The New York Jets are going to be thin at the wide receiver position for Week 2.
Over the last calendar week, the Jets have placed rookie Omar Cooper Jr, and veteran Tim Patrick on injured reserve. Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic shared on X that the team will be down to four wide receivers on the 53-man roster:
Only having four wide receivers is a risky move. That doesn’t provide a lot of wiggle room if another injury hits the room.
No Practice Squad Addition?
This week, the Jets made two additions to the practice squad, signing veterans Tyler Johnson and Sterling Shepard. The Jets were expected to elevate one of the two for the Week 2 contest against the Green Bay Packers.
Considering all of the team’s injuries, elevating one of those receivers would have provided some additional depth. Instead the Jets will roll the dice by operating with some different formations.
A Player to Watch Now for This Game
“I expect Kenyon Sadiq to play a big role, and he can line up anywhere,” Rosenblatt said on X.
One way the Jets can mitigate the loss of all of these wide receivers is by utilizing different formations that highlight other positions. For example, the Jets can utilize 12, 13, 14, and even 15 personnel. That means when the Jets line up on offense, they can put out two, three, four, and even five tight ends.
In the season opener against the Tennessee Titans, the Jets utilized a formation that featured five tight ends.
“In fact, I had one of our analytics guys, has this happened before? I was thinking maybe there wasn’t; that’s not why we did it, it was just that we have got five good tight ends. So he went back 20 years, and he couldn’t find any evidence of 0-5 personnel [five tight ends on the field together],” Jets offensive coordinator Frank Reich said this week.
The Jets have five tight ends on the roster:
- Kenyon Sadiq
- Mason Taylor
- Jeremy Ruckert
- Jelani Woods
- Andrew Beck
Technically, Beck is listed as a fullback on the roster. However, the tight end room has claimed him. Reich said Beck has been in the tight end room when studying tape, not the running back room.
Sadiq is a freak. He was supposed to be on some type of a pitch count after missing so much time this offseason, but the Jets used him plenty, and they figure to use him plenty more moving forward.
“I think I said to you guys a couple weeks before, somebody asked me the question about, ‘Hey are you going to have to phase him in?’ What I said was, ‘Yeah, we’re going to have to, he hasn’t practiced,’ and I meant it when I said it. Then I saw him practice for one week and I didn’t get a chance to talk to you guys since then, but after seeing him practice for one week, I’m like, oh no, he’s ready to go. That’s a credit to him and credit to the medical staff. Talking to AG, before he started practicing, we thought there might be a play limit that we have to put a cap on it, but after seeing him practice, seeing how he handled it and knowing what the plan was going to be for the game and using all the tight ends, we went in there with the reigns off and said let’s just play football,” Reich told the media.
Jets Pulling Rare Move vs. Packers After Rash of Injuries