Well, that is surprising.
The New York Jets announced their inactives 90 minutes before kickoff against the Miami Dolphins in Week 7, and there was an eyebrow-raising name on the list: Jarvis Brownlee Jr.
“Brownlee a surprise inactive. He was pulled late in last week’s game in favor of rookie D’Angelo Ponds, who figures to take over the nickel role,” ESPN’s Rich Cimini responded on X.
Punishment?
The Jets had nine players listed on the final injury report before the Dolphins game. Brownlee wasn’t one of them. So that means he is a healthy scratch for this contest.
Brownlee, 25, has appeared in all six games so far this season and has made three starts. With those opportunities, he has registered a sack, 14 total tackles, two tackles for loss, and a quarterback hit. He has appeared in 61% of the defensive snaps so far this season, per Pro Football Reference.
So what gives?
During the Week 6 loss to the New England Patriots, there was a broken play in the red zone that resulted in a wide-open Hunter Henry touchdown. After that play, Brownlee didn’t appear to play another snap on defense.
On Friday, October 23, head coach Aaron Glenn was asked if Brownlee was benched.
“He wasn’t out of the game after that. He actually continued to play. The thing is, we have packages for Brownlee and D-Lo (D’Angelo Ponds) to be in the game. So no, both of those guys will play. Neither of those guys have injury concerns at all. So, just suspect that both of those guys are on the field,” Glenn responded.
The media member then followed up by asking if they’re trying to find more ways to get Ponds on the field.
“Absolutely. That’s any good player on our team. Like I said, Brandon Stephens has been playing well, AZ (Azareye’h Thomas) has been playing well, Brownlee has been playing well. Now we just have to find ways, creative ways, to get D-Lo a part of it and we have been doing that. We just want to continue to do that,” Glenn said.
The Rest of the Inactive List for the Jets
Brownlee was one of seven players ruled inactive for this contest. Here were the other six:
- Running back Breece Hall
- Pass rusher Joseph Ossai
- Offensive lineman Max Mitchell
- Running back Kene Nwangwu
- Defensive lineman Jack Heflin
- Offensive lineman Dylan Parham
The three players who were questionable were all ruled out. Hall, Parham, and Nwangwu were close but no cigar. Instead, those players will get an extra week of rest and prepare to play in the Week 8 home contest against the Las Vegas Raiders.
That means another week of Braelon Allen being the RB1 for the squad. Quite frankly, he has thrived in that role for the Jets. It’ll be an interesting challenge to see how Frank Reich chooses to split the workload between Hall and Allen, but we’ll have to delay that potential conversation until at least next week.
Jets Surprisingly Rule out Starter Moments Before Dolphins Game