The Jets have shipped Elijah Moore off to Cleveland, which is not particularly surprising. Moore's time in New York looked finite when he complained about his role and wanted to be traded a year ago, plus the Jets are busy signing Aaron Rodgers' golfing buddies. Moore needed to go elsewhere.
If you looked only at his 2022 season, Moore doesn't look particularly desirable. From Week 5 on, he had only two games where he caught more than 2 passes -- he got phased out. Carping out his role didn't help, and the Jets had some pretty horrible quarterbacking going on.
But his rookie season was a lot more encouraging. Prior to getting hurt in December, he was tearing it up.
In a stretch of six games from Week 8 through Week 13, Moore caught 34 passes for 459 yards and 5 touchdowns. That's nearly 6 catches for 77 yards and a score each week. I realize it's not reasonable to project six games out over an entire season, but I'll do it anyway: would have been a 1,300-yard, 14-touchdown season. That's not happening, but as a top-3 wide receiver for Deshaun Watson in 2023, strong numbers look very possible.
| ELIJAH MOORE, WK 8-13, 2021 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Tgt | No | Yds | TD |
| Cin. | 6 | 6 | 67 | 0 |
| at Ind. | 8 | 7 | 84 | 2 |
| Buf. | 6 | 3 | 44 | 1 |
| Mia. | 11 | 8 | 141 | 1 |
| at Hou. | 8 | 4 | 46 | 0 |
| Phi. | 12 | 6 | 77 | 1 |
The Browns have Amari Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones, but not much else unless we're getting interested in David Bell or Anthony Schwartz. Even Peoples-Jones caught only 3 TDs in last year's breakout season, so there's room for Moore to push for the No. 2 job.
New York has signed Allen Lazard, eventually they'll probably wheel Randall Cobb's creaking bones onto the stage, and they also signed Mecole Hardman yesterday. All those who routinely overrated Hardman because he was working with Patrick Mahomes will probably overrate him again based on working with Rodgers. In any case, they won't miss Moore, but some chance he puts together a respectable season in Cleveland.
--Andy Richardson