The Jets fired offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur. It will be interesting to see who fills that role, because it’s a team with some up-and-coming pieces – especially the two rookies they drafted this year.
Had Breece Hall not torn his ACL, he likely would have been the Rookie of the Year, with the Jets probably in the playoffs. He looks like a top-5 running back.
And Garrett Wilson looks like he might be the best of the rookie receivers. There are a bunch of good ones, but Wilson seems like he’s got a good chance to develop into one of the top dozen receivers in the league.
Wilson caught 8 passes for 102 yards and 2 TDs at Cleveland, and he had another 2-TD game later in the year, against Chicago. He caught 6 passes for 115 yards in one of the New England games, and he caught 8 passes for 162 yards at Minnesota. All while working with suspect quarterbacking.
Wilson got particularly busy later in the year. He saw 14 targets in the game at Minnesota, and he saw 17 targets in the year-end game at Miami. In the last 20 years, there have been only 18 games where a rookie receiver has seen at least 15 targets in a game, and Wilson has two of them.
The Jets have a bunch of other capable receivers – Elijah Moore, Corey Davis and even Braxton Berrios – but Wilson seems to be a cut above those guys. Whoever becomes the offensive coordinator of this team, I expect they’ll be putting the ball in the hands of Hall and Wilson frequently.
| ROOKIE RECEIVERS WITH 15 TARGETS (since 2002) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Opp | Result | Tgt | Rec | Yds | TD |
| 2014 | Odell Beckham Jr., NYG | Phi. | L 26-34 | 21 | 12 | 185 | 1 |
| 2009 | Brandon Gibson, St.L. | Ari. | L 13-21 | 17 | 5 | 61 | 0 |
| 2022 | Garrett Wilson, NYJ | at Mia. | L 6-11 | 17 | 9 | 89 | 0 |
| 2008 | Eddie Royal, Den. | at S.D. | L 21-52 | 17 | 11 | 76 | 0 |
| 2011 | Julio Jones, Atl. | at Sea. | W 30-28 | 17 | 11 | 127 | 0 |
| 2009 | Julian Edelman, N.E. | at NYJ | L 9-16 | 16 | 8 | 98 | 0 |
| 2004 | Roy Williams, Det. | Phi. | L 13-30 | 16 | 9 | 135 | 2 |
| 2020 | Brandon Aiyuk, S.F. | Was. | L 15-23 | 16 | 10 | 119 | 0 |
| 2010 | Mike Williams, T.B. | Atl. | L 24-28 | 15 | 6 | 68 | 1 |
| 2007 | Calvin Johnson, Det. | G.B. | L 26-37 | 15 | 7 | 83 | 1 |
| 2010 | Julian Edelman, N.E. | at Hou. | L 27-34 | 15 | 10 | 103 | 0 |
| 2018 | Keke Coutee, Hou. | at Ind. | W 37-34 | 15 | 11 | 109 | 0 |
| 2020 | Jerry Jeudy, Den. | at LAC | L 16-19 | 15 | 6 | 61 | 0 |
| 2022 | Garrett Wilson, NYJ | at Min. | L 22-27 | 15 | 8 | 162 | 0 |
| 2019 | Darius Slayton, NYG | at NYJ | L 27-34 | 15 | 10 | 121 | 2 |
| 2002 | Deion Branch, N.E. | at S.D. | L 14-21 | 15 | 13 | 128 | 0 |
| 2014 | Odell Beckham Jr., NYG | at Ten. | W 36-7 | 15 | 11 | 130 | 1 |
| 2014 | Odell Beckham Jr., NYG | Was. | W 24-13 | 15 | 12 | 143 | 3 |
Statistics compiled using search tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com
—Ian Allan