What a difference a week can make. As we discussed after the game on November 28, New York Jets pass-rusher John Franklin-Myers had a major bounce-back performance in Week 12.
The defensive end had committed a careless roughing the passer penalty against Miami the week before and he was able to redeem himself in Houston with two sacks off three quarterback pressures, plus three defensive stops (via Pro Football Focus) and the crucial first-quarter interception.
It was the perfect reminder of why Joe Douglas dished out a four-year extension to the versatile defensive lineman earlier this season — and ‘JFM’ decided to have some fun with his outing after the game.
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JFM Tweets at Madden
About an hour after the victory at 5:10 p.m., Franklin-Myers tweeted at the Madden video game franchise with a simple request.
“Can I get my catch rating up on Madden?” JFM asked with a laughing emoji while retweeting the video of his batted ball interception.
I mean, it’s a fair question, just look at those soft hands by the emerging NFL game-wrecker. While they’re at it, they should consider boosting his power and finesse pass-rush moves, as well as his awareness and acceleration.
Lower the speed rating though, you got to take that one to the house JFM!
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JFM Is Still Underrated
In all seriousness though, Franklin-Myers has been a player I’ve been high on for a while and I’d like to tout his 2021 campaign for a moment.
Before Week 1, JFM was my pick for Jets breakout star and so far he’s made me proud. In my opinion, the defensive end might be our most consistent player this season and he deserves a Pro Bowl selection.
After the extension though, many fans noted that the pash-rusher was disappearing in outings. This was not a fair assessment most weeks, however, as he was still pressuring the QB at a very high rate.
Franklin-Myers is the number one graded Jet this season on PFF (minimum of 100 snaps), with really well-balanced marks. Here are his scores and stats:
- Overall defense: 78.3.
- Run defense: 73.1.
- Tackling: 73.5.
- Pass rush: 74.0.
- Coverage: 60.2 (limited snaps).
- Total pressures: 39, 3.55 per game, 0.081 per defensive snap.
- Sacks: 6.0, 0.55 per game.
- Quarterback hits: seven, 0.64 per game.
- Defensive stops: 17, 1.55 per game, 0.035 per defensive snap.
- Interceptions/fumbles forced: two.
For those that still think JFM was undeserving of an extension, I’m not sure how to convince you other than this. He has only had three games with one QB pressure or less in 2021. Gang Green has not had a pass-rusher this efficient in a long time.
The edge rusher has also been an ironman at a position that has seen many injuries this year between Carl Lawson and Vinny Curry among others. Franklin-Myers has started all 11 games, averaging 43.6 defensive snaps per game in Robert Saleh’s rotational system.
Not only has he been a breakout performer, but he may also just be the Jets team MVP so far in his first campaign partnered with Coach Saleh.
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Jets’ John Franklin-Myers Makes Madden Request After Week 12 Breakout