On Thursday’s episode of Get Up, ESPN’s NFL draft expert Mel Kiper Jr. set the football world alight with an eyebrow-raising rule proposal.
Obviously disenchanted with the precipitous decline in passing numbers through the first two weeks of the NFL season, Kiper suggested a radical idea – ban defenses from setting two high safeties deep in the secondary at the snap.
The idea was dismissed by pretty much everybody in football, especially by those who played defense in the NFL. Tony Dungy, the architect of the famous Tampa-2 defense, even said that the dual deep safeties idea goes all the way back to the Steel Curtain era Pittsburgh Steeleers of which he was a part of in the 1970s.
And Kiper’s thoughts even made it all the way to Aaron Rodgers, who joked about the idea in his postgame press conference after the New York Jets defeated the New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football.
Aaron Rodgers on his connection with Garrett Wilson:
“The entire focus of all three defenses we’ve played have been taking Garrett away. It’s been Mel Kiper’s worst nightmare. Been a lot of cover 2” 😭 pic.twitter.com/kTFnwE1cuq
— Jets Videos (@snyjets) September 20, 2024
“The entire focus of all three defenses we’ve played have been taking Garrett (Wilson) away,” Rodgers said. “It’s been Mel Kiper’s worst nightmare. Been a lot of Cover 2.”
Even though Rodgers faced what Mel Kiper views as an insurmountable obstacle for modern day NFL quarterbacks, the Jets quarterback went 27/35 for 281 yards, 2 TDs, and a 118.9 QB rating. True to what pretty much everyone else said on Thursday, there’s many ways for an NFL offense to attack Cover 2, and Rodgers showed that in a vintage performance.
Rodgers is all about embracing wild ideas though, so it’s honestly a surprise that he didn’t get on board with Mel and find a way to tie the Cover 2 defense to the Tartarian Empire or something.
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