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The Jets have a couple of standout players on offense and a handful on defense.
The Chargers and Jets will face off on Monday night, a game crucial to Los Angeles as they look to get back into the thick of the playoff race in the AFC.
They meet a New York team that has some players that could pose a challenge for the Bolts.
Plenty of questions about the Jets’ 53-man roster remain entering the regular season.
The Jets trimmed their roster to 53 players and filled out their practice squad earlier this week, but New York’s post-preseason personnel moves do not come without questions.
Whether it’s who starts where or what the depth at a certain position looks like, plenty of talking points remain ahead of the regular season. The Jets have a roster littered with youth and unproven players, which prompts more questions than arguably any other team in the NFL.
With that being said, let’s take a look at six of the biggest questions surrounding New York’s current 53-man roster before Week 1 and how those questions could be answered.
The Jets have already made a pair of waiver wire pickups, including Quinnen Williams’ brother. Keep track of Gang Green’s claims here:
With the waiver claims deadline nearing, the Jets have begun fine-tuning their roster after trimming down from 80 to 53 players. Other teams, meanwhile, have claimed some of their cuts in hopes of turning Gang Green’s trash into their treasure.
The Jets are second in the waiver priority order, giving Joe Douglas prime real estate to infuse New York’s roster with talent ahead of the regular season.
Here you can find a real-time, running list of Gang Green’s waiver wire pickups. Outgoing players who the Jets cut are also included.
Former Georgia WR cut by New York Jets
With the deadline for NFL teams to trim their rosters to 53 players coming on Tuesday at 4 p.m., tough decisions are being made by franchises across the league.
Former Georgia wide receiver Lawrence Cager learned that the hard way on Monday when he was cut by the New York Jets.
He was signed by the Jets as an undrafted free agent in May 2020 and was a member of their practice squad after being waived by the team. Cager signing to the Jets’ practice squad once again could be a likely a destination for the former Bulldog.
Cager played one season for the Bulldogs after transferring from Miami. Cager was plagued with injuries throughout his collegiate career. He received medical redshirt after a season-ending injury before fall camp in 2016 and suffered multiple ankle injuries in 2019 with Georgia.
Despite the injuries, Cager helped lead the bulldogs to their third straight SEC Championship. He was second on the team in receptions (33) and receiving yards (476) behind George Pickens. Cager also caught four touchdowns for the Dawgs, all this in just 9 of 14 games in 2019.
Cager was unable to compete during the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine after undergoing ankle surgery a few months earlier.
The Jets are ranked 32nd in USA TODAY’s NFL power rankings at the midway point of the season.
The Jets are at the halfway point of their season and their 0-8 record isn’t helping them move up in USA TODAY’s NFL Power Rankings.
New York is ranked 32nd for yet another week following its 35-9 loss to the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs. Inside the AFC East, the Bills are ranked ninth, the Dolphins are ranked 14th and the Patriots are ranked 25th.
Prior to the deadline, the Jets traded their best inside linebacker, Avery Williamson, for a 2022 fifth-round draft pick. While the Jets didn’t make any trades after that, it’s pretty clear that they are focused on their draft picks over the next couple of years.
As for the rest of this season, the remaining Jets have eight games to prove why they should stick around next season. The Jets only have 35 players on under contract next season, so these remaining games could determine who Joe Douglas wants to bring back in 2021.
The Jets also don’t want to go down as one of the worst team’s in NFL history. The 2008 Detroit Lions and the 2017 Cleveland Browns are the only two teams in NFL history to finish with an 0-16 record. New York is halfway there at 0-8 and there is a growing sense that they will join the list.
As for the other end of the spectrum, the Steelers, Chiefs, Seahawks, Bucs and Ravens rounded out the top five in the power rankings.
Avery Williamson doesn’t think any player is safe on the Jets after Le’Veon Bell’s release.
After Le’Veon Bell’s release on Tuesday, Avery Williamson understands that no player’s job is secure.
Williamson was asked by reporters on Thursday what kind of message Bell’s release sends to the rest of the Jets. Williamson said that “no one is safe” after Bell was let go, per ESPN’s Rich Cimini.
Adam Gase was asked about Williamson’s comment on Friday. Per SNY, the head coach responded by saying, “If that’s what he thinks, that’s what it is. He’s just being honest with you.”
Gase went on to say that every day should be a competition for players and coaches and that they’re all fighting for their jobs. However, Bell’s sudden release left a lot of Jets players surprised.
Bell left after expressing frustrations with his lack of involvement in the offense, and Gase — his fault or not — has a reputation for clashing with players. That has been a theme since his days in Miami.
With an 0-5 record to start the season, it’s hard to see how cutting Bell makes the Jets more competitive. Frank Gore and La’Mical Perine will lead the backfield now, starting with New York’s Week 6 matchup against the Dolphins.
Bell, meanwhile, has joined the Super Bowl reigning champs, the Chiefs, and is in pursuit of his own ring.
The Jets placed five players on injured reserve to make room for Josh Andrews, Daniel Brown, Nate Hairston and Matthias Farley.
One day after releasing them in order to get their roster down to 53 players, the Jets signed offensive lineman Josh Andrews, tight end Daniel Brown, safety Matthias Farley, cornerback Nate Hairston and back to the team’s active roster on Monday.
In order to make room for Andrews, Brown, Farley and Hairston, New York placed offensive lineman Cameron Clark (shoulder/knee), linebacker Patrick Onwuasor (knee), wide receivers Jeff Smith (shoulder) and Vyncint Smith (core muscle surgery), and defensive lineman/outside linebacker Jabari Zuniga (quad) on injured reserve.
With the new injured reserve rules in place, players are allowed to return to practice after three weeks of being on the shelf, which would make them eligible for a Week 4 return. Getting back some reinforcements at wide receiver in Week 4 could be a crucial boost for the Jets as they have a short week with a Thursday Night Football matchup against the Broncos.
Both Smith’s showed flashes of promise throughout training camp, but also fell victim to the barrage of injuries that decimated the wide receiver room. Between injuries to both Breshad Perriman and Denzel Mims and both Braxton Berrios and Jamison Crowder banged up, New York may have to rely on both undrafted free agent wideouts to play some significant snaps early in the year.
Onwuasor sustained a non-contact knee injury in training camp, but doesn’t have any ligament damage. He’s out 4-5 weeks and for the time being, leaves the Jets thin at inside linebacker with only three players — Avery Williamson, Blake Cahsman and Neville Hewittt — that remain healthy. Zuniga, New York’s third-round pick out of Florida missed the majority of training camp dealing with a quad injury. Clark, a fourth-round pick out of Charlotte, has been banged up with a shoulder and knee injury.
The new rules allow Gang Green to demonstrate some roster flexibility before the start of the season. By placing five players on injured reserve and adding just four, New York has one remaining roster spot to add another depth piece prior to Sunday’s game against the Bills.
Jets Wire breaks down four surprising moves the Jets made during cut weekend.
The Jets were busy at work over the weekend, cutting down their 80-man training camp roster to 53 with the regular season less than a week away.
Throughout the weekend, Adam Gase and Joe Douglas had 27 tough decisions to make. Some were easy, while others likely took hours of deliberation. Some were also downright head-scratching.
With that being said, here are four of the biggest surprises from New York’s weekend of roster moves.
In three years with the Jets, Jonotthan Harrison served as nothing but a reliable offensive lineman who produced when his number was called. That was not enough to save his job, though, as he was among New York’s first round of cuts on Friday night.
The decision to cut Harrison leaves the Jets without a true reserve center and down a leader, one Sam Darnold pinpointed as an invaluable presence in the locker room.
“For the last 2½ years, for lack of a better term, he’s been kind of like an older brother to me, showing me the ropes,” Darnold told ESPN’s Rich Cimini. “It’s been fun, man, watching him come to work every day. He works harder than anyone I know. Jon is an incredible human being, a great leader and a great friend. He understands how much of a business football is. That’s how we both have to look at it, but it does suck.”
New York will undoubtedly miss Harrison on and off the field. It’s tough to argue against Joe Douglas’ reasoning when it comes to offensive line personnel, but this decision is one that leaves plenty of questions.
Jets Wire evaluates the Jets’ projected depth chart after cutting their roster down to 53.
With training camp and the 2020 offseason now in the books, the Jets’ depth chart has somewhat of a new look to it.
New York parted ways with 27 players on Saturday in order to cut its roster down to 53. Some of those players reverted back to the practice squad and have a chance to begin the year on the active roster, while others are now seeking greener pastures elsewhere.
Let’s take a look at how the Jets’ depth chart reads after cut day and some potential changes that could be in store before Week 1.
Note: There are more than 53 players listed below, as the Jets have yet to determine who is going on injured reserve.
Starter: Sam Darnold
Backups: Joe Flacco, James Morgan
Flacco is on the 53-man roster, but will miss New York’s first couple of games as he works his way back from offseason neck surgery. James Morgan is not ready to serve as Sam Darnold’s backup, which leaves practice squad signal-callers David Fales and Mike White duking it out for the No. 2 spot to begin 2020. Fales has the advantage here.
With limited practices and no preseason games, Joe Douglas and Adam Gase will be challenged with evaluating players.
Joe Douglas and Adam Gase will be challenged this training camp with limited practices and no preseason games.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL eliminated all preseason games in 2020. Meanwhile, all 32 teams will have to wait longer than usual before holding on-field practices with contact. So the evaluation period for Douglas and Gase will be a lot different this training camp.
However, Gase had a similar experience with the lockout in 2011 and is confident players can adapt to the given situation.
“We had the lockout year. We never even had any meeting time. It was basically a deal got done, we got thrown on the field the next day,” Gase said, per NJ.com. “Football players, they figure out a way to get it done. They figure out a way to adjust to the situation that’s at hand and that’s what I expect our guys to be able to do. I do think we got the right kind of guys in this locker room that they’re gonna do everything they can to put ourselves in position so once we get rolling in this thing, we’ll be ready to go.”
As for Douglas, he is more worried for the younger players who don’t have a lot of on-field NFL experience. He said the virtual meetings have been going well, but there’s nothing like an NFL practice. So they’re going to have to get up to speed rather quickly.
“It’s a challenge to get young guys on the field,” Douglas said. “The feedback has been outstanding, regarding our virtual meetings with the rookies and the entire team throughout the spring, but obviously you can’t duplicate the reps on the field. And so we need to get on the field. We need to build an on-field chemistry, and we need to do that soon.”
All 32 teams are going through the same thing the Jets are, but New York is still trying to figure out its roster outlook. The Jets don’t have a lot of players locked into a certain position. There is going to be a lot of competition at One Jets Drive with so many positions up for grabs.
Without all the reps that the players are usually accustomed to, it’s going to make Douglas and Gase’s jobs that much more difficult when it’s time for roster cuts.
