LISTEN | Jets Roster Cutdown Preview (9/3)

before Saturday. I'm just saying, if there's a move that happens at noon on Wednesday, So we're talking roster today, Yeah, pretty much, position by position. Listen, you just meant in September two September, one gym's opened in New Jersey. One of our security guards here that one Jets drive was telling me that he went to the gym yesterday. There's only three people in there. What do you think, are you personally going to go to a gym? I don't know.

I don't know how to feel about it. I think I think it also depends on the gym, like I do, miss wait, but I have two dumbbells at home, so I don't I think that that might satisfy me enough, But you don't you get no machines at home, or I don't have any machines at home in my apartment, So I think I might. I think I think I want to let things. I want to see how other people do in the gym before I get in there.

You have to run outside because there's no way you can go inside inside a gym and have a mask on and run on that treadmill. No way, no no. But I mean, aren't the rules you have to wear the mask the entire time in the gym? Right? I just feel like in a non COVID world, pre COVID people in the gym are animals and I don't mean I don't like yeah, and they're just like people are dirty, people are grindy. And now I'm gonna have to trust them to make sure that they're taking the precautions not

only in the gym but in their daily life. I don't know how, don't it's it's a difference. There's only different workouts though, yeah, I know which. I do love the body weight workouts, but I had a set of at home, and I'm like, I need some load, I need some more weight fortunately for us here we got a little bit of a break knock on glass. That little Jim downstairs we have access to. Yeah, the dumballs go up to fifty palms. So I was in there last night, so and I wanted to show everybody here.

We got the tracker. We got the Tier three tracker here in Covidville. Show it off. Yeah, this is how. This is how we go down there. I'm joking. I'm joking about that because we're blessed to be inside. This is breaking was here in the pod. Not the players are coaches Gym to call it affectionately, the little kids Jym. Okay, the little kids Jim. We can go in there. That's good. That's good to know. All right. So we're moving on

here on the Official Jets Podcast. Like we said, roster cutdowns coming up this weekend, just to give a quick timeline of how everything's gonna shape out. September five, four pm, which is Saturday, I believe, is when the roster needs to get cut down to fifty three players by four pm. Then after that the next day kind of it's twofold. You have your waiver claim period that ends at noon on September six, so basically four pm on Saturday. At twelve pm on Sundays when teams will claim players, and

then later that day the practice squad. You can start to form your practice squad an hour after the waiver claim period ends at one. But there's a bunch of different practice squad rules. This year, it's typically ten players. Now it's twelve players. I don't want for twelve to sixteen is the correct Well, according to Sporting News, the way that I'm reading this says that the size of the practice squad players from ten players to twelve players

for it'll increase again to fourteen two. But I think maybe, okay, it was supposed to be twelve in the new cb A and then COVID bumped it up to six teams for two thousand twenty, and this is kind of big news. You can have six veterans on the practice squad with an unlimited number of accrued seasons outside or typically it's two. Now it's six, so that that means that you can bring basically anybody on your practice squad that doesn't necessarily

need to be under the two accrued season. The trick with the practice squad is always you like these guys and you want to continue to develop them. And mostly they're gonna be used obviously for young players. But this year you can take a few more veterans. But any other team can scoop up and sign those guys on your practice squad any day. You're right, but I think this year different. You can block I think up to four players that you can say you can't touch these guys.

So let's say, for example, I'm thinking of a practice squad player last year. Jeff Smith was a practice squad player for the the majority of last year. So let's say somebody like him is on the practice squad, the Jets want to keep him. You can say that guy you can't, you can't take him, you can't scoop him. What if there's multiple attempted signings on that A K Jeff Smith, I don't know. I don't know the I don't know

the ins and outplay reviews. I think you have four blocks and you can just use them as you have to use them every week. So so I think it's

gonna be a learning process for all of us. And then the other thing that NFL teams are deon with is UH and we've been talking about it through the summer, no preseason games, So especially when you're evaluating those special teams performers, I think brand Boyer has a big challenge because he never saw these guys under the lights and going quote unquote full speed tackled down during two or

three or four games. One more thing on the practice squad before we go through the roster and just kind of evaluate each position, is this is a new wrinkle for two thousand twenty. Each game day, teams have the option to promote one or two practice squad players to their active roster. But it doesn't you don't need a corresponding move. So let's just use our Jeff Smith example. Let's say well, this was last season, he's on the

practice squad. The Jets can promote him for game day, and then after the game, he'd just be back on the practice squad. So there's no corresponding move that you need to make because you have that that wiggle room one to two players each game, which I think is interesting. Yeah, And the good thing about that too is that you know, you put in that game plan early in the week and then you go and implement that on the field Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and then typically what we see is teams

who are moving up somebody from the practice squad. They do that as late as possible on Saturday afternoon, so you're not preparing for that person per se, and it just gives you more flexibility. Bottom line here um on Chartered Waters. The rosters were ninety at the beginning of all training camps before this eighty this year. So the Jets specifically, we're dealing with with depth numbers issues and a few positions throughout camp, most notably wide receiver, but

cornerbacks impacted as well, and then lately it's been safety. Yeah, it's it's been a whirlwind of injuries for the Jets and a lot of moving parts as always in training camp. Let's dive into position by position here. We'll just kind of rip through these guys and rip through these positions. Let's start with the quarterbacks. You know, Sam Donald is

the guy, and then the guys after him. It's been a three guys because Joe Flacco is still on the physically unable to perform list, David Fails, James Morgan, and Mike White if Joe Flacco is still on the pup lists. Last year, the Jets only carried two quarterbacks with Donald and Simeon. Something to keep your eye on this season. Mike White practice squad player. Last year, David Fails was on the roster. They traft James Morgan. It's kind of a crowded backup room, flac of thirty five years old.

He's gonna be your primary backup whenever he's healthy. We all know that. But is he one of those guys that we don't have to worry about in terms of the fifty three. That's what you would imagine right now that he would be potentially an I R designate designated to return right Um, he's cooking up the offense. You see him talking to Sam Donald a lot in Adam caze Um. Obviously we know his story a starting quarterback

in the National Football League. So whenever he's back healthy, the Jets are gonna be in very good position behind Sam Donald. We know. We talked about it numerous times zero on six the last two years when Donald hasn't practiced, it's been interesting to watch the reps between Mike White and David Fails. David Fails actually has some NFL experience, but Sunday, specifically specifically at the Green and White scrimmage. We saw I got during second team reps they would

alternate each rep times. Yeah, the there's no real rep structure that I've noticed between David Fails and Mike White. They almost just kind of go back and forth. One team period, maybe Fails will get the second team reps and then the next one it's Mike White and James Morgan works in there later on in practice. It's gonna

be interesting to see what happens. But the one thing that I think we should clarify, if a player like Joe Flacco is placed on i R or the physically unable to perform list, that's not counted against the fifty three, so that that decision then comes later when you want to activate a player like that. The pressing question is who is the backing backup quarterback opening day in Buffalo?

Uh White. You could make the argument that in the action that we've seen has been the more impressive than two Maybe said some stronger showings out there, But Fels knows Adam Gates's offense, and he also has NFL experience. I like what I've seen out of James Morrigan. He's a developmental quarterback. You took him in the fourth round out f iu Um. But he's got an interesting arm and sometimes he can really whip it from different angles.

And I know he grew up loving bread Fire. I I'm not comparing him to the Bread five or anything like that, but he's got very good arm strength and you like his size. Yeah. We saw one throw where it's almost an in between um, your standard throw and your Philip Rivers throw, So like if this is where the ball would come out and this is where Philip rivers, he was kind of here. It was a very interesting angle and it was a rocket. It jumps off the stand, it does he can spin it, all right. Let's move

on to running back here. You know who's up top, Lady on Bell, Frank Gore and the Michael p Ryan you would imagine is on this roster. It's hard to imagine not him not on the roster. Um major injury there because it looked bad that when he was tackled by Frankie Louvu the other day. But just a lower ankle sprain, so that's good. And the other two running backs on this roster as it stands, Josh Adams and Pete Carrero. And I think i'd defer to you on this,

but I feel like it depends. This is where numbers game shakes into play. Do you keep four? Do you keep three? And then when looking at Adams and Guerrero is one of those guys if you do keep for is one of those guys more valuable on special teams then the other. It's a great question. And listen, Josh Adams was playing awfully well in this training camp and now you went down with the hamstring, just got back

this week. But he's a guy who was producing the National Football League a few years back, most notably of Russian for more than five hundred yards with Philadelphia Eagles. He's a big back. Um. I think he definitely can play in this league. So to me, it's are you keeping three or four? And you might be very comfortable having Adams as your fourth guy. Josh Adams, I think people forget about this two seasons ago lead the Eagles in Russia, and of course Show Douglas was a part

of that staff. Comes here. I believe Josh Adams was a waiver claim last year. Braxon Barrios was definitely a waiver claim, so is John Franklin Myers the Jets. We're gonna have big time issues at the running back position just to complete a practice because it was looking like is this gonna be lev and Frank Gore and they were like, hey, Adam, that's great, let's take in cases like you're thirty seven. Your listen. I love your enthusiasm

and your passion. But that was the day Josh Adams got back and I'm all right, we're gonna move on to receivers. Now, this is a very interesting dynamic here. We could do a whole show on receivers, I guess, but the Jeff receivers are always the most popular position in training camp without a doubt. But I think this is an interesting dynamic because the Jets have a lot of receivers right now on their roster, even though they're

banged up. I mean, you look at guys like Vincent Smith, Shot Perriman, and Denzel Mims as we're recording this have yet to return to practice. Denzel Mims we haven't seen in practice once. Shot Peerman has been out like a week with his niece swilling. Then you think about the guys that you brought in and were the guys that were taking reps for those guys, Jeff Smith gets hurt. Then you look at the guys that have stepped up recently. You're talking about Josh Malone, Jhu chess On and Chris Hogan,

of course, George Campbell. There's a lot of players at receiver right now. Lawrence Casi has been banged up. I mean he This is a tough tough room because how do you balance injury versus guys that you want on your team and guys that you might just need on your team because of the injured guys. There's also waivers. Yes, again,

there are deep position groups that teams have. In some teams, like we saw it with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year, a lot of receivers, so Mike Evans at the top, Chris Godwin one of the butter combinations of National Football League, and Perryman finally got his run late in the year. And he was one of the best receivers in the league. Um, I gotta look at it this way. Crowder's your number

one guy. I'm not saying he's playing the acts. Of course, we know that he's gonna be lining up in the slot and he's gonna be targeted a ton of times. He's had a very impressive camp. Somebody the other day asked me, it's like I haven't really heard a lot about Crowder, Like, yeah, just Sam throws him the wall every other play. He's just solid. So Jamison, you're hoping you mentioned Perriman in the knee. They were hoping they got him back last weekend. We'll have to see what

happens on the practice field again. A reminder to everybody, we're taping Wednesday morning, we're going out in the practice field. He was dealing with some swelling with the need, but he's gonna be here. Hogan is a guy who's coming in and has had no difficulty picking up the offense, A veteran guy with a chip on his shoulder. You already can see that Donald has established some trust in him, so I would think that he's gonna be here. Denzel

MIM's gotta get him on the practice field. Loves potential. How good has he been keeping up with the mental reps? The Jets like approach. Uh, you feel bad for the kid, but you can't rush them back. So of course you know they're hoping as we tape that he gets back on the practice field here later this week. That probably starts with individuals. Now, could Mims be ruled out week one and Buffalo, of course, but Adam Gates was not rolling that out yesterday said we'll have to see what happens,

and I'll tell you what. The last guy to mention in the group, I think it was Braxon Burrios before we get to all the other guys, because Burrios has had an outstanding and I'm not just talking about special teams anytime he's been out there, because he's your second slot, he's to turn it all. Yeah, he is. He's had a very impressive camp, particularly on the offensive side of

the ball. I mean he might have had the catch of Camp in the back of the end zone from Mike White, the one that you thought he was definitely out of bounds, and then Braxon Burrios had some fantastic toe drag swag. I think that Braxon Barrios has been very impressive. And he's another guy we talked about all these dudes at it's their second year in the offense, like Donald, like Herndon, even on the defensive side of the ball like Quinnin. Somebody like Braxon Burrios that is

extremely smart. Valedictorian at Miami, Sean Jefferson said the receiver's coach said that he leans on Burrios a lot, saying like, you know, do you think I missed anything? Like He's a very smart dude. And Braxton Barrios with another year learning this system, has shown his development on the field. Speed of development. A Lawrence Cage was coming on before he went down with the knee. Uh, he's been out there, not with the helmet just yet. We'll have to see

how he progresses. George Campbell's a guy can fly out of West Virginia. We think about a couple of veterans here in the mix. U J. J. Who chess On made a big play here at the end of the late game situation to man at work when Sam Donald threw in. He's made a few plays out here. And then Josh Malone you can't forget about him too, and what kind of value he brings the special team. So, uh, that first group, I think you know who it is, the first five, first to first five, and then what

are you gonna do beyond that? That's the question. The other wrinkle in this is Dante Moncrief has had one practice with the Jets so far, so we'll see how quickly he can learn the offense, if he can make a difference. And I'm very interested to see what happens Saturday with him in particular, because how do you how do you try to fully evaluate somebody like Moncrieff who has experienced and he can fly and can move. So

that's a great point. And so if you go Moncrief there, any of the young guys or any of the young Vets get any run or there's not any room for them at this point. Yeah, we'll see what happens. It's gonna be interesting and moving on here. I just I want to pick up the pace with all right, tight end done, tight ends basis tight ends. I mean, you know Hernan Griffin and then you would imagine Brown and West go. You'll see between that, Ross, Travis and KAFUSI.

I mean, we'll see what happens towards the back end of the tight end room. But let me just sit deep. The West Coast had one of the most impressive camps out here. Uh, he's really developed and Brown is a key special team's contributor. Um, so let's to see and that's one of your deepest position groups. All right, moving on to the offensive line. You figured the guys that were brought in the off season, for the majority of them, Fat McGovern, Beckton, who else? Who else am I missing here?

Van Roton? Alex Lewis is still Alex Lewis. I mean, those guys are here. You're really looking at the back end of the offensive line in general. But Chuma Adoga can play both tackle spots. Cameron Clark has gotten back on the practice field. Josh Andrews is a guy who we don't talk about enough, I think, but he's gonna give you a lot of valuable depth on the interior. And then you also have Jonathan Harrison. Yeah, we'll see what happens with some of the guys like Jared Hilbert's

undrafted free agent. We'll see. I mean, if Connor McDermott ends up on the physically unable to perform list, do the Jets just roll with Chumadoga as their swing tackle, or maybe they try to have another backup tackle. We'll see what happens. All right, defensive side of the ball here, Let's keep things up front. Let's go to the d line. This is one of the deepest groups on this team. I mean, there's not a whole lot of wiggle room here, but it's similar to tight end. You're looking at the

back end and the final few spots. Yeah, and to your point, listen, you got Steve McLendon who's still going strong. He's the veteran leader of that unit and he is a big time presence inside this facility. Quinn and Williams came back to camp and tremendous shape. He has high hopes for this Sea eason, and he's got unique athletic ability. Uh, full of runs of fatakas. He became one of the better run stuffers, not only on this team, but you can make the argument maybe one of the better run

stuffers in the National Football League. And then he got jep Dog Nathan Shepperd too strong as hell there on the interior. And then um, you know, Henry Anderson, I don't know you you consider him more of a D d N. But you know, when you're talking about that unit, you're you're feeling pretty good where you're at. Defensive tackle. Henry Anderson is I think has been a little under the radars, flown under the radar throughout training camp. I

think he's been impressive from the practices we've seen. Granted, you can't go like a thousand miles per hour because he's not gonna go after Sam Donald. You gotta pull up and you're going to get your teammates. He's extremely long too, and then that can disrupt the quarterback because you want to get in quarterback planes right so he can get his hands up. He had, he had a very good year's first year here in terms of past defenses. Seven sacks, code led the Jets. Moving on a linebacker,

you feel good with where you're at. I think at the the inside, Avery Williamson, Neville Hewitt, Blake Cashman, James Burgess in that list, Patrick Owasso will see his what the deal is with his knee injury. Adam Gates said about five weeks right, that was that might be a typical Pop candidate. As we sit here and then you're looking at the outside guys, and you got guys like

George Jenkins to al bash him. And the one guy that I think you and I both think has had a very good camp is Frankie Lulu, who's the special team stalwart. Frankie has been very good. You can, potentially, if you want to, you can line them up on the strong side. If you really go to a typical base defense. Uh. Kyle Phillips last year, Uh really jumped on everybody's radar and undrafted free agent. I think he led this team and tackles for loss. Jabari's aninga just

been a tough camp for the rookie. Uh, much like Dunzel Mims. He hasn't been able to practice because he's been dealing with that quad injury. And then again, you know John Franklin Myers is also part of this group. And then Jordan Willis is a guy who came on and got some rotational run last year. So yeah, he was impressive. Yeah, it's gonna be former Cincinnati Bengal, so it's gonna be interesting. It all starts with Jenkins on the outside. Right. You mentioned Bashuh you like his athleticism.

Kyle Phillips is, he's kinda He's a guy we often don't talk about. But again, he popped last year and I think he's been good at camp and aluvu for my money, jeez, he's been all over the place cornerbacks and safeties now defensive backs overall, similar to wide receiver corners has kind of been a banged up group. I mean, Pierre's ear is really the main guy. Brian Pool is coming back. He took some team reps on Tuesday. Today's Wednesday,

so Tuesday. So I think this is another similar situation in the sense of where do you go after your group of guys that you figure have a good shot to be on this team. I mean, Arthur Millette was off this team last year, then he was on the team that he was off the team that he was on the team, and then he started like six games for the Jets and started down the stretch. And there's a number of these guys. Where how many guys do you keep? And are there any guys like a Lamar Jackson,

an undrafted free agent. I feel bad for somebody like that because that would be the preseason. He's a prime preseason candidate in the sense that I wanted to see how he would fare against somebody that's not on the Jets roster. He can't see that, So what do you do with a guy like that? Or Javeling Gidjury another undrafted free agent. Well, from what I've seen just in our time out there is Lamar Jackson's He's interesting. He's an intriguing player. Big. Yeah, so you know, again do

you think about him in terms of practice squad? Um? You know? And again what's happening around the NFL at the cornerback position you're hoping to zero is ready for Week one against the Bills. They a formidable wide receiver group with Digs and John Brown and Beasley and the like. Bless Austin And to me, he has stood out throughout camp that he looks like a guy you should be starting on the outside. You got Brian pool back, that's huge.

You need him. You mention him a lot before. He's a guy kind of jack of all trades because you can line them up outside, you line him up inside. And a great character kid, and he's great on special teams. Yes, so there you go, Quincy little Quincy Wilson. Excuse me, you traded for him? Uh? Draft weekend? Uh? He has made some plays. Um. You know, it's gonna be interesting to see where he fits in the mix, right. Yeah. I think it's gonna be a very interesting group in general.

And Lamar Jackson, I know. I said he's a big guy, six to two oh eight, has nice size, not necessarily the fastest player though, No but here that's another guy you're wondering, what's brand Warriors evaluation of him? Like Lamar Jackson comes in rookie and things like that. Those guys have to that. That's the thing that everybody misses when

we're talking roster evaluation. I think is, oh, well, we're just gonna keep this guy's the fifth or sixth receiver because what they can do offensively, or he's gonna be my fifth there's six quarterback because what they can do defensively. No, all those guys, yes, that is important, no doubt, but all those guys have to be good special teams players.

What value are they giving you special teams wives Well, to go off of that point, just to use an example of a guy like the previous year, Jets fans love or loved Deta Burnett, but we rarely saw Deonte Burnett takes special team snaps. So it becomes a numbers game. And when you get to the back half the numbers game, you gotta go to special teams and which leads us

to safety another crowded group. And for past handful of years, a lot of years, Rontes Miles was a special team stalwart brand boyer named when he said, I'm excited to use these guys this year. One of the guys he named was Matthias Farley, who has been last year I was on the team, took some special team snaps. Now it seems like he might have an increased role, particularly on teams. I really like the top three. I can't wait to see how Greg Williams implements his packages, how

many three safety looks, what will we see. Ashton Davis has had two interceptions of Sam Donald Camp, albeit one was in seven onths seven. I get it, um he probably would have took that one to the house. Frank or might have an argument against that one. But he had another one. And he's also when he's getting reps. He is a physical presence. He is always coming up around the ball. No matter where he's lining up, you always see him close to the ball and he loves

the physical contact. And I saw the interaction the other day in the sideline. That I really enjoyed is that he's sitting next to Brian Pool and he can tell, he says, picking Pool's brain about the defense and maybe some intricacies of the offense and stuff like that. Ashton Davis is a big time keeper. We knew he was gonna be on this team, but I'm sure Greg Williams has thrown a lot at him as far as information to see what he can absorb, and I think the

results have been very positive thus far. Marcus, may you make the argument he's had the best camp out of any New York Jet. Unfortunately, he has been on the practice field the last two days. Maybe he's out there today. Uh, they're just taking precautions with him because they don't want to mess up anything in terms of his calf. And Bradley McDougald, he's a guy fits in perfectly great locker

room dude. Uh, nice presence out there on the football field and he's found the rock throughout his career ten interceptions. So you mentioned far Earley before Special teams contributions. Bennett Jackson's also there in the mix, so you know, to me, those are the two guys he kind of highlighting. Let's see how the Jets of value wait them in the final process here specialist real quick, you know Thomas hennessee Brandon Man Sam Fickens the only kicker on this roster.

The Jets did make a waiver claim last season at this time different situation though. We'll see what happens. But there's gonna be a very crowded, exciting weekend. This roster is going to look totally different from now to Saturday, and could also look very different from Saturday to Sunday. Definitely gonna look different from Saturday to Sunday. Now, it's just the question is what are the numbers? How many waiver claims are gonna have? Is it gonna be two,

is gonna be three? Could it be five? I think last year was five. Yeah, Well, we'll see what happens, though. I think we're all gonna get excited Saturday and be like, oh God, this guy made the team or this guy got get released or whate and things like that. And sometimes it just comes down to a numbers game where

the Jets have a lot of depth at certain positions. Well, there's gonna be good football players being released and they're gonna be out there on the street, but not for long because they're gonna find their homes and uh, you know, other teams have great depth at certain positions where the Jets are a little bit thinner at and you know that's where Joe Douglas and his team are gonna go

do their business and we'll get some guys. They'll get some guys in here on Sunday, and then we'll see about this expanded practice squad and the blocks that Greens was talking about, the four blocks. Yeah, Joe, Joe Douglas has exhausted or said that he will exhaust every avenue to improve this roster every year he's here, and of course waiver claims is a big part of that. That's all we have here on the Official Jets Podcast powered by Amazon Web Services. Next week Week one, we'll see then m