{"id":27681,"date":"2015-01-26T12:18:13","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T16:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jetnation.com\/?p=27681"},"modified":"2022-04-01T03:07:27","modified_gmt":"2022-04-01T07:07:27","slug":"pryor-to-benefit-from-hiring-of-danna-new-york-jets-calvin-pryor-joe-danna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/2015\/01\/26\/pryor-to-benefit-from-hiring-of-danna-new-york-jets-calvin-pryor-joe-danna\/","title":{"rendered":"Pryor to Benefit From Hiring of Danna?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the 18th overall pick in the first round of last year’s NFL draft, the New York Jets were on the clock and everyone watching knew that the team had two major needs to fill.\u00a0 Their stagnant offense was in dire need of a playmaker at the wide receiver position, and their undermanned secondary needed cornerback help.\u00a0 With explosive WR Brandon Cooks from Oregon State still on the board along with Michigan State CB Darqueze Dennard, it looked\u00a0like the Jets were in business.\u00a0 Two of the top rated players in the draft that would have filled immediate needs.\u00a0 The Jets however, passed on Cooks and\u00a0Dennard who were later drafted by the New Orleans Saints and Cincinnati Bengals respectively.\u00a0 Instead, the Jets went with Calvin Pryor<\/a>, a hard-hitting safety from Louisville who they expected to, as Rex Ryan put it <\/a>,”knock your face in”.\u00a0 As it turned out, Pryor’s rookie season failed to produce any of the results the Jets and their fans had hoped for.<\/p>\n

In sixteen games, Pryor registered 60 tackles and 0.5 sacks while leading the team in missed tackles with 15.\u00a0 Often times in coverage, Pryor looked out of place and consistently took\u00a0poor pursuit angles that led to big plays after the catch for opposing offenses.\u00a0 Perhaps the most damning part of Pryor’s performance on the field was his failure to deliver the bone-jarring hits that were a routine occurrence at Louisville.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While growing pains are often expected from a young player, few things are more alarming than a player who fails to show any of the traits that made them a first round selection to begin with.\u00a0 Pryor didn’t force a single fumble or interception.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Pryor, the only headlines he grabbed this season were those raising questions about his work ethic.\u00a0 In a week\u00a010 meeting with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Pryor was active, but only on special teams.\u00a0 Following the game, it was learned that Pryor’s playing time was reduced as a result of missing or being late to a team meeting.\u00a0 His replacement that week, Jaiquawn Jarrett turned in a strong enough performance to earn AFC defensive player of the week<\/a>, while Pryor said that the benching would motivate him as he hoped to\u00a0bounce back<\/a>\u00a0down the stretch.\u00a0 As it turned out, Pryor continued to offer solid run support, but was still suspect in coverage.\u00a0 Progress was minimal, and as Jets fans look forward to year two, new secondary coach Joe Danna is the\u00a0 man who will be working directly with Pryor to help him turn things around.<\/p>\n

Given Danna’s track record, this could be a good thing for Pryor.\u00a0 As a member of the Falcons coaching staff over the past two seasons, Danna’s defensive backs have done well in one particular area that the Jets have been among the worst in the NFL, and that’s forcing turnovers.\u00a0 Last season the Falcons secondary\u00a0intercepted sixteen passes and forced\u00a0five fumbles. The five forced fumbles would match the Jets’ total over the past two seasons, and the sixteen interceptions are one fewer than the seventeen\u00a0 interceptions the Jets have had over that same stretch.<\/p>\n

In terms of player development under Danna, his bio on the Falcons web-site said the following:<\/p>\n

In 2012, Danna\u2019s help with the safeties paid off as the tandem of Thomas DeCoud and William Moore, each earned their first Pro Bowl selections. DeCoud finished 2012 with 89 tackles, nine passes defensed, a team-high six interceptions and one fumble recovery. The fifth-year safety out of California accounted for seven of Atlanta\u2019s 31 takeaways in 2012. His safety-mate, Moore, posted a career year in Nolan\u2019s defense. Moore recorded 105 tackles, eight passes defensed, four interceptions, four tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The good news for both Pryor and Dana is that the Jets are unlikely to go in to 2015 with no depth at the cornerback position as previous GM John Idzik did.\u00a0 Relying on the unproven Dee Milliner and journeyman Dmitri Patterson doomed the Jets’ secondary before the season ever got started.\u00a0\u00a0Milliner\u00a0missed\u00a0all but a few games due to a torn\u00a0achilles tendon<\/a>, and\u00a0Patterson was cut before the season even started.\u00a0 This of course has been discussed ad nauseam as well as the impact it had on Pryor being asked to play off the line of scrimmage in coverage, away from his strength,\u00a0far more than anticipated.<\/p>\n

With Milliner and\u00a0\u00a0rookie Dexter McDougle due to return from injuries, and the emergence of Marcus Williams there is potential at the position, but the Jets can’t, (and likely won’t) start the season without importing additional cornerbacks through the draft and free agency.\u00a0 Much like the previous regime, this\u00a0staff will call\u00a0a healthy dose of blitzes and will need\u00a0quality play form the back-end of the defense to be successful.<\/p>\n

Danna clearly has his work cut out for him with an underperforming secondary that will likely be adding new pieces, but getting Pryor to produce as expected in hopes of avoiding yet another first round bust for the Jets, should be high on\u00a0 his list of priorities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the 18th overall pick in the first round of last year’s NFL draft, the New York Jets were on the clock and everyone watching knew that the team had two major needs to fill.\u00a0 Their stagnant offense was in dire need of a playmaker at the wide receiver position, and their undermanned secondary needed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":27189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,1337],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27681","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured-editorials","8":"category-home-slider"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_4714.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-7ct","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27681"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27684,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27681\/revisions\/27684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}