The Jets made a few rosters moves ahead of their Week 18 game against the New England Patriots.
The team placed three players — quarterback Zach Wilson, tight end Jeremy Ruckert and offensive lineman Jake Hanson — on injured reserve. With only one game left and the team not going to the playoffs, the Jets are able to free up room on the active roster to bring up players and get a head start on the reserve/future deals. At this point, it’s just a matter of time before the next move involving Wilson is him moving to another team.
The Jets signed running back Xazavian Valladay, linebacker Marcelino McCrary-Bal, offensive lineman Chris Glaser and defensive lineman Bruce Hector from the practice squad to the active roster.
As referenced earlier, the Jets get ahead of the game by adding these players to the active roster and being able to keep them going into the offseason, getting a jump on the reserve/future deals by not having to worry about those contracts with these players since they will at least now have contracts that run through March. Players on the practice squad immediately become free after the season as practice squads for the season cease to exist when the season is over.
The Jets also elevated two players from the practice squad and, unsurprisingly, one of those players was fullback Nick Bawden. Head coach Robert Saleh mentioned when the team activated Aaron Rodgers that they had roster flexibility. That worked out with Bawden. There were three games left at the time and a player can be elevated three times from the practice squad. That’s exactly what happened with Bawden. He also didn’t lose any money because his contract became guaranteed in Week 1 as a vested veteran.
The other player elevated was kicker Austin Siebert. This one is interesting because Greg Zuerlein wasn’t on the injury report so it will be interesting to see how the Jets play the kicking game with two kickers now on the 55-man roster.