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FLIGHT DELAYED: Santonio Holmes, celebrating after a first-quarter touchdown in Sunday’s loss to the Steelers, his former team, has more headlines for his actions off-the-field than his production for the Jets. (
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Santonio Holmes stood in front of his locker Sunday night in Pittsburgh wearing a snarl and a “Tone Time” T-shirt, but it’s been a long time since “Tone Time” was anything more than a catchy alliteration.
The Jets wide receiver scored a touchdown against the Steelers but dropped two passes and vanished after the first quarter.
The 27-10 loss was another disappointing performance from the Jets’ top offensive weapon. For all of the consternation about the Jets quarterbacks, their No. 1 wide receiver is the bigger problem on the offense. Holmes has not had a 100-yard receiving game since Nov. 21, 2010 — a streak of 27 games.
Since that day against the Texans, Holmes has been rewarded with a five-year, $45 million contract by the Jets, got into a feud with quarterback Mark Sanchez, fought with the offensive line and been a drag on the locker room.
All of this has come with the Jets counting on him to be (and paying him like) a No. 1 wide receiver. The $9 million average annual value of his contract makes him the sixth highest-paid receiver in the NFL, ahead of players like Andre Johnson and Roddy White.
But fans would not care what the Jets were paying Holmes if he was producing.
Instead, they have gotten some game-winning catches, but no consistent production. Since Holmes last had 100 yards receiving, wide receivers have hit that mark 228 times (not including the playoffs), including such household names as Ben Obomanu and Andre Roberts.
Sunday’s game was the latest example, with him catching just three of the 11 passes thrown his way for 28 yards.
The Jets would argue that Holmes’ job is not to rack up yards, but to score touchdowns and to force defenses to roll the safety his way, allowing them to run the ball — things they feel he has done well. He has scored 15 touchdowns as a Jet, 13th most in the NFL over that span by a wide receiver. But he’s only scored multiple touchdowns in one game.
There were questions from the day the Jets acquired Holmes from Pittsburgh for a fifth-round pick. The bargain price was a sign that his baggage outweighed his talent in the eyes of the Steelers’ front office.
“Pittsburgh is a good organization,” a league source said. “It was a red flag when they traded him for a bag of snacks.”
Holmes was coming off the best season of his career, catching 79 passes for 1,248 yards in 2009. That season now seems to be the exception, not the rule, though. He has not come close to matching that production as a Jet (see chart).
Pro Football Focus, a website that grades players off film study, ranked Holmes as the 105th best receiver in the NFL last season.
This is not entirely Holmes’ fault. The Jets have not found a No. 2 receiver to complement him since Braylon Edwards in 2010. That leads to defenses rolling the coverage his way. Still, a true No. 1 receiver finds a way to get open. You think defenses don’t double-cover Calvin Johnson or Larry Fitzgerald?
In the Jets’ run-first offense, Holmes sometimes gets forgotten, too. He has been targeted 120 times as Jet — 27th among receivers over that span. That has led to Holmes having more than five receptions just twice since the beginning of last year.
Then there is the Sanchez factor. The duo spent the offseason eating sushi and playing catch in an effort to patch up what was clearly a messy relationship last season. Former teammate LaDainian Tomlinson recently told NBC that Sanchez and Holmes did not speak after a Week 3 loss in Oakland last year.
Everyone swears the duo is more on the same page this season, but it did not look like it Sunday in Pittsburgh. Sanchez badly missed Holmes a few times, leading to body language from the receiver that screamed exasperation.
“I wonder if [Sanchez] really trusts [Holmes], and if [Holmes] trusts [Sanchez],” one league source said. “I just don’t see that consistency between the two in terms of feel and instinctive connection.”
It’s up to those two to make it work. Holmes’ $7.5 million salary for 2013 is already guaranteed, meaning he’s not going anywhere this offseason.
This week, he returns to Miami where, eight months ago, he was held without a catch for the first time in his career, leading to him fighting with teammates and getting benched for the final two minutes of the season-ending loss.
The lasting image from that day is Holmes sitting on the bench. Sunday, the Jets need “Tone Time” to mean touchdowns, not tantrums.
Wildcat key to Sparano’s Miami revenge
The Jets use of Tim Tebow has fueled a lot of talk this week. After playing just three snaps in Pittsburgh, the question has become: When are the Jets going to let the Wildcat loose?
In some league circles, the theory is it will come this week. Jets offensive coordinator Tony Sparano is returning to Miami, where he was fired as Dolphins head coach in the middle of last season. People who know Sparano say he holds a grudge against Dolphins management for the way things ended, and desperately wants to take it out on them this week.
Sparano never says the words “Miami” or “Dolphins” when he speaks about his nearly four years as head coach. He always says “that other place,” as in “when I was in that other place.”
It would be sweet revenge for Sparano to unleash Tebow and the Wildcat in the stadium where he first wowed the league with the formation in front of Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, the man who fired him.
You can bet Rex Ryan will go along with whatever Sparano has planned. Ryan is the one who makes players game captains when they face their former teams.
It seemed odd for the Jets to hold back on the Wildcat Sunday when the offense was struggling in Pittsburgh. It was almost like Sparano was saving it for something.
Revenge, perhaps?