Saints @ Jets
Final Score: Saints 30, Jets 9
Writer: James Schiano (@JeterHadNoRange on Twitter)
Condolences to anyone else who watched this game and my heart goes out to the few paying customers who made it to MetLife Field for this slog. The ‘BYU Bowl’ between Taysom Hill and Zach Wilson produced nine three-and-outs, 34 completed passes, and a combined 31% success rate on third down. This game made Army-Navy look like the pinnacle of sport.
New Orleans Saints
Quarterback
Taysom Hill: 15/21, 175 yards | 11 carries, 73 yards, 2 TD
This was one of the slower games for Hill early on from a fantasy perspective. He had just 139 yards through the air, 27 on the ground, and no touchdowns with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter. That line would have been a disaster, but Hill saved it with two big touchdowns down the stretch starting with this one from the two.
Taysom Hill finds the end zone for another TD
— PFF NO Saints (@PFF_Saints) December 12, 2021
Wildly uncompetitive from the Jets on a third and goal when the game was still relatively in the balance. Things only got more embarrassing for Hill’s next score.
TAYSOM HILL RUN IT HOME!!!
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/JOHqxihnYL
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) December 12, 2021
Simply humiliating. Hill ran virtually untouched from midfield to paydirt on third and long. He looked shocked himself and his fantasy managers everywhere owe the Jets and their general incompetence a debt of gratitude.
Otherwise, it was clear that Hill’s injured middle finger was bothering him out there. He was about as accurate as he ever is (not the best start) but had some plays where he threw the ball at his receivers’ feet and one time just lost hold of the ball right before his release.
Grip issues for @T_Hill4 with the middle finger mallet injury. Re-taped several times. pic.twitter.com/OgYAuogL8I
— David J. Chao – ProFootballDoc (@ProFootballDoc) December 12, 2021
Hill represents the greatest enigma in fantasy football right now. We got a taste of his floor for most of this game and it was a frightening place. However, the way he closed shows just how quickly he can accrue points. Tread lightly.
Running Backs
Alvin Kamara: 27 carries, 120 yards, TD | 5 targets, 4 receptions, 25 yards
Tony Jones Jr: 6 carries, 10 yards | 1 target, 1 reception, 19 yards
Alvin Kamara returned after a four-game absence and made his presence known. Certainly, most managers gasped when Jones got both the first snap and carry, but Kamara would not be denied in this one. He needed about a quarter to shake some rust off and then went complete bonkers against the Jets’ soft front. I know his first touchdown in more than a month felt sweet.
Welcome back, Alvin Kamara#FantasyFootball || #Saints pic.twitter.com/07Yf3oJP5l
— QB List (@TheQBlist) December 12, 2021
Bryce Hall needed to go back and pick up his jock after Kamara put him on skates en route to six. He was dominant from this point on and helped the Saints churn out a 15 play, nine-minute drive that killed almost the entirety of the third quarter and demoralized the Jets.
It was also important that Hill looked for Kamara consistently in the passing game. This was a massive concern after his usage out of the backfield with Hill under center in 2020. Kamara was targeted more than every New Orleans receiver and may be their top dog in the passing game going forward.
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
Nick Vannett: 6 targets, 3 receptions, 44 yards
Marquez Callaway: 4 targets, 2 receptions, 34 yards
Tre’Quan Smith: 3 targets, 3 receptions, 33 yards
Juwan Johnson: 1 target, 1 reception, 15 yards
Easop Winston Jr: 1 target, 1 reception, 5 yards
This group of pass-catchers combined with Sean Payton’s usual gameplans for Hill will breed very little fantasy production. The Jets’ secondary may be the softest in football and the team’s unwillingness to get this group involved on Sunday is likely indicative of things moving forward.
New York Jets
Quarterback
Zach Wilson: 19/42, 202 yards | 4 carries, 33 yards
Well, this was the first full game without an interception for Wilson in his career, which is something! Full disclosure, I am a Jets fan and have watched most of Wilson’s games this season with legitimate intent and it is so frustrating that there seems to have been next to no improvement from the young gunslinger. More frustratingly, the game still seems too fast for him at this juncture.
His footwork is rough, his mechanics are inconsistent, he has a handful of plays every game where it seems like he just freaks out, and he consistently struggles to hit the easy throws every quarterback on earth should be able to roll out of bed and hit. Like, how can this happen?
https://twitter.com/ByCianaf/status/1470121168506171409?s=20
Or this!
Does #ZachWilson have a mallet finger injury too? 🤣 pic.twitter.com/mPGJxAkt7P
— David J. Chao – ProFootballDoc (@ProFootballDoc) December 12, 2021
His accuracy on tape was insane pre-draft. It’s a shocking development and shows me there may be some regression here, which is wholly terrifying.
It was nice to see him get outside the pocket a few times though. He seems genuinely comfortable out there and made a couple of nice plays on the run besides that ridiculous underthrow to Ryan Griffin. The reads are often right, the athleticism is on display, there’s just something not quite clicking yet.
Running Backs
La’Mical Perine: 7 carries, 28 yards
Ty Johnson: 6 carries, 17 yards | 7 targets, 4 receptions, 40 yards
Welp, not much here. Austin Walter was expected to be part of this timeshare too but was ruled out very early on with a vague illness. That got Perine back in the fold and he was as ineffective as he has been his entire career. I suspect he only got in the game because Johnson had two egregious drops early on, with one on a fourth down play that absolutely killed any early momentum the Jets were trying to build.
Michael Carter will be valuable once he’s back and Tevin Coleman could still find his way to relevance if he returns before that. Leave the rest of this backfield alone.
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
Braxton Berrios: 10 targets, 6 receptions, 52 yards
DJ Montgomery: 6 targets, 3 receptions, 36 yards
Jamison Crowder: 6 targets, 3 receptions, 19 yards
Keelan Cole: 6 targets, 1 reception, 27 yards
Ryan Griffin: 3 targets, 2 receptions, 28 yards
Vyncint Smith: 1 target
Denzel Mims: 1 target
I was a little hard on Wilson before. Sue me, I have been living in Quarterback hell for the entirety of my conscious life. However, it is hard to develop as a quarterback when Braxton Berrios is the clear number one option in your offense. Life without Elijah Moore proved to be very difficult in this one.
One would hope that with one talented young receiver going down, perhaps another would step up. I know many Jets fans and dynasty managers alike have hoped that receiver would be Mims. Well, in his limited action today he managed to get penalized on back-to-back plays which completely ended a Jets third-quarter drive. Add him to the long list of Jets’ WR busts.
— James Schiano (@JeterHadNoRange on Twitter)