Getty Former New York Jets wide receiver Randall Cobb reacting after a big play during an NFL game.
We have reached the end of the road for veteran wide receiver Randall Cobb.
The 13-year NFL pro was most recently with the New York Jets during the 2023 campaign but he hung up his cleats to join the SEC Network as a college football analyst, ESPN announced.
Cobb appeared in 11 games for the Jets this past season and made one start. The former Kentucky product finished with five receptions for 39 yards and one touchdown.
Jets Learned Their Lesson in 2023
The green and white didn’t officially land Aaron Rodgers in a trade until the week of the 2023 NFL draft.
However, there were breadcrumbs ahead of time that indicated the Jets were setting things up for him.
On January 28, 2023, the Jets hired Nathaniel Hackett to be the new offensive coordinator. Hackett was with Aaron in Green Bay for three seasons, two of those ended up being MVP campaigns for Rodgers.
During a SportsCenter special in March, Adam Schefter of ESPN revealed that the Jets targeted a number of players “that would appeal” to Rodgers. That was more than a month and a half before they finalized the deal with the Packers to land him.
.@AdamSchefter says the #Jets have targeted a number of players that would appeal to the Aaron Rodgers + NYJ expected to land Allen Lazard + @diannaESPN says NYJ is in on Odell Beckham Jr 👀: 🎥 @SportsCenter Free Agency Special
One of those players was Allen Lazard who signed a four-year deal for $44 million. Shortly after that signing broke on social media, Schefter called it a “big fat breadcrumb” during the Rodgers trade watch.
Both @Espngreeny & @AdamSchefter did their best @WindhorstESPN impression with the finger wave about #Jets aggressively looking at #Packers WR Allen Lazard + Schefty called it a big fat breadcrumb in Aaron Rodgers watch
After Rodgers was acquired, the Jets quickly started adding several former teammates of his to fill out the roster.
That list included Billy Turner and Cobb to go along with several other former Packers on the roster already like Tim Boyle.
Spoiler alert, it didn’t go well and the Jets realized that a chunk of the roster can’t just be friends of Rodgers.
This offseason the green and white didn’t focus as much on adding people who were familiar with Rodgers but rather focused on adding the best players they could to the squad.
Young Players on Jets Roster Were Challenged to Become Leaders
The Jets have plenty of big-name veterans on the team that can carry the leadership torch this season. Tyron Smith for example has forgotten more about football than most of us will ever know.
However, players like that aren’t long for New York. They will be here for a moment of time, but then they will be gone.
It’s important for Gang Green to have young leaders on the team who can set the tone now and well into the future.
Rodgers highlighted several of those individuals during an interview earlier this offseason with media personality Adam Schein.
“Those four guys [Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson, Jermaine Johnson, and Breece Hall] are core guys for us & they’re all going into their 3rd seasons. That’s pretty impressive when you look at a draft like that. And now the fun thing for those guys is they are not the young guys. They are the guys that are growing up. Now it’s time to be a leader, now it’s time to exert yourselves more, now it’s time to be a bigger part of building the chemistry, & I think those guys are really settling into their roles,” Rodgers said on “Schein On Sports.”
.@AaronRodgers12 issued a challenge to the historic #Jets 2022 #NFLDraft class during his conversation w/ @AdamSchein:
‘Those four guys [@ii_jermaine @iamSauceGardner @BreeceH @GarrettWilson_V] are core guys for us & they’re all going into their 3rd seasons. That’s pretty…