As a matter of opinion I think he’s tops,
My opinion is he’s the cream of the crop;
As a matter of taste to be exact he’s my ideal as a matter of fact.
— “My Guy” lyrics by Smokey Robinson, sung by Mary Wells
The Situation
My guy Jeff Janis will gain his freedom on March 14 – the day unrestricted free agents can execute a contract with a new club. Mike McCarthy, though he needs receivers in the worst way, has done everything within his power to ruin Janis’ career.
If you don’t already know what I think of Janis, I made my case long ago that he’s the most athletic wide receiver to ever go through the NFL Combine – yes, EVER.
The Packers have for four years utterly squandered a remarkable athlete and playmaker. And don’t try to tell me that two catches in each of the last two years was giving him a fair opportunity. Fly away Jeff – there are those who are not blind to your talents.
At least a half-dozen teams should be pursuing Janis – big, speedy, agile receivers aren’t as common as you might think. Janis is a four-year veteran, and he’s entering his physical prime. He is also durable – his only injuries have been broken fingers in high school and in 2016. This, despite being a rugged special teams gunner for three years.
The topper: he’s likely to be available at a rock-bottom price. I really don’t know how a team could lose: for $2-3 million per year. The Packers signed Ricky Jean Francois for $3 million last year. The very worst scenario is that a team would acquire a reliable and versatile receiver who doubles as a special teams talent. Acquiring Janis is a risk-free venture.
If that’s not enough, he’s a fine man, husband, father, and teammate.
Teams Needing Janis
A blog found at thesportsster.com rated each NFL team’s No. 1 wide receiver during 2017. This should be a good resource for predicting where Janis might be playing in 2018. Here are some possibilities:
[table id=16 /]
Other possibilities: Chiefs, Tyreek Hill; Seahawks, Doug Baldwin; and Cardinals, Larry Fitzgerald. Hill is a whippet, Baldwin is small and slow, and Fitzgerald has to be nearing retirement.
My No. 1 pick: Chicago Bears. Kendall Wright, at 185 pounds, has regressed in his six years in the league. Playing in every game last year for his new team, he was a disappointment, and caught only one TD pass. No one else on the Bears had more than 376 yards receiving last season. This would be a mutually beneficial deal, as QB Mitchell Trubisky should start justifying his second overall draft pick status as soon as he gets a talented receiver. And won’t Janis be psyched when he lines up opposite Mike McCarthy’s team twice a year?
No. 2: 49ers. Marquise Goodwin caught only 53 percent of his targets. Janis is six inches taller and 41 pounds heavier than the mini-speedster. The 49ers next best wide receivers are Pierre Garcon and Trent Taylor – neither had over 500 yards last season. Jimmy Garoppolo and Janis: made in heaven!
No. 3: Browns. Ricardo Louis, with a 44 percent catch ratio, is strikingly unproductive – he creates little separation. Josh Gordon is explosive, but off-field issues make him unreliable and high-risk. Duke Johnson, a running back/receiver who never started a game last year, is only 5’9” tall, but had fine run and receiving statistics in 2017.
No. 4: Seahawks. It’s not on the above chart, but Seattle lacks receiver speed, other than Paul Richardson – a 183-pounder. Doug Baldwin is a fine receiver but he’s slow, light (189), and he’ll be 30 in September. Janis is effective at getting open on broken plays – which matches up well with Russell Wilson’s style.
No. 5: Jaguars. Allen Hurns, undrafted in 2014, is considered by someone I follow as one of the most overrated players in the league. He’s Jacksonville’s Randall Cobb, having signed a four-year $40 million extension in 2016. His three-cone drill time is in the eighth percentile; vertical jump, seventh; 20-yard shuttle, third. He has also missed 11 games in the last two years. Allen Robinson will be coming back from an ACL injury, however. Releasing Hurns and signing Janis would be an upgrade and would save the Jags around $8 million per year.
Rag on me all you want, but it won’t phase me, because:
Nothing you could say could tear me away from my guy, (My guy)
Nothing you could do ’cause I’m stuck like glue to my guy. (My guy)
I’m sticking to my guy like a stamp to a letter,
Like birds of a feather we stick together,
I’m tellin’ you from the start I can’t be torn apart from my guy.
Oh man. I can’t wait to see what happens next year
Hell, i can’t wait to see what happens this year.
He will be freed just like Jared Abradarus (spelling?) was. Someone picked him up for a year, he showed nothing more than he did with the Packers and now he’s out of the league.
Yea, i’m not digging the hate that McCarthy has over some players. Rob thought this one out well, and i agree 100%. McCarthy has clearly spent the last 4 years obsessed with derailing Janis’s career. Nothing has ever been so clear to me.
Janis and his agent have kept quiet about it all these years like good soldiers, even though they knew McCarthy’s goal was to ruin Janis.
McCarthy wouldn’t know great football players if they fell on his head. Guys like Janis and now Hundley. Yea, i said it….he ruined Hundleys career also. He wouldn’t open up the offense for Hundley to soar. It wasn’t that he knew that Hundley can’t throw long, or that he’ll throw a lot of picks. He just hates Hundley, just like he hates Janis.
Maybe it’s just me, but i look at Janis’s combine metrics, and all i see is a white Julio Jones. Janis should have been to at least 3 Pro Bowls by now. Also signing a free agent deal of 6 year, 84 million dollar contract this spring. But it isn’t to be…..McCarthy saw to it.
Same with Hundley, have any of you seen this guy move? He has the feet of a dancer, an arm like a cannon, and the pinpoint accuracy of a sniper. But McCarthy wouldn’t let him show it, because he hates him. Then i watch his 2015 pre-season and all i can do is scream out…CAN’T MISS!!….But McCarthy wasn’t having any of it, otherwise Hundley would be signing a 5 year, 137,500.000 contract. Yes, i believe that, lets not bullshit ourselves.
All because McCarthy is committed to ruining the careers of future H O F young football players out of hatred.
How’d i do Rob?
Lol. McCarthy being the “arrogant genius” that he is would have wanted to make Janis (and by extension his offense) look as good as possible and if Janis would have helped in that regard, he would have put him on the field. While the team has let defenders go in recent years that have shined with other teams, the same can’t be said with offensive players. I think if the offensive players could contribute consistently, they would have shown it in McCarthy’s system/playing with Aaron fucking Rodgers. Anyone remember that UFA wide receiver the packers had a while back that did nothing anywhere else after the packers let him go? He had one decent season with the team. Boykin?
The look on McCarthy’s face after Janis catches winning touchdown for Bears against Pack.
Priceless.
Yep . . .
I look forward to Janis being a star somewhere else.
I look forward to watching McCarthy be a success without Aaron Rodgers.
Looks like were both going to be disappointed.
Fast legs and no elusiveness and below average catching.
Janis is just a sprinter. Nothing more.
I have NEVER understood the veiled contempt for Janis from some of the people that post here. First, there is NO comparison to Hundley. Janis WHEN GIVEN THE CHANCE and actually fucking targeted, caught the fucking ball, then ran with it and usually gained yardage. Hundley just continued to shit the bed . . . When did Janis ever shit the bed with his FEW opportunities? Let me answer that for the not so quick to figure this out . . . NEVER. His completion percentage was good and his YAC was decent. For some reason (which to me is quite obvious) the Buffoon did not play Janis enough to find out, nor did Buffoon ever design plays to utilize Janis’ skill set. Simple really, so why the lack of respect for someone who was never really given the chance? Oh! sorry! he was for one game in the playoff’s (because that fucking Buffoon had to) what did Janis do with that opportunity? He tore the fucking place up. Let that soak in for a while . . . McCarthy plays favorites (like a weak H.S. coach) he has always played his favorite’s. This will NOT change until this charlatan of a coach is given his walking papers.
Thanks for saying all that for me. We are definitely on the same page,now if we could get the other moronic people on this site to look at the book we are reading maybe we could band together and elicit change
Lighten up Francis, don’t confuse sarcasm and attempted comedy as contempt. Kato got it.
It’s not about contempt towards Janis, he’s probably a cool guy, it’s not about that. A lot of people that get paid generously for a living to make those decisions, don’t think Janis has what it takes (it’s not just McCarthy). As a matter of fact even more people didn’t think he was draftable. Now they could all be wrong, and a few bloggers are right. But i fucking doubt it
Just relax, Janis will go on to shine for another team.
Be happy for him.
We need to remember Janis was 20 picks away from being an undrafted free agent. Several teams passed over Janis multiple times. There was a reason Janis was almost an undrafted free agent.
With that said I think Janis may do better away from a west coast offense. Janis does have some athletic skills, but I don’t believe Janis could read the defense well enough to make proper route adjustments. With the QB, in many instances, having to deliver a ball before a receiver makes his cut the receiver needs to be in the correct spot.
I think Janis would do better in a passing attack that is more down field and not so much timing, and route adjustment based.
When I think of Janis as a receiver, Devin Hester comes to mind. Even though Cutler needed no help looking bad, Hester would run some routes that would put Hester no where near the correct route dictated. It would appear Cutler was way off, but really Hester was way off. Most of those passes were deep throws so it did not hurt. With quick timing routes as the Packers run those can be pick 6’s.
This. Being a world class athlete doesn’t make you good at football.
You know Howard, after reading this, maybe having to work with Hundley stunted his growth. I mean none of the receivers looked good while that clown was running the offense. 3 years of Hundley and it’s hard to see who wouldn’t regress! Haha!
Good point. Just think how it probably effected the No.1 Packer pass defense (#32 in NFL, IMHO) over the last 3 years preparing for the upcoming opponent against the scout team led by Hundley. All the more reason to do everything within your power as the GM to put the best 53 possible on your roster. Once the season starts your 53rd best player is potentially trying to do his best to prepare your # 1 player for the upcoming opponent.
Or maybe the Packer #1 defense caused Hundley to regress. Either way it had to look like the keystone cops with Hundley running the scout team against the packer #1 pass D. It may have created some of the over confidence that MM showed in Hundley.
Face it, we are never going to see Janis flourish in Green Bay under McCarthy. I happen to think he wasn’t given a fair shake but whatever. Shitty route running or whatever the issue, it will not happen for him in Green Bay, if ever. There are more pressing issues at this point. If he leaves I wish the guy well regardless.
Doesn’t change the fact McCarthy DOES have a doghouse. Yeah I know that is contrary to the narrative that McCarthy is an idiot with everything else. We can accept that McCarthy is a sub par coach without Rodgers yet when it comes to playing the best players, then he is a fucking genius and would never jeopardize the Packers winning by doing anything stupid utilizing his players. Hundley vs. Callahan? At least see what you got for the future but no! I got 3 years invested in this tool so I am gonna live and die by this clown. Remember running back by committee? Until Mays fumbled, Montgomery, Williams, and Jones were all assorted ball carriers, right up until McCarthy was down to Mays and Williams. Then it was the Williams show exclusively. Kinda like Trevor Davis in 2016.
I’m looking forward to next season when McCarthy is still making excuses that he doesn’t have the right players, and will potentially throw Thompson under the bus for any holdovers. This new power structure will serve McCarthy’s massive ego to a T.
Well stated.