The Jets Wide Receiver Situation

Edition #321

Good morning! 🌟

Happy Friday to one and all. I’m planning to sit in front of the TV tonight with a few bottles of Asahi, before a couple of glasses of red wine watching a film, and not thinking about football at all, which is rare.

But you’re probably not here to learn about my Friday night plans, so today we’re going to be taking a look at the Jets wide receiver position.

We’re also about to head into the dark days of February where not a lot happens…unless you trade for a certain Las Vegas QB of course. So I’m looking to base some newsletters on questions you guys have, so hit reply to the email with your questions and they’ll be sent directly to my inbox.

📢😂 Pro Football Network had a report out yesterday that basically stated that Joe Douglas is going around having a chitchat about the Jet’s plans with anyone that will listen: "One source said that general manager Joe Douglas is admitting to people in the league the (Jets) franchise will go all out in the attempt to bring (Aaron) Rodgers to Gang Green." - This is media personalities taking educated guesses to try and say “I was right” at the end of it.

🎯 I never pay any attention to the Pro Bowl in the NFL, but last night I did take in some of the skill competitions, only to see Derek Carr go to work, and boy did he go to work. He was head and shoulders the most accurate passer in the precision passing with a score of 31 and then later spoke about how it’s time to move on from Las Vegas. There is nothing better than a talented QB with a score to settle, just my opinion.

🚗 On Carr: "I think here this week at the Senior Bowl, obviously everybody's here. This is a good time to have those conversations," Raiders GM Dave Ziegler said Thursday in an interview with SiriusXM NFL Radio. "There's going to be people interested in Derek Carr. There's no doubt about that. He's been a good football player in this league for quite some time. Like I said, he's a phenomenal human being, and we'll kind of see where it goes."

📤 A quick rundown of who the mocks have the Jets taking in April’s draft:

Daniel Jeremiah (NFL) - Broderick Jones, OT
Bucky Brooks (NFL) - O’Cyrus Torrence, OG
PFF - Paris Johnson, OT
Yahoo Sports - Peter Skoronski, OT
PFN - Paris Johnson, OT
CBS - Paris Johnson, OT
Mel Kiper Jr (ESPN) - Jaxon Smith-Njigba, WR

✅ Jets center Connor McGovern who is about to become a free agent, spot with the official site about his performance in 2022: "Definitely not perfect, but got better, I think every year I've been here I've improved and I'm coming off my best season so far. So from that standpoint, I guess it feels pretty good, but nothing feels better than going to the playoffs and winning. Just made strides in all aspects of the game -- run blocking, pass blocking, very few penalties, all that kind of stuff. So it was just overall as a pretty good year for myself from an improvement standpoint."

Garrett Wilson has given us a false sense of security.

I received that message from a fellow Jets fan yesterday and it got me thinking about the Jets receiving core. The common thought pattern seems to consist of two things:

1. A wide receiver isn’t really a need for the Jets heading into the 2023 season.

2. It’s likely Corey Davis is cut for cap space purposes, and maybe Braxton too.

First of all, let’s just touch on that second point around Corey Davis and Braxton Berrios potentially being cap casualties.

Braxton signed a new deal last year and while 2022 was a disappointing season, he’s highly regarded within the building for his work on offense and on special teams.

Corey is a leader within the offensive meeting room and although his numbers don’t pop, his contributions in the run game are noticeable.

However, Corey is about to enter the final year of his deal and just look at the cap saving that can be had by cutting ties. The Jets would be on the hook for just $666k while saving $10.5 million. For a team up against the cap in 2023, cutting Davis makes a lot of sense. Are you really going to pay someone over $11 million because he’s a good run blocker?

Davis has appeared in 22 games for the Jets over the last two years, which means he’s appeared in just under 65% of all possible games. Which isn’t a great record, if you go back to his time in Tennessee you’ll see that he’s only completed a full slate of games in a season once in 6 years.