The New York Jets have survived the Aaron Rodgers injury to this point. After going on a three-game losing streak earlier in the season, they have bounced back to win three in a row, bringing their record to 4-3.
While Zach Wilson still leaves a lot to be desired at the quarterback position, he has performed better in recent weeks. He isn’t torpedoing the team’s chances to win with turnovers and is doing just enough to keep them in games.
Knowing the opportunity to make a run at the postseason exists this year, Jets’ general manager Joe Douglas was aggressive ahead of the deadline looking to upgrade the roster. Wide receivers are what he was targeting, putting their big free agent signing, Allen Lazard, on notice.
The Jets reportedly made calls to the Las Vegas Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, having exploratory discussions about Davante Adams and Mike Evans. In addition to those two, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports the Jets did the same for Tee Higgins of the Cincinnati Bengals.
That isn’t all too surprising that none of the teams had serious trade discussions. The Raiders made it clear Adams was going nowhere. The Bengals are beginning to hit their stride and the Buccaneers are in the thick of the NFC South divisional race.
It also made sense for the Jets to pursue an upgrade at wide receiver as it has been Garrett Wilson or bust this season. Wilson has caught 39 passes for 469 yards and two touchdowns. Anyone else listed as a wide receiver on the roster has combined for 22 receptions, 285 yards and one touchdown.
That is extremely poor production as the Jets aren’t getting nearly enough from Lazard or Randall Cobb. In fact, they have been two of the least efficient wide receivers in the NFL through eight weeks.
That certainly isn’t what the team was expecting when they signed Lazard to a $44 million deal in free agency. Cobb was brought on to appease Rodgers and should see his role in the offense diminish as he isn’t bringing anything positive to the table.
Not having Rodgers in the mix certainly hurts their production, but even when Wilson has been able to put the ball on them, they aren’t making plays. Expect wide receiver to be a position the team pursues an upgrade at aggressively in the offseason via trade or free agency.
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