It’s Christian Hackenberg or bust for many Jets fans at this point, and maybe the Jets as well. With an extra year under contract, it behooves the Jets to give Hackenberg the best possible chance to succeed before moving onto to Petty. After the performance against the Titans, many fans have wrote of Bryce Petty, but it might be a bit pre-mature. Interest in Petty is going to be low, and the viewership on this article is going to most likely be lower than the Hackenberg articles, but it would be a disservice to Bryce Petty to not break down his performance. Since it’s a limited set, all of the breakdowns are contained under this article.
On the play preceding this one, the Jets were called for a false start penalty, which forced them back. On this play, Petty seems to go through his progressions (As mentioned in the other articles, with the lack of coach’s film, it’m all but impossible to tell for certain if anyone is open downfield or what the defense is showing) before deciding to run with the ball. Petty shows excellent pocket awareness as he steps up in the pocket and good mobility as he runs for ten yards. It’d be advisable to avoid such hard hits in a pre-season game, but this is a player fighting for a chance, so he takes the risk here. Petty is underrated athletically and he can definitely move around in the pocket if need be. Unfortunately, the first down marker is two more yards away. However, the mobility and pocket awareness on this play is very good.
This is a quick pass play, and Petty makes a good read. His first read is the slot defender on Myles White (16), thus if that defender moves towards Marquees Wilson (10), then White is open for the pass. Since the defender stays with White, Petty hits Wilson for the pass. The corner back on Wilson lights him up with a very good tackle on this play, but this is a good read by Petty and the throw is on the money.
Pinned near their own end zone, Petty makes another pretty throw. Notice that Petty goes through the progressions well on this play. His first read is Anthony Firsker (40) who is covered, so Petty moves onto his second read in Chad Hansen (6). He throws a laser pass to Hansen, which goes for a first down. The third read would have been receiver 86 (He is not on the official roster) but since Hansen was open, Petty made the right decision to throw the pass.
The Jets are in a 3rd and 5, and Petty makes an absolutely great throw. This pass is better than the long pass to Robby Anderson from Josh McCown earlier in the game because he leads the receiver perfectly on this pass. All the other receivers are well covered on this play, and Petty “throws the receiver open” because he’s covered as well when Petty decides to make the pass. Myles White, the receiver just “alligator-armed” the ball and it goes for an incomplete pass. White has been cited numerous times for dropping passes in practice, and this is a horrendous drop for him, even if his hand may not have touched the ball. If you substitute Robby Anderson for Myles White, this may be a touchdown. Although, the counter would be that the defender facing Anderson would also be better than the defender facing White.
On this play, Petty is sacked before he can even step up in the pocket. The protection absolutely collapses around Petty from all sides on this play, and the RB misses a free running defender up the middle. Both tackles also seem to get beat on this play, which essentially means that Petty didn’t have a chance to make a throw. The blame for this can’t be on the QB because the Jets have 6 blockers for 5 defenders, yet three of them still manage to get a hit on the QB before he can get to the top of his drop back.
This is a bad throw, but it’s extremely borderline. Watch the defender on Chad Hansen (6) as the ball is being released. The defender pulls the shoulder pad of the receiver, which causes Hansen to lean towards the inside, and then take another step inside before he goes towards the sideline to try and catch the ball. That jersey pull throws off the timing of this throw, because Petty has to make that throw before he gets interfered with. If Hansen gets a clean release, this throw is exactly on point. This should have been a penalty. Petty makes a good read, and throws the ball before Hansen is open. He showed a very good ability to predict success in the route and throw the receiver open again. Unfortunately, that extra jersey pull makes Hansen move off the ball, and you can see him arguing for the flag afterwards.
On this play, Petty overthrows a receiver out of the back field and gets an incomplete pass. This is one of the issues with Petty sometimes because he doesn’t adjust well if routes get changed a bit. On this route, the receiver gets a chip block from a defender, which causes him to lose momentum, and drift a bit further up field. By then Petty has decided to throw the ball, and he puts too much zip on the ball and it goes over the receiver’s head. This is simply a throw that Petty can’t afford to miss because these short throws set up deep passes, and that’s his main strength.
The snap on this play is off, which causes the entire play to be thrown off. It seems as if Bryce Petty doesn’t get a good grip on the ball, which causes him to make an errant throw. He still makes the right read to throw to ArDarius Stewart, but the ball is thrown to the ground. Notice the route by Stewart, because there is a legitimate claim that this was holding by the defender. Also, Stewart adjusts the route for the defender, which shouldn’t be the case. He needs to run his route, so the defender has to move off his path, which would have left Chad Hansen open. The Clemson Tigers beat Stewart and Alabama on a rub/pick route, so Stewart should at least know that he shouldn’t adjust his route to such a length to accommodate a defender playing another receiver. There is a chance for an offensive pass interference penalty, but the greater chance is for the defender to move out of the way (preventing him from keeping up with Hansen) or there is a pass interference called on the defender if the ball is in the air.
Bryce Petty didn’t look like he should be named the starter for the Jets by any means. However, he did not look nearly as bad as his line would indicate. He had a major drop by Myles White, and one throw where Chad Hansen was interfered with. Please keep in mind that he was playing against third string guys, so this isn’t an advocacy for his promotion. However, he showed enough tangibles that he should get an extended look in the next game and fans shouldn’t be so quick to write him off. There is definitely talent there, and Petty showed very good tendencies to go through progression and be able to tell which receivers would be open. If Petty can master the system, he’s just as talented as Christian Hackenberg, but it remains to be seen if he can improve on this performance next week.
A. What grade would you give Petty last week?
