Jake T.

[lsz]

I will do a deep dive on the decline of Jake’s stats over the last 7 years for those of who you still believe he has something valuable to offer the team.

2018:
Averaged 135m per game, 97% tackle efficiency. 7 tries, 14 offloads, 22 tackle breaks for the season.

2019:
Averaged 122m per game, 97% tackle efficiency. 2 tries, 9 offloads, 11 tackle breaks for the season.

2020:
Averaged 117m per game, 97% tackle efficiency. 2 tries, 7 offloads, 9 tackle breaks for the season.

2021:
Averaged 109m per game, 97% tackle efficiency. 3 tries, 1 offloads, 9 tackle breaks for the season.

2022:
Averaged 87m per game, 96% tackle efficiency. 1 try, 2 offloads, 3 tackle breaks for the season.

2023: Averaged 96m per game, 96% tackle efficiency. 1 try, 1 offloads, 3 tackle breaks for the season.

2024: Averaged 72m per game, 95% tackle efficiency. 2 tries, 3 offloads, 4 tackle breaks for the season.

2025: Averaging 56m per game, 94% tackle efficiency. 0 tries, 1 offload, 0 tackle breaks for the season.

Jake’s on $950k a year and is offering next to no impact. His steady decline over the last 5 seasons is obvious, but the last 2 years have been the steepest drop-off by far. Add in 3 serious head knocks in his last 12 games since the Roosters semi, and there’s no justification for keeping him past 2026 — even on a heavily discounted contract. I completely acknowledge he is a club legend and all-round great bloke, but based on output alone, he’s the most overpaid player in the comp. Re-signing him would be plain stupidity, and be a complete waste of a valuable roster spot that may come at the expense of losing a young promising player like Navale. People need to stop living the past, and start looking at the facts.

You might want to include that this year he’s had to leave the field early due to a concussion, which has significantly reduced his game time. For context, over the past four years he averaged between 76–78 minutes per game.


This year, that’s dropped to just 58 minutes.


There’s still a decline in performance, but the metres-per-game stats you're referencing are quite misleading when you consider he’s playing nearly 30% fewer minutes due to the concussion.

 

[aidan]

You might want to include that this year he’s had to leave the field early due to a concussion, which has significantly reduced his game time. For context, over the past four years he averaged between 76–78 minutes per game.


This year, that’s dropped to just 58 minutes.


There’s still a decline in performance, but the metres-per-game stats you're referencing are quite misleading when you consider he’s playing nearly 30% fewer minutes due to the concussion.

And that’s exactly part of the problem. In the past, Jake’s tackling technique was always elite — rarely getting his head in the wrong spot when tackling. Now, he’s had three concussions in his last 12 games. That’s a very telling stat and, to me, indicates even further the decline in his game that I am referring to.

But if we do isolate games where he didn’t leave early due to a head knock, he’s still only averaging 66 metres per game — down from 72m last year. And that number is heavily propped up by a single outlier game (145m in Round 1). He hasn’t cracked 90 metres since.

So even without factoring in the concussions, his impact has dropped. The scary part? He’ll be 33 at the start of the 2027 season, and based on this clear linear decline, it’s very hard to see how he’s contributing meaningfully by then. What do you honestly think he’ll be worth in 18 months? I’d love to know.

 

[CRPSI eagle]

Holiday to Super League for two years with his brother Tom earning $1mil plus each and lift the burden on Manly.

 

[TheSoaringEagle2023]

Holiday to Super League for two years with his brother Tom earning $1mil plus each and lift the burden on Manly.

If they win in England they might even win the first "Brothers of Steel" award.