State of the Roster: The Wide Receivers
In the coming days, we’re going to take a close look at the Jets and their positional groupings as they now stand.
Roster: Jerricho Cotchery, Braylon Edwards, Santonio Holmes (four game suspension), Brad Smith, David Clowney, Aundrae Allison, Marcus Henry, Britt Davis, Larry Taylor
Analysis: Going into last season, the top two receivers were Cotchery and Chansi Stuckey … what a difference a year makes. After getting plastered in that Saints game, the Jets realized that they needed to provide some more depth to their receiving corps, as much to help that grouping as to help their running game. With Edwards and Cotchery, the Jets were seeing fewer eight man boxes which helped their offense all around.
Roster Prognostication: With Holmes’s four game suspension to start the season, the Jets can afford to carry “six” receivers into the season, at least until Week Five. Cotchery, Edwards and Holmes are locks, but it gets a fuzzy beyond that. While Brad Smith hasn’t proven to me much more than a #3 or #4 receiver, he’s proven effective over the years on as an extremely effective special teamer and Wildcat / Option offense player. David Clowney is getting some good looks on special teams this spring, and if Clowney wants to be on the team this year, he’s going to have to prove his worth as a flyer/gunner on special teams. It’s not something he’s done well so far, and while he has the speed, it’s his slighter frame that could prevent him from being more effective in that role as a tackler which could lead to a potential injury. At this point, the Jets have invested more two full years into Clowney, and they are going to want to see some results that they think will bear out soon during the regular season. During the cold weather games late in the season, Clowney was a healthy inactive, and he didn’t re-surface until the Championship game in Indy … not a good sign for a Rex Ryan “all weather” Jets team.
As far as looking for results, the same holds true for the tall and speedy WRs Marcus Henry & Aundrae Allison, who will likely be Clowney’s main challenge for a roster spot. Even if they do make the team, those players could become expendable once Holmes returns to the lineup. Watch this depth battle closely this summer.
Britt Davis is a dark horse … he’s a guy who Ryan raved about last spring, but who disappeared when the bright lights came on.
2010 Outlook: Let’s face it, this unit is now stacked. Something I can’t remember the last time I’ve said about this team’s WRs. The offense should be fine until Holmes return in Week Five, but his addition could be a major part in watching this offense take off during the last 3/4 of the season. Cotchery will be the consistent player he always has been and he will be the player most likely to move around the field due to his deep knowledge of this offense compared to Edwards and Holmes. Edwards had some impressively athletic plays last season that we haven’t seen since Keyshawn, . Add in Holmes, who is a scary slot/flanker threat and the team might have a prolific passing game … that is when the team actually uses it.
While people will say Holmes is the “X Factor” this year for this unit, for fun, I’ll go another direction and say it’s Edwards. Ryan has been gushing over the WR this spring, and being in a contract year, having more talent around him, another year of familiarity with his QB and playbook, and a run-heavy offense that has a tendency to ‘Coryell’ an opponent deep could lead towards a solid season for Edwards regardless of potentially having less targets.
35 Responses to State of the Roster: The Wide Receivers
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Eddie DiGio says:
Im hoping that Clowney, with last season as a chance to polish and improve some of his skills as a more complete NFL WR, can help the Jets as the #3 WR the first 4 games.
If Clown can develop some better timing with Chez, learn how to sit down vs zone coverage, to go along with his devastating speed, he can be a godsend for us in Blutonio’s absence…I think that Clown’s ceiling is higher than that of Brad Smith. In other words, if Clown gets the mental part of being a WR down, he can be BETTER than Brad Smith can. Brad’s role as special team Ace and TigerCat QB is set. Schott can run some screens for him too to use his run after catch ability. He is set in stone on this club.
Clown can make some small improvements in a few area’s, he can also be an insurance policy if Bray or Bluntonio dont work out as long term players here.
Contrary to belief, I think Clowney has some talent and I am rooting for him. He just has to keep working at it…LOL Harvlis
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juunit says:
Thank you for listing Cotchery first in the list of receivers. He absolutely deserves it and as of right now absolutely should be the #1 receiver. Maybe Holmes can take that over, but for now, I am most confident in Cotchery by a very long shot.
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ramble914 says:
I’ve given up on Clowney, I haven’t seen anything to make me believe he can be an NFL WR.
We will need one of the other WR’s to step forward because the chance of us being able to sign both Edwards and Holmes is slight especially with us having to resign the “core four”. If one of Allison, Henry or Britt could become a solid # 3 WR that woukld help our salary structure for the future.
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Electric Ham says:
I think when Holmes hits the field Braylon will break out, there should be a lot of long bombs thrown his way, teams will be scrambling to figure out who they want to cover and holmes is prob the better WR therefore leaving Braylon one on one. No disrespect to Cotch, he will be an integral part of this offense as well but i dont see him being a deep threat like the other two. Our PA should be a dangerous weapon.
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Harvlis says:
Eddie,
This season, Schottenheimer has no excuses.
Sanchez, and his linemen, are letting everyone know that he has a firm grasp on the Offense, which he didn’t have as a rookie. With all of these weapons available — how can an opposing defense ever get comfortable. Throw in the occasional Wildcat or Reverse, where Brad Smith and Braylon Edwards can both throw the ball. Throw in LT out of the backfield. Throw in Dustin Keller in his third year. Then there’s the running game. Schotty must feel like a kid in a candy shop.
As for Clowney, his success will be dependent upon how much Schottenheimer wants to feature him. If Clowney is an afterthought — his stats will reflect it. If Schotty goes to him, I see no reason why we shouldn’t see the Clown dancing in the endzone after burning the single coverage. Joe Namath, Ken O’Brien, and Chad Pennington would be using play-action to free up Clowney for the big play, on a regular basis.
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Hey Bassett where is the post about the PSL price slashing?? I think it’s significant news for many people like myselft who just saved $1,500.00 :-D
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Marvel says:
Do you guys remember that Edwards touchdown catch against the Fins where he willed himself in backwards with two guys hanging off his back .. I think it was the MNF game .. That play is up there with those great Cotchery catches .. But yea this group is deep, no worries ..
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Bent says: Braylon had an amazing TD catch in both games last year. The one you’re describing sounds more like the one he had in the home game before the bye week.
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Harvlis, on June 11th, 2010 at 1:05 pm Said:
Eddie,
This season, Schottenheimer has no excuses.
I could not agree more Harv
“As for Clowney, his success will be dependent upon how much Schottenheimer wants to feature him. ”
He’s going to get his chances while Santonio is out. But the Clown is by no means a polished, finished product top tier NFL WR. He has some things to work on. If he becomes more of WR than a pure aftterburner, we might be watching some fireworks from him this season.
If it doesn’t work out here however, until he catches on with another team and starts lighting the world on fire…Im reserving the right to not blame Schott for all of Clowney’s failures and shortcomings.
Should be fun to watch him try to take that next step
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Marvel, on June 11th, 2010 at 1:06 pm Said:Do you guys remember that Edwards touchdown catch against the Fins where he willed himself in backwards with two guys hanging off his back .. I think it was the MNF game .. That play is up there with those great Cotchery catches .. But yea this group is deep, no worries ..
HELL YEA BRO!!!!
People love to point out Bray’s failures, but he also makes some plays on a few guys in the world can make…
I like our WR’s, think we weapons that compliment each other that will make them very, very, very tough to handle
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*only a few guys can make
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Jets-Fan-4-Life says:
I’m done with the Clowney project. Time to move on.
As for Edwards…I like the guy but he better not drop any passes this year otherwise Holmes is a shoe in to keep!
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Jets Fan 4 Life
ANY PASSES???
Every #1, #2, #3 WR drops passes….Braylon just has to catch the easy ones and he’ll be fine
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Either Clowney is going to do it or he’s not….he makes peanuts, can provide depth so there is no reason to cut him this year.
He has to get better in other areas in his game beside pure speed….if he doesn’t hes gone
Its that simple
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Harlan Lachman says:
Kewpie for Harvlis for connecting the dots to the real expectation for all this talent. Either Shott finally shows his smarts can translate into huge offensive production when he has the talent or he is placed permanently and irrevocably in the all time Jets putz place.
And, by focusing on the guys listed as WR, some omit the potential talents of the other receivers such as D Keller and LT.
Better be fun.
Harlan
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Every receiver drops the occasional pass, but Edwards does it more so than a lot of other receivers. He also has a history of tipping passes up into the air making it a simple thing for the defense to pick it off. If the team has to decide between Edwards and Holmes at some point, then it will be a no brainer to keep Holmes. Edwards and Clowney really aren’t that different. They’re both fast and have bad hands for an NFL wide receiver. Every time I see a pass going towards Edwards I hold my breath. That’s the one big problem I have with this offense. They have lots of speed to spread the field out, but a lot of those guys are crap shoots when it comes to actually making the catch. Edwards, Clowney and Keller all have inconsistent hands. I was really hoping they’d draft a big sure handed TE in the draft who’d be perfect for making catches in the red zone. Right now Cotchery is the only guy I’d throw to in the red zone.
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SackDance99 says:
JCo in the slot is my “X factor.” He’ll be roaming around in the middle of the field, finding soft parts of a zone and then he becomes a YAC god. He can absorb a hit like an RB and has shown the knack for long gains despite his lack of elite speed. He may not be Welker, but he’ll be a massive headache for opposing defenses which will have to pick their poison if Keller is also in on 3 WR sets.
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juunit,
I think it’s way too early to decide who to keep between Edwards and Holmes. The rarest and most valuable WR commodity in the NFL is the tall WR with deep play ability. It’s far easier to get an under 6 foot burner. Edwards’ 16 TD 2007 season was one of the best seasons that any of the current crop of NFL WRs has had. If Edwards equals or improves upon his 2007 form, it’s a no-brainer to keep Edwards, who is also a great run-blocker.
For years, lots of folks on this blog were lamenting the fact that the Coles/Cotchery combo was too short. I thought the problem was lack of separation, but there is some truth to the fact that the Jets were poor in the redzone without a tall WR option. A Holmes/Cotchery combo would be better than Coles/Cotchery because Holmes can create separation, but the Jets would lack that tall redzone target. I’m still holding out hope that the Jets can retain both, but let’s see how the season plays out because Edwards is, by far, the more physically gifted WR. In fact, he may be THE most physically gifted WR in the NFL.
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juunit
Edwards had ONE horrible drop season where he dropped 13 balls and led the NFL…other than that he has not dropped balls more than really any other NFL WR…he wasn’t even in the top 50 in terms of drops last season (profootballfocus.com)it was really just in 08…after he dominated the NFL in 07
He has trouble tracking the deep balls and sometimes he is looking to run with the ball before he catches it…but he CAN do it. His drops in wk 17 and the WC playoff game are just the last thing people remember after he did a good job for the most part in 09, improving his drops.
All the drop hype really comes from one bad season by Braylon…and Braylon also carried 3 Dolphins into the endzone on a fade in the red zone, and broke a tackle and stretched out from 3 yds out vs Buffalo…you can’t not throw a guy that big, fast and strong balls in the red zone
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Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying the guy is so good he doesn’t have to be more consistent but in 07 he was so freakin good it was scary.
BrayBray at the top of his game is a combo of Randy Moss and Anquan Boldin…fast enough to beat you deep and strong enough to run straight over and through a secondary.
Maybe some of you don’t care for the guy, but Braylon is my pick to be the breakout player on the offense, while Calvin Pace is my pick on D…
Should be fun to watch either way
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I am with Eddie and the Sackman. Braylon does drop some balls but, he is one of the most dangerous all-around receivers in the game. Rex is the perfect head coach for Braylon, because he will pump up his head to the size of a beach ball. I have always believed that players (and puppy dogs) respond better to positive reinforcement. With a full training camp under his belt, familiarity with the ball that Sanchez throws and the game plan, and with the playbook — look for Braylon to tear it up. Did I hear someone say – “Superbowl”.
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Bent says:
“Edwards had ONE horrible drop season where he dropped 13 balls and led the NFL”
It was worse than that…various sources have it at 16 to 19.
Last year- 6 to 8 (outside the top 25 in the AFC) including one as a Brown and none in his first 6 games with the Jets. Let’s hope he does at least as well again, but if he continues to improve, he’ll actually be in the upper echelon.
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JetOrange says:
I want the Clown to succeed because I believe in speed, but its hard to believe that magically he will become an effective special teams player.
My top six, Cotchery, Edwards, Holmes, Brad Smith, Britt Davis, and Little Danny Woodhead.
I would have put Alllison into this mix but I believe he is slow coming off his injury of last year. Clowney and Marcus henry have had their chances, Davis has all the tools and will demonstrate that he will be able to replace Edwards or Holmes if they don’t sign next year.
I believe in the Woodhead experiment, visions of Chrebet and Wes Welker, too much Jet Kool Aide,. Danny will also be a backup to McKnight as a third down back. 4 weeks will determine if the experiment works, if not and McKnight doesn’t tank then Danny is a Jet no more. -
Yea it was the home game .. That game was horrible .. I can’t wait to play the Fins again .. 0 % chance we lose that next game ..
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Holy toledo…16 to 19…WOW..
No wonder it got so bad in Cleveland!!!
I’m glad it happened over there though…The guy is by no means a perfect player, but since he came all he wants to do is win. He’s been totally unselfish and does whatever they ask him to do
Drops and all, I think we should be happy to have him
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But not every pass thrown to him that he doesn’t catch even qualifies as a dropped pass. So those numbers are very misleading. And to say that he is the most physically gifted receiver or to compare him to Randy Moss mixed with Anquan Boldin is just Jet homer crap. He is not that good. I understand that everyone likes to root for the players on their team, but there is a thing called blind faith, and I’m calling it as I see it here. Everyone needs to stop sucking Edward’s d*ck… I’m a Mets fan, I hear the “he was great three years ago” argument way too often. It doesn’t hold any water until he puts up another season like that. One good season does not a pro bowler make.
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Bent says:
juunit – we know he was damaged goods, that’s why we got him cheap (and why he isn’t crying for a new deal too). The numbers he put up three years ago showed his potential, but he doesn’t need to get anywhere near those to be an important Jet this year.
The drops statistic can be misleading, but even so, dropping from nearly 20 to under 10 is a clear improvement. Also his catch rate (as a percentage of targets) has improved. So that’s something.
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“And to say that he is the most physically gifted receiver or to compare him to Randy Moss mixed with Anquan Boldin is just Jet homer crap. He is not that good.”
Juunit
First, calm yourself down with the d!ck jokes…settle down guy
I said at the top of his game, he was a combo of the two. Like 07…that he has the POTENTIAL to be that good. Not that he is or has always been that good in the NFL. Its a comparison in terms of his skillset.
Did you see the man play in 07??? It was ridiculous what he did. No one who knows anything about football could come away from watching that and not think that Braylon Edwards has all the talent in the world. But real football is not Madden…other factors must be factored in.
So lets really call it like it is. He didn’t exactly have Joe Montana throwing him the ball in Cleveland. He never had the same Off Coord, QB or a consistent running game year after year. You can’t put up Pro Bowl numbers as a WR if you don’t have some form of continuity at those positions.
Its not by accident he was a High School and College All-American. He didn’t get picked #3 cause someone wrote the wrong name on the card. This guy has ALL WORLD ability, its a good thing you are not a football scout, cause you would have missed on Braylon Edwards.Its also no coincidence that the rest of the NFL stopped stacking the box when the Jets got him. You may think he stinks, but NFL D Coord’s do not… and Im siding with them
He does have some issues with consistency. But in a good situation and time to gel with a QB, Bray has the potential to be a top flight NFL WR…yes some improvements must be made but the foundation is there. Rex has gone out of his way to say that Bray has been the “most impressive” player thus far in OTAs. Something is there, its not just Jet-homerism…and its not Bray’s fault that the Mets suck and pick up guys past their primes (Bray is 27)
BTW,JCO never cracked double digit TDs or avg more than 15 yd per catch and Santonio’s drop rate was higher than Bray’s was last year…Bray makes more out of less oppurtunities. I’m not making this stuff up, just calling like it is
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Being physically gifted is a reference to Bray’s
size (height, weight, body type) compared to his speed (4.38 40), strength (great blocker), leaping ability etc…overall athleticism in general
That is what Sack and I were referring to…
Jerry Rice was not the most physically gifted WR…but he was the best
Productivity and physical tools are two different things
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50 year Jet fan says:
is Juunit really a JET FAN?, or the old, same old jet fan.
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ste says:
In addition to Holmes being out for the first four games, isn’t Edwards likely to get suspended for the first game due to his incident with one of Lebron’s friends?
If so, we really need Clowney to step up for the Baltimore game.
I just hope that Mr. August can translate some of his typical pre-season success to this early september game.
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Bent says:
ste – there is no indication that the league is looking at that incident, which sounded like much ado about nothing. I’m sure they’d have acted already.
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No juunit is a Jets fan…just not a Braylon Edwards fan
I understand how someone can be frustrated with Braylon and the ups and downs
Just that I’ve followed BrayBray since he was a freshmen at Michigan…I have family who are alums who have told me all about it. Bray isn’t some “zero” who played in some wide open spread college offense and benefited from playing against sub standard competition. Bray played in the Big Ten when it was still the BIG TEN. Often saving his most amazing performances for the Wolverines biggest rivals…
He has to start securing the ball before he starts to looking to break every catch for a TD. Its a mental thing…you can see him looking to run with the ball before he catches it. He’s trying to shed the “stone hands” label so bad, that sometimes, he is trying TOO hard
I think he’ll start making people believers again starting this season
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In Cleveland, Braylon had some of the worst QBs of the past 10 years pass to him. I understand the “what have you done for me lately” mind-set, but Braylon is just too physically gifted to give up on (thanks, Eddie, you said exactly what I meant). I think the playoffs showed the best and worst. Against the Bengals, he drops a certain TD bomb, then in the second half uses his big body on a simple slant to create a big gainer and, then, against the Colts, he catches the bomb. Yes, he has to cut down the drops, but he can make a 7-yard slant a 20 yard gain or get deep on a CB. His ONLY problem is drops. Maybe being in a stable offense with a QB who throws an accurate and catchable ball will bring out his best. He is only 27. Good WRs can be productive well into their 30s.
Juunit, I hear you, but judging Braylon just on his Cleveland days is loco. But, if you want to do that, remember that he had a monster year in 2007 and monster games in 2008, like his destruction of the Giants on MNF (5 rec., 154 yards, 1 TD). It wasn’t that he was just good in 2007, it was that he was inconsistent on a team with a revolving door at QB. So far, Rex and press reports have all been praising Braylon. I hope that the praise is warranted because if Braylon is in top-notch form, he’s a beast and the Jets will need him to shine while Holmes is suspended.
I think Sanchez is planning some California retreat for a couple weeks with his receivers. Could go a long way towards cementing their trust and familiarity with eachother. If Sanchez can step up this season and barring any health setbacks, oh boy watch out!