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00:07For three straight years, Garrett Wilson posted a thousand yard caliber tape while catching passes
00:13from a revolving door of quarterbacks and no true wide receiver too to help take some of the
00:20attention away from him. A knee injury in 2025 broke that 1k streak and a chance of being
00:26placed in the same class as the tier one receivers around the league, but his talent can't be denied.
00:33315 total career catches, 3,644 total career yards, and 18 touchdowns. The question going into 2026
00:43isn't whether Garrett Wilson is going to be good. It's will he become elite in the first season.
00:49He gets a stable play action friendly quarterback, more weapons in the passing game, and a veteran
00:55play caller dialing up the X's and O's. You can say what you want about Geno Smith's season in 2025,
01:03but his best football was while he was in Seattle in an offense that was built on rhythm, timing,
01:10and pushing the ball on play action. That recipe unlocks a route runner like Garrett Wilson.
01:16And even in a rough 2025 season in Vegas, Geno's issue was protection, not arm strength or talent,
01:25or even anticipation. You can't push the football down the field when you take a career high 55 sacks.
01:31New offense coordinator Frank Reich's offensive pedigree includes play calling duties for a Super
01:37Bowl winning top three scoring offense and top 10 scoring offenses in Indy. This offense needed a
01:44structured passing game that not only protects the quarterback, but feeds the wide receiver one.
01:50And lastly, they spent two first round picks on Kenyon Sadiq and Omar Cooper Jr. And that should
01:58give the offense a real secondary threat. So in this Gangs All Here film breakdown, I'm going to show you
02:04guys why a better quarterback plus structured play action scheme and weapons that actually demand attention
02:11equals Garrett Wilson finally seeing the single coverage his talent has been begging for.
02:21All right, I'm gonna take y'all back to 2024 to kick this thing off because he's playing
02:26with a quarterback who understands how the play action or run action benefits his receivers, especially when you have
02:36a route savvy wide receiver like a Garrett Wilson who knows how to get open knows is how to use
02:43leverage
02:44spacing all that good stuff to get open and be in the right spot. So here Aaron Rodgers say what
02:51you want
02:52about him. The man uses the run fake play action like it's like it's nobody's business and he's one of
02:58the most
02:58dangerous run fake play action quarterbacks in the NFL and Geno Smith is the exact same way. So this is
03:08just I'm gonna have a couple from 2024 to show you the mindset that Garrett Wilson is going to be
03:13on in
03:14terms of getting on the same page with Geno Smith to make some big plays throughout the the run action
03:21play action game. So you see him here in the slot. We'll watch see run flash there.
03:26Aaron Rodgers finds him throws it up makes G5 makes a hell of a catch. Now that is not pass
03:32interference
03:34on the offense. I don't think they called that. But let's let's bring this back. All right, you see
03:41all right, you see him here. Number three, he's running that corner that corner route. He's got the under here.
03:48And now we got to see what this what this receiver runs. He runs kind of like that that over
03:53that that crosser
03:54to bring everybody out to bring everybody open. Like usually you kind of stay up the hash right here
04:00if you're this seam route runner. But now this is that deep over that deep crosser because you want
04:05to pull that single high safety. You want to pull him out of there and not be over the top
04:10of Garrett
04:11Wilson. So he runs the he takes this release to the inside understanding that this backer he's got some
04:18sort of man free here. He's the one that's being pressed. This backer has his eyes in the backfield.
04:24He's got all this space out here knowing that it's man to man and that this under route is going
04:31to pull
04:31this corner this corner back here. He understands he has all this space so you can go inside on this
04:40release. You want to go inside in this release. Does a great job not getting caught up in all of
04:47the
04:47traffic here. And this is what I meant by understanding where to go, where he has to be.
04:54Because now you see this corner route. I mean this corner back right here. It's not a cover two corner
05:01to where he can play the flat and then try and rob the corner route that's over the top that
05:06G5 is
05:07running. No it's man to man. He has to stay with this under route right here. So winning inside
05:13creates more space for Garrett Wilson to run and win on this corner route. Now what I love what he
05:21does
05:22here and we already saw the play action. Brees Hall kind of ran across the formation and pulled that
05:28backer out of here. But what I love is the high angle that he took coming out of his break.
05:37When he put his left foot into the ground and gave what we call an indicator for the quarterback,
05:44that being Aaron Rodgers, to know that we're about to take our break to the corner. You read the safeties.
05:51If the safety is either low and inside or high and in the middle of the field, we're taking a
06:00high angle
06:01here. Especially because we have a defender underneath. But if the safety was over the top
06:09and outside leverage and we had room with this corner, this corner was playing a little bit more
06:15underneath, then we would flat in this. But he goes and takes the high angle knowing that he has this
06:22corner underneath. And one thing I like what he does here, we're taught as receivers to take three
06:29hard steps before we look back for the football. Has a little too much arm action here. I don't think
06:36they call him for that. I think they ended up getting this DB with grabbing. But you see this middle
06:41of
06:41the field safety right here. He got too nosy with the crossing route. So this high angle is what Aaron
06:47Rodgers is expecting him to do. And at the last seconds, he has what we call late hands. You can
06:53see the pull, the tug right here. That's the flag that I believe they throw. But you see the hand
06:59fighting that's going on. He has late hands here. And Aaron Rodgers drops a dime in the bucket. So
07:06Garrett Wilson created this catch. Created not only the separation in the route by winning on the route,
07:16but he helped create that by understanding where to be and how to run the route versus this coverage.
07:24And of course, the play action helps.
07:28And this is off of RPO. I know I know we're highlighting play action, but RPO is an extension
07:35off of the run action play action game. And what this allows them to do here is have him win
07:45as a double coverage. So we'll watch the play here. Garrett Wilson is down here. You see the plus,
07:51plus four split. We call it STD, split the difference between top of the numbers and the sideline. It's
07:57a good split to where he can run a variety of different routes. He can run the tree from this
08:03split.
08:04But we'll watch here. Quick run fake for the go route. Boom. Drops it right there in the honey hole
08:13versus cover two man. And you even see right here, see this corner. You're supposed to be over the top,
08:20bro. You're supposed to be over the top. But the reason why he wasn't over the top,
08:26and I'll show you here as I back this thing up, he wasn't over the top was because of this
08:33quick,
08:33this quick run action here. So it does more than just suck the linebackers up. You see the linebackers
08:41as soon as they see that, I mean, as soon as they see this run action, you see them take
08:47steps up.
08:48They're trying to attack the line of scrimmage. So it doesn't only affect the linebackers,
08:54it affects the safeties and guys that are supposed to be doubling over the top is second and seven
09:00here. This is still a rundown. The Jets in 2024 were still a run heavy football team. Now what this
09:09does again, it gets the linebackers to step up, but it gets these safeties or these safeties that's
09:15supposed to be over the top to help this corner. It gets them to lock their feet, lock their hips,
09:21instead of getting over the top right away. Aaron Rodgers sees that. And because of that,
09:30he aborts the run fake pretty fast and gets that ball in the air right away. That's a quarterback
09:38that understands the power of a powerful run game and the power of a quick flash in an RPO or
09:48in some
09:48sort of play action. It can get your wide receiver, your go-to guy open versus safety help as well.
09:58Where you at, bro? Where you at, dawg? You see him here? Immediately, right when he beats this corner,
10:04what does he do? If it was a regular goal route, you wouldn't be looking for 18 to 22 yards
10:10down the
10:10football field. But the fact that it's a quick, quick now route, we call it a now route. It's either
10:15a
10:15quick goal, quick fade, or if the corner's playing five, six yards off the football, you take one step,
10:22turn around, ball's going to be on you right there, and then you make a miss in space. But the
10:27ball,
10:28Aaron Rodgers gets that ball right there in the honey hole, and he's able to deliver it to Garrett
10:33Wilson for the first down. Frank Wright is going to call these type of plays because that same running
10:39back is in the backfield for Geno Smith. Brees Hall is a top five running back in the NFL. Whether
10:46you
10:46are safety over the top or a linebacker, you have to respect, you have to honor the run fake because
10:52if 20, if Brees the beast gets the rock and you're still at 12, 15 yards in the defensive secondary
11:03at
11:04safety, when he hits that line of scrimmage and breaks through the second and third line,
11:08you're going to have a terrible angle trying to tackle Brees Hall. So you have to honor that run fake.
11:17Great ball here. Great catch. Hey, way to get down. No need to take a hit. Oh, does he secure
11:23the catch?
11:23He secures it.
11:26Expect to see a lot of these sets. 12 personnel. Again, one running back, two tight ends. Heavy run
11:33formations. Geno Smith ran this formation a lot out there in Seattle because they had a running game
11:42to go along with, you know, JSN and Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf, you know, on the outside, on the
11:49perimeter. So let's watch the play. Deep crosser route right here by Garrett Wilson from a tight
11:55split. Aaron Rodgers, play fake. Boom. Put it right on the chest. Get upfield. Make something happen.
12:02Let's go watch the play. Let's go watch it and then we'll break it down from the other angle
12:07as well. First, let's see what the, let's see what the run action, what the play action does
12:13to this, to this area. All right. We're taught right here as receivers running this deep crossing
12:19route. We're taught to climb, get inside, go heavy, force the inside release, get vertical,
12:28get over top of these backers from about 12 to 15 or 15 to 18. It all depends on what
12:35the route scheme
12:36concept philosophy calls for. But what I was taught in the league is 15 to 18 and then find your
12:43space,
12:44find your window and run, run, run, run, run, especially versus man to man. So what we see here,
12:53boom, gets a little hesitation release at the line of scrimmage, gets, does a great job of getting hands
13:00on into that inside arm. So he can now, it makes it easier for him to get that handoff and
13:06force and
13:07get vertical on the inside release to get, to start getting his depth. You see that here, handoff.
13:14Now you see him try and go square and get vertical. Now what he's doing is you'll see his defender
13:22on
13:22the ground here. He actually used his defender. He used another defender as a natural pick to get open
13:31and we'll see it on the, on the other angle. Smart route running, route savvy. So here,
13:37watch what the play action does. You see the Mike Backer there automatically steps up, takes that
13:43hesitation. And what that allows us to do is that gives us those extra, you know, three to five,
13:50three to seven yards of space behind this backer in between these safeties for us to get our depth.
13:59We want to run this route with depth because we want this to time up. It's not like a regular
14:05shallow cross or a regular deep or regular cross to where you just take one step and you're three to
14:11five yards from the line of scrimmage. No, you want to get upfield, you want to get vertical, and then
14:17you run a, you want to run like hell across the field to get into your space. 18 to 22
14:24yards,
14:25somewhere plus from hash to, to STD for the middle, STD meaning split the difference from the hash to
14:33numbers on the other side of the football field. So now you see this backer, as soon as he sees
14:39that
14:39it's run action, what's he going to do? He looks for work. We call that getting busy, looking for work.
14:45And he sees Garrett Wilson now coming inside. What Garrett does here is you see him lean
14:53on this corner a little bit. Ideally, we want to get more depth here, get vertical so we can get
14:59over top of this Mike backer right here, but he didn't have the cleanest release and he's getting
15:06his width as he's getting his depth. That's the way he likes to run it. Hey, that's the way he
15:12likes
15:12to run it. He won. He won on the route. So now understanding that a lot of times if we're
15:18within that five yard radius, this linebacker could get hands on, can collision with us.
15:24But he sees that this backer is heading him up, trying to wall him off. So he uses
15:32this guy as a natural pick or rub to run cleanly into his defender.
15:43Route savvy. Because usually you see on these mesh routes, you see us run or the mesh or the pick
15:52come
15:52from our own guy. Anytime you see any sort of collision, there's an offensive passive appearance
15:58called OPI. But here, because of his own guy running into him and Garrett Wilson getting
16:05to his spot, his space, that frees him up, opens him up, big play down the football field.
16:12All right. Lastly, this one came from 2025. There's Justin Fields here. Again, it was same
16:20kind of tight split. The play got cut off here. Same kind of tight split, same kind of deep over,
16:26deep crossing route here. Same thing he just ran, but different quarterback. First play of the season
16:35in 2025. See him gain his depth there. He goes over the top. Justin Fields drops a bucket.
16:46Route runner. He is a route runner. And I think that he is going to break into a new class
16:51or new
16:51tier of wide receivers this year. And look, I'm well aware that a new quarterback plus a new
16:57offensive coordinator doesn't automatically equal a breakout season. Yes, I know. Gino's 36. Frank
17:05Reich was fired mid-season and back-to-back jobs and the offensive line still has to hold up. But
17:11you
17:11just saw the tape. Garrett Wilson is at his best when he's running routes off of play action. And if
17:17Gino and Frank cook and they do their jobs, G5 is going to eat. It's as simple as that.
17:24Last season in 2025, he dealt with a knee injury and that ended his season and it was shortened to
17:32seven games. He still had 36 catches on 54 targets for 395 yards and four touchdowns and posted a 72
17:40.1
17:41PFF receiving grade. That graded him out at 72.1 with a PFF receiving grade and still graded top 35
17:50and a half season on a bottom-tier passing offense with no disrespect, Justin Fields as his quarterback,
17:59Tanner Engstrand as his offensive coordinator, and a tight end and running back as the team's top two
18:05leaders in catches. The Jets have always had a running game with Brees Hall and they now have some
18:12weapons within the offense that should help take the focus off of Garrett Wilson. And you better believe
18:19G5 is going to capitalize off that.
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