AD Mitchell Looks like the REAL DEAL! Film Breakdown | Gang's All Here

Have the Jets found their potential wide receiver two of the future? I'm here to break down Adonai Mitchell's film, which was pretty awesome against the Raiders this past week in the Jets' 38-33 loss, but Adonai Mitchell went off. And what was once thought of as a throw-in to the Sauce Gardner trade, Mitchell has shown the ability to be potentially a great wide receiver. And I'm going to break down some of the plays here on that game. I want to start off with this first play of Adonai Mitchell. This was the second drive of the game. And you're going to see A.D. Mitchell is here at the top of the screen facing man coverage. And Geno in the shotgun, and this is what's impressive to me. It's third and ten, right? And he knows I have to complete this pass well over ten yards. And A.D. Mitchell, watch what he does to this corner here on the man coverage. He creates the separation by getting the outside leverage. Knowing the sideline is my friend here. I only have a certain amount of yards here to operate. And watch Geno. He knows one-on-one I'm going to take this battle of A.D. Mitchell against this corner. The safety's in the middle of the field. I have good protection up at the front of the line on a scrimmage. And Geno just delivers a strike. And AD leans on the inside and then works his way to the outside towards the sideline. I love the lean that he shows and the ability, the athletic traits that AD Mitchell had in college when he was at Texas. He leans to the inside, gets to the outside, and that's beautiful separation right there. And again, Geno throws a strike right to him on the sideline. He stays inbounds. Good job by keeping himself. Inbounds, he is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 yards past the first down marker. This ends up going for almost a 17-yard gain. And that to me just shows A.D. Mitchell has the speed and burst to get off the line of scrimmage even versus man coverage and create the separation he needs to when it's tight man coverage like that. Let's go to the next play here. First and 10, second quarter, 14:47 on the clock. The Jets got a tight... Two tight ends split here with a wide receiver here and A.D. Mitchell's at the bottom of the screen. You got Garrett Wilson, single back in Braylon Allen. And right now you see how the Raiders are playing this. What they're doing right now is they're playing single high safety and the corner here is almost, what, seven, eight yards off the line of scrimmage from A.D. Mitchell here. And this is an incomplete pass. It was the big pass. I thought Geno Smith could have completed two, and this could have been a walk-in touchdown, folks. If you watch this play back from the all-22 angle, he has A.D. Mitchell wide open for a monstrous 70-yard touchdown. Now I want you to see how this play develops. They try to put hands on AD only three to four yards off the line of scrimmage from this secondary defender right here. The corner here, number five, he's got outside leverage, and you would think he's got safety help over the top. But since they have Garrett Wilson here, they are playing double coverage with this safety. On this wide receiver and Garrett Wilson with the corner right there. They have three secondary, four actually, secondary level defenders here. And Geno off the play action. He's got time and he's got a clean pocket in front of him. Now watch A.D. Mitchell here at the bottom of the screen. He's got inside leverage. This safety is already bailing from the middle of the field. He knows, Garrett Wilson, I got to get on him. That guy is going to be open. And watch Geno's eyes. He's reading that safety. And A.D. Mitchell, with the speed that we saw in college and that incredible 40 time, this is what's next level. If you're even, you're leaving. And that's what the quarterback, Geno Smith, knows. I got an even wide receiver against one-on-one with that corner. There is no one back here. This linebacker is trying to haul ass back there to try and cover this deep shot of the middle of the field. A.D. Mitchell. This is a one-on-one you want every single day in the NFL. Geno, if he wants, he can throw this ball 40, 50 yards in the air and hit A.D. Mitchell in stride. But unfortunately, Geno, and look how wide open A.D. Mitchell is. If he hits him in stride here, this is a walk-in touchdown. This is the second quarter. This is how much A.D. Mitchell is making a difference already for this passing game. Thank you for coming back, by the way, after that crazy finger injury. But this right here. He underthrows him. AD has to come back to the ball. He has to slow down. And he has to try to make an awesome catch here on the ball that is just so underthrown. And if Geno, again, I'll rewind this back a little bit. If Geno hits him in stride, it's the referee right there. This guy's not making it. And this corner has already lost the one-on-one battle. And Geno just underthrows AD Mitchell here. And he can't come up with the catch. And it's a tough play for you. You're like, ah! If they'd just gotten that, that would have been an amazing 70-yard touchdown, probably, for A.D. Mitchell, and that was the second target of the game for him. Let's go to another third down play. If you're noticing a theme here, Geno went to A.D. Mitchell multiple times on third down. Again, third and long. They're playing behind the sticks now, third and 11. I want you to watch A.D. Mitchell here at the bottom of your screen and the route that he runs. You have a corner right here playing off. Is it zone? Is it man? You have another corner here on the slot. They have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven guys on the line of scrimmage. Against five blockers and one tight end. So they have, and you have their running back. So if you count seven on the line of scrimmage, let's say they send all seven, I only have six to protect Geno Smith. So they have an extra defender. However, it's a sim pressure. They only rush four and they drop back and they're trying to drop out. And what looks like almost like a cover three. But at the end of the day, though, I have A.D. Mitchell one-on-one again because this safety is bailing out. He's got to cover the middle of the field. And it's third and 11. Geno recognizes right away I have a nice clean pocket. I can. Visibly see and read the entire field and how the defense is playing. And watch how Geno makes his read over here to A.D. Mitchell. He reads the safety over the middle. He's got Omar Cooper here. Does he want to take that shot down the seam? Or do I want to try to give a shot again to A.D. Mitchell? And watch the route A.D. Mitchell makes here. He stops on a dime and the ball's already out of Geno's hands. That is next-level chemistry. That's something that you want to see out of your quarterback and wide receiver, especially your wide receiver, too, because we all agree Garrett Wilson's their wide receiver one, but A.D. Mitchell was playing like a wide receiver one against his Raiders secondary. Before he even gets out of his break, the ball is out of Geno's hands. He's made his decision. I know I can layer this throw over this defender here in the mid-region, and then I can get it in between him and this corner trailing over. And the throw is perfect. It's on a dime. Look at this. One, two, here's A.D. Mitchell. Plenty of space between the sideline. And again, layers it in there in the perfect spot for A.D. Mitchell to protect himself, make the catch. Don't worry about trying to get yards after the catch. And this is a third and 11 conversion that goes for almost 20 yards. Again, impressive stuff from Geno and A.D. Mitchell in this game. First and 10. Now, why am I showing you this play? I really think this is important. This is something the Jets were showing on film this past week with Frank Reich calling out of two tight end splits. Again, it's similar to the other play I showed you. You have Garrett Wilson at the top. You have A.D. Mitchell at the bottom of the screen. You have one. You have two tight ends. You got one running back. One running back, two tight end personnel with two wide receivers. The Jets love operating out of this. Now, they were able to run the ball all day long with Braylon Allen. So it allows them to do a lot of things out of this formation. It keeps it tight and close. And he motions A.D. Mitchell to the top of the screen. And if you watch, the corner does not follow. Now, that usually is an indicator. Is it man? Is it zone? That helps the quarterback determine where I'm going with the football and how I'm going to read this defense. The defender does not follow A.D. Mitchell in motion. So now that tells you, hey. That might be zone coverage there. But again, they have another defender here, so they could switch up at the top of the screen. Defenses play split coverages all the time. They could play zone on one side of the field and man on the other. But A.D. Mitchell motions across the formation. This corner does not trail. And now Geno Smith's got his indicator of, okay, here I go. It's play action to the running back. The tight end motions across as an extra blocker. And what I like about this play so much and why I wanted to show you guys is this is stuff that you can do with A.D. Mitchell because of his speed and how much he can attack that defense and be aggressive. So he motions across, and in the act of being already in running-slash-jogging formation, it makes it easier for him to get in and out of his breaks. And you can be aggressive on your route running. And I just love the fact, again, love that Geno has a clean pocket, play action. The defense is trying to honor that. But if you look at this, guys, this is a two-man route downfield. Right now, the Jets have one-two, one tight end blocking. The other tight end came across in motion. This defender's staying home. And this is just a two-man read here for Geno Smith. And you got A.D. Mitchell and Kenyon Sadiq. And watch what he does here. I'm going to take that one-on-one every single time. The defender is trailing a little too back here. I'm going to make a throw in between this zone coverage. And watch this throw for Geno Smith. I mean, and this is something I want you all to pay attention to. Watch what A.D. Mitchell does to this corner. He's got him spinned around. He's got him spun around. And this is a great throw from Geno. I mean, this is a dunk. Puts it right on A.D. Mitchell at the sideline. That's a perfect throw. That's what you saw at West Virginia. That's what you saw at the early days of Geno Smith. Quite an amazing arm. Gets the ball. I mean, if you look at where he threw that ball, I'm going to rewind this back. He's throwing this from the 50, and this is on a dot to this 18-yard line. That's just, and this is across the field. It's a great throw. It's a great catch. Great job by A.D. Mitchell toe-tapping it in. And just a great play design for the Jets. They know they have that ability to motion Mitchell across the formation, get him in a running start, and it really allows him to be aggressive on those routes. And he makes the corner spin around, and he has no idea where he's going with the leverage. Fourth and one. This was the touchdown to A.D. Mitchell. I want you to pay attention here to what the Raiders are doing defensively and how Geno is getting his read. You see that they're playing man, man, man across the formation. Kenyon Cedric is right here, or Mason Taylor, sorry, is tight right here. You got Isaiah Davis in the backfield with Geno. You got four defenders plus another two plus another three. You got seven defenders in the box. But look back here, everyone. This defender's playing up in the box. I got one safety here. I have Adonai Mitchell one-on-one on fourth and one. So what am I going to do if I'm Geno Smith? I'm going to watch this defender. And as he's creeping up, the ball is getting snapped. Oh, I see him. I see him. He's coming up. We're about to snap the ball. I know I have a one-on-one with AD Mitchell on fourth and one. I can take my shot with him in a fade route into the end zone for a touchdown. And again, this is just... Watch this. I mean, I'm not even going to say anything. Watch A.D. Mitchell on this route. Cooks this corner. I mean, look at this. If I'm Geno Smith, he's already seeing they have no safety back here. There's no help. They know I have A.D. Mitchell on a fade route, one-on-one. I'm going to take that shot every single time because of that talent, because of that special route running ability. This is something I don't think the Colts understood with A.D. Mitchell and how to use him. And this is why I think the Jets got a real special wide receiver. This can be an elite wide receiver too for you. If I can do this in the red zone with my one-on-one matchups, I mean, layer in a perfect throw. It was a great play at the time. It was fourth down execution, something the Jets have not been doing well at all this year. It's just a credit to A.D. Mitchell and Geno Smith, the chemistry that those two have developed. Credit to Geno for recognizing that they weren't playing another defender back there in a safety, and it was one-on-one, and I'm taking my fade route with my wide receiver. Now, this last play I'm going to show you for A.D. Mitchell was his best catch of the day. It was fourth quarter, first and ten. The Jets are trailing at this point, and they're playing three wide receiver concept, one tight end, one running back. Geno Smith makes a great decision on this play. You have Garrett Wilson at the bottom of the screen, Omar Cooper at the top, and A.D. Mitchell now is in the slot. He's not on the outside. And watch what the Jets do to make this route concept work. I got A.D. Mitchell getting past this defender. I got Omar Cooper at the top. I got two tight ends back here, and Garrett Wilson has the corner one-on-one here. The Raiders have to honor Garrett Wilson. It's what every defense knows. I cannot let number five beat me. So what has Geno done all day Sunday against the Raiders? He's gone to Adonai Mitchell and called his number. And watch how aggressive Adonai gets on this safety. The route is awesome. He's giving a little outside shimmy, back to the inside, clean pocket for Geno Smith, and he delivers the best ball of the day. And I've shown you some great throws here from Geno Smith today. But watch. He layers it between not one, but two safeties here. And he's like, I'm going to take my guy, A.D. Mitchell, who's been coming up clutch all day today, and layers an insane throw over the defender. I'm going to show you the next angle here from the high-end zone look. But this route from A.D. Mitchell, again, you're talking about where Geno released the ball from this throw. He's releasing it from the 30-yard line. And he completes this pass for well over 40 yards here, almost 50 yards. Almost 60 yards. This was an incredible throw. And A.D. Mitchell comes up with an amazing catch. And I want you guys to see this throw from Geno Smith. There's A.D. Mitchell. He's reading the coverage on the back end with the two safeties. And you know what? He's like, I'm going to get my guy the ball. I mean, guys, look at that. I got the safety trailing here. This safety is trying to get on him. A.D.'s already got the inside leverage. Go make a play, 15. And he's pumped up because he knew I was torching that Raiders secondary all day. A.D. Mitchell ended up with seven catches, 142 yards, and one touchdown. Like I said, this was easily his best game as a New York Jet. And if the Jets can somehow tap into this every single week, you will make this passing attack one of the best in the NFL. The talent's there. The potential is there. It's all a matter of if Geno Smith and Frank Wright can scheme up the touches and targets for A.D. Mitchell. Because we know what Garrett Wilson can do. We've seen how defenses are going to try to take him away. They are constantly putting safeties over the top to try and take him away. We've seen what Omar Cooper has done in back-to-back weeks before this Raiders game, where he can have 100-yard games. The point is, though, when defenses try to honor and double up on Garrett Wilson or try to scheme to take him away, you have the talent in Adonai Mitchell. Omar Cooper and Kenyon Sadiq in this Jets passing attack where any one of them can expose the defense one-on-one. Adonai Mitchell was a throw-in for that Sauce Gardner trade when it first happened. But now we've seen repeated games of This guy can be an elite wide receiver in the NFL, and the talent is real. Now it's up to the Jets to make sure that they continue to go to him game after game, week after week, because I think this guy can take you to the next level as an offense. What do you think, Jets fans, about Adonai Mitchell and what his performance has been this past week against the Raiders and how they can continue to use him the rest of this season? Make sure you hit that like and subscribe button on the New York Post Sports YouTube channel. Follow along all season long for your Jets content here on Gangs All Here. As always, I thank you guys for watching. I'm Ryan Sampson. I'll catch you guys next time.