Super Mario to the Rescue?

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Has enough been made of the Jets picking up WR Mario Urrutia off waivers? It’s hard to see Urrutia vaulting into the starting lineup in 2009, but his combination of size and speed is intriguing, to say the least.

Urrutia played decently early in college career at Louisville, but after suffering turf-toe his junior year, he made the hasty decision to leave college after that season. His coach at the time thought it was a bad move, and Urrutia was drafted in the seventh round and has struggled to find a steady spot with a team since the 2007 Draft.

Dan Leberfeld writes for Scout.com that this might be a move that might pay dividends for the Jets.

A big-time recruit out of high school, he was a Freshman All-American and then was even better as a sophomore, hauling in 58 catches, including six touchdowns.

Then he had that poor junior year.

Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not putting this kid in Canton. He has a ton of work to do. He’s been accused of having an inconsistent motor and dropped too many passes in college.

The Jets have one of the NFL’s best receivers coach in Henry Ellard, and that might just be the coach to get this cat to realize his enormous potential.

The Jets already have another size prospect, named Marcus Henry that they drafted last season. Although there’s no significant injury that Henry suffered like Urrutia, the “leaving college too soon” tag fits on both. Henry had better be careful, because his roster/practice squad spot might be up for grabs to guys like Huey Whittaker and Urrutia.

My advice to these guys? Make yourself invaluable on specials, because there’s hardly room for you on this team as is. The Jets would love to develop a well-sized receiver, but often teams are too hard-pressed to hold roster spots for project players like this when it comes down to it. With Wallace Wright jamming the works on specials and starting to make an appearance on offense in practices this spring, it’s going to be an uphill battle.

We love underdogs as much as anyone, and we’re hoping for the best, but to imagine that either Urrutia, Henry or Whitaker will make the 53-man, and then make contributions on offense in 2009 seem to be long-shots.

6 Responses to “Super Mario to the Rescue?”

  1. Henry is useless but he didn’t leave school early.

  2. My money is on Whittaker

  3. Labling Urrutia “super” is an injustice to Mario Williams! How bout we call him “Mediocre Mario”, “Mario Maybe” or “Practice Squad Mario”. It probably won’t be any of these but rather “Mario Waived”. I know there hasn’t been much to write about but please no more Mario anything.

  4. Any pictures of Mario with a Bengals uniform on?

  5. Bubba Franks was just cut according to Florio.

  6. Well getting anything out of those big-3 receivers would be great. We certainly can’t attack anyone with our 4-5 wide receiver sets.