Asked if he could explain Cromartie’s volatility, the team’s defensive coordinator, Mike Pettine, let out a sigh.
“It could be a horoscope thing,” Pettine said. “I’m at a loss. I think we’re all searching for that answer.”
The Jets have searched and searched and searched. And discussed and discussed and discussed, brainstorming how to maximize their return on Cromartie, their $32 million enigma. Their coaches find themselves awestruck by his athleticism and talent but stupefied by his mental lapses and maddening inconsistency, often on the same series.
Ultimately, his unpredictability — two touchdowns allowed in Week 1 against Dallas, two interceptions in Week 2 against Jacksonville, four penalties in Week 3 against Oakland — has prompted the Jets to adapt their defensive strategy, accounting for those game days when Pettine calls down to Dennis Thurman, the secondary coach, and says: “Which Cro do we got today? The good Cro, or do we got the bad Cro?”
On days the good Cro appears, unicorns prance and cats and dogs live in harmony, at least in the Jets’ world. That is when they feature perhaps the most fearsome cornerback tandem in the N.F.L., with Cromartie teaming with Darrelle Revis to eliminate vast areas of the field with their shutdown skills. This has happened before. The Jets have seen it, and they want to see more of it.
On days the bad Cro surfaces, he cannot keep his mind — and his physical gifts — in check. In effect, he becomes a walking Hitchcock film — “The Man Who Knew Too Much.” At least, that is Thurman’s theory: Cromartie absorbs so much information about his opponent that his brain races, computing receivers’ tendencies, release patterns and route combinations so quickly that he tries to remember everything on every play.
“It’s anxiety of getting ahead of himself,” Thurman said. “It’s not that the game’s moving too fast for him. He’s moving too fast for the game.”
The distinction becomes more apparent to Thurman after Cromartie has returned to the sideline, explaining a coverage breakdown or a missed read. It last happened during the third quarter of the Jets’ Oct. 9 game at New England, when Cromartie peeked inside just as his assigned receiver, Deion Branch, moved outside to catch a touchdown pass. Cromartie walked directly toward Thurman and told him what he did not do, what he should have done and how he would correct the mistake, reciting the phrase that Thurman always tells him, “Keep your eyes on your work.”
“The play was over; he was in a relaxed state and could recognize everything,” Thurman said. “But he gets so geeked up, his adrenaline gets flowing, and he tries to use all of the God-given talent he has. He could be running with a receiver at top speed, and I’m like, ‘Cro, this guy will never, ever outrun you, so use your speed when you really need it.’ He doesn’t have to run at the highest R.P.M. level every play.”
On those plays, Cromartie often finds himself too far downfield, giving receivers a sizable cushion to make a catch. Thurman has urged Cromartie to slow down, to use his speed in a more positive way. In their conversations, Thurman often invokes Michael Jordan. Like Cromartie is on the field, Jordan was often the most physically gifted player on the basketball court. But he also performed at a steady, controlled pace, attuned to when he needed to do to use his quickness, his length and his strength.
Such a realization has been years in the making for Cromartie, who could always lean on his athletic ability at Florida State when he lacked technique, a luxury he no longer has. He stays late at the Jets’ facility to dissect opponents’ tendencies, a skill he sharpened under Kevin Ross’s tutelage in San Diego.
“Dude’s always studying film,” Revis said. “Sometimes, he tells me to look out for this, look out for that, and I’m like, ‘Whoa, how did you see that?’ ”
The week before the Jets played New England, Cromartie analyzed every play from his first four games and graded himself on elements like footwork and hand placement, which emerged as a focal point of his off-season training. During the lockout, he often spoke with his college position coach, James Colzie, about using his long arms and hands to disrupt receivers’ timing more at the line of scrimmage.
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