeted with wildly inaccurate throws that fell incomplete. I could put together a video of Hackenbergian UFO’s from Webb’s 2018 preseason. But I want to point out something else. Poor accuracy doesn’t just lead to incompletions. It also leads to completions producing less than they should.Take this play near the end of the first half. The Giants were in field goal range and out of timeouts. They were looking for a quick completion to the sideline to get a little bit closer and stop the clock. Webb hits the pass, but it is not a well-placed football. The receiver has to slow down to adjust to it because the ball is a little behind him. This allowed a defender to get to him to make a tackle White Leonard Williams Jerseys , which ran out the clock. If Webb’s pass had led the receiver, he could have caught it in stride and easily made it to the sideline to preserve the field goal attempt. This inaccurate throw led to a completion, but it cost the Giants a shot at three points.On this third down play, wide receiver Kalif Raymond wins and gets inside of the cornerback covering him. With a step on the cornerback, an accurate throw that led Raymond and hit him in stride probably would allow him to get to the sticks for a first down. Instead we again see a throw behind the receiver, which again gives the defender time to catch up and make the tackle. The placement is the difference between a fresh set of downs and a punt.Making ReadsOn this play, the Lions show a look presnap that suggests they will be in Cover 2 with a pair of defenders deep and five defenders in underneath zone. With three receivers lined up on the bottom of the picture and two defenders, Webb believes he will have the yellow guy open.However, after the snap the Lions roll into a Cover 3 with the two outside corners dropping into a deep zone and one of the safeties driving on the route Webb is looking at.Webb is fooled, and the result is an incompletion.That one isn’t necessarily the end of the world. A young quarterback is going to get fooled presnap by a disguised look a defense throws at him from time to time.Let’s look at another situation. This play call gives Webb a really simple read. Where he goes with the ball is determined by what the cornerback does in zone coverage. If the corner drives on the short route, the deeper receiver will be open.If he drops deep, the short pass will be open in the flat.The underneath receiver is obscured a bit by the graphic, but the corner here is clearly dropping to take the deep route.Webb ends up trying to force this ball into an impossibly tight window. The underneath guy was open. Mind you this was a first down play, and the Giants still had all three timeouts in the two minute drill. There wasn’t anything dictating that trying to force the deep ball was the right decision.The Surprising ConclusionBy now you are probably thinking that I don’t want Webb.I will be honest. Based on what I have seen, I think it is unlikely Webb will even amount to a decent NFL backup. I would say he is a pile of raw physical tools with very few of the necessarily skills to succeed at the quarterback position in the league developed. He also hasn’t shown much growth between last season and now, which is how you go from third round pick to practice squad so quickly.But that doesn’t mean I am against the addition of Webb to the practice squad at all. Webb might be a pile of raw physical tools, but a practice squad spot is the right investment for players of that profile. The purpose of the practice squad is to try and develop players with those raw tools, understanding it is probably a long-shot in most situations.It is a terrible idea to invest an early round Draft pick in a player like this the way the Giants did (or the way the Jets did with Bryce Petty and Christian Hackenberg). Even though the Jets are paying Webb more than your typical practice squader, they have nothing to lose with this addition. They can walk away easily if Webb does not pan out. If he beats the odds andshows a surprising ability to develop, they could end up with a backup quarterback. I don’t need to explain how valuable that would be.It just should be noted that “project practice squader” is a more apt description for Webb at this point than “third round prospect.”