New York Jets and the lost art of third down in today’s game

Why have the New York Jets and the rest of the NFL stopped being able to execute on third down?

Everyone reading this article is a solid NFL fan. Whether we are watching the New York Jets or another game, we study the game and look for what is going on with our team and the teams around the league. Watching very carefully these days, there is a trend that is particularly disturbing. The trend is how teams execute on third down.

How often do you turn on a game, any game, and see third down plays run short of the line to gain? On third and eight, for example, a pass is completed for four yards and the back/receiver is expected to make a move to earn the first down. More often than not, the defense converges on the receiver and it’s time to punt. I mean, it’s all the time. There have been countless screen passes, passes in the flat and draw plays where the skilled position player is expected to make the line to gain. It’s maddening to watch.

Take the Jets last time they played, for example. Against the Buccaneers, they went 3-15 on third down, a 20% conversion rate. Of the 12 misses on third down, at least half of them were plays run short of the sticks. Whether they were passes short of the sticks or runs to Bilal Powell and Elijah McGuire, they were plays that needed a move to convert the third down. Over the year it has been more of the same, as the Jets are 52/140 on third down for a 37% rate.

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Contrast that to when Wayne Chrebet played on this team. He made a career out of third down receptions for first down. Heck, he was Mr. Third Down, and his career ended on a third down reception. How did he do it? If it was third and six, he ran his route seven yards and turned around. It’s a simple procedure.

Or at least it should be. Nobody does it anymore. Everyone runs short plays on third down and unless it’s the Patriots, the exceptions to every rule, they often come up short.

Why can’t these receivers run their routes past the line to gain? What is so hard about the concept? It’s fairly logical to do it Chrebet’s way. What has changed?

The culture we live in has changed, and the culture we consume our sports in has changed. More specifically I am talking about social media. We take in our sports very differently now than we did during Wayne Chrebet‘s day. Back then it was SportsCenter and the internet which was starting to come to the forefront. There was much less of the instant gratification from splash plays.

Now, it is all about the instant gratification. When we look at our phones, what comes across our alerts and Twitter timelines first? Is it an eight yard pass for a first down on third down when the pass goes beyond the sticks? No, it’s a guy making a move that breaks a defenders ankles on the way to a first down. Splash plays are what fans, in general, are drawn to, and receivers know that. They use that knowledge and try to make these types of plays every time they get the chance.

Look at the leading receivers in 1997, a randomly chosen season during Wayne Chrebet’s career. The top five receivers were Rob Moore, Tim Brown, Yancey Thigpen, Jimmy Smith and Irving Fryar. These are not players that were concerned with these type of splash plays. The only real “showman” type of receiver in the top ten on this list is Michael Irvin. It was very different than it is today. It wasn’t about breaking ankles as much as it was about getting the job done.

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That’s not to say that the receivers of today don’t want to get the job done. Of course they do. But the way they go about it has drastically changed to more of a splash play nature. It’s a culture that puts more attention on themselves and that is in part due to social media. As great as it is, it has also changed the way the game is played and not always for the better.