One of the complaints fans had about the New York Jets offense last season was the general lack of pre-snap movement.
At the time, I thought many of these complaints were likely due to the general ineptitude of the New York Jets offense and that fans had simply focused on one aspect to assign blame. However, a recent statistical breakdown I saw at X supports the notion that the lack of pre-snap movement may have actually been an issue. More specifically, the analysis was done by Jacob Gibbs (@JAGibbs_23 at X), who writes for Fantasy Football Today.
As shown here, passing plays that use both pre-snap motion and play-action outperform plays that use neither or only one of these aspects. Using both produces an expected points added per play of 0.13, which is pretty strong; for those who prefer more traditional stats, the passer rating is 103.8, which is also pretty strong.
While the lack of movement may not have been the only reason for the New York Jets offense’s frustration, it does seem that the use of this movement may have helped at least a little. For the 2024 team, this is a reason to utilize more of these subtleties to maximize passing efficiency.
