Elijah Riley had Joe Douglas’ attention long before he became a Jet.
Robert Saleh said Wednesday that Riley, who has quietly been one of the Jets’ most productive defensive backs the last two weeks, first caught Douglas’ eye last season. Riley was with the Eagles at the time, though, and Douglas was unable to bring him to New York.
Riley remained on Douglas’ mind as time went on. When the Jets’ secondary depth took a major hit with the loss of Marcus Maye to a season-ending Achilles injury, the GM pounced. Douglas signed Riley off Philadelphia’s practice squad on Nov. 9. Less than a month later, he is making his case to be part of New York’s plans beyond 2021.
“I guess he was trying to poach him last year, so obviously there’s a liking from a year ago from an evaluation standpoint,” Saleh said.
Riley has played 109 defensive snaps in two starts with the Jets, registering 11 tackles and a key TFL against the Texans last weekend. The Long Island native earned a 76.1 Pro Football Focus grade against Houston with strong play in coverage and run support.
New York was looking for someone to step up after Maye went down and Riley has unexpectedly been the one to pick up his slack. Two games is obviously a small sample size, but the Army product has shown enough to impress his head coach and a general manager who has had high hopes for him for a while.
“He is a very smart young man, he can process very quickly, he does a great job communicating pre and post-snap,” Saleh said Tuesday. He’s a hair-trigger type player in that when he sees it, he is 100 miles an hour with the ball. But he’s very accurate when he does see it.
“He’s been impressive in these first three weeks and we’re excited to see him grow over these next six weeks to see what he can make out of this season.”
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