Time for the New York Jets Saturday spotlight. This week we are taking a look at a guy who will be under the gun on Sunday, Morris Claiborne.
The New York Jets have a tough opponent this weekend to finish up their home stand. The Minnesota Vikings are coming to town and they represent arguably the most dangerous team the Jets have faced to date.
Time to get going with the weekly spotlight. This week, we are going to look at a player that will be a major key to the game on Sunday afternoon. This player will have to come up big.
This week’s spotlight is on cornerback Morris Claiborne.
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After winning the Jim Thorpe award and achieving All-American status at LSU, Claiborne was selected sixth overall by Dallas in the 2012 draft.
Claiborne has been a starter for the balance of his career, starting that rookie year when he started 15 games.
He picked off one pass in each season with Dallas, other than 2015. He picked off one last season for the Jets and two so far in 2018.
Claiborne’s Pro Football Focus (subscription required) grades have been up and down, take a look:
- 2012: 64.1
- 2013: 57.8
- 2014: 38.4
- 2015: 45.0
- 2016: 74.3
- 2017: 62.9
- 2018: 76.2
The number is a bit skewed for 2014 in that Claiborne was only active for four games. However, that leads into the downside that comes with Claiborne.
He has never played a full 16 game season without injury. That was the risk when Claiborne was brought to New York prior to last season. He has been a solid cornerback when healthy, but that hasn’t been as often as his teams hoped.
So I am sure you are all aware why we are talking about Claiborne this week. Adam Thielen is the reason. Just look at his numbers. He’s a good reason to talk about Claiborne.
The Jets are down three defensive backs. Trumaine Johnson, Buster Skrine and Marcus Maye all look to be down on Sunday. To say the secondary is beaten up would be putting it mildly.
Look for Claiborne to see a lot of Thielen on Sunday.
For more grades, advanced statistics and more at Pro Football Focus, subscribe to PFF’s EDGE or ELITE subscriptions at ProFootballFocus.com.