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The fantasy football impact on NFL football coverage continues.
It’s all about the freakin weapons.
ESPN Headline – “Does Jets QB Fields have enough help at WR to be successful?”
“One receiver who might be available is Jakobi Meyers, who reportedly wants the Las Vegas Raiders to trade him, “wrote ESPN’s Rich Cimini. “Jets passing game coordinator Scott Turner, a Las Vegas Raiders assistant the previous two seasons, spoke glowingly of Meyers last December: ‘I tell people all the time, he’s one of my favorite players that I’ve ever coached.'”
I give Cimini credit. He is giving a lot of fans what they want.
He clearly understands supply and demand. He’s smart.
He is selling a product that is flying off the shelves.
Many fans have been calling for the team to add another receiver to complement Garrett Wilson.
This is a huge narrative in the echo chamber.
It doesn’t matter that they just cut a 2024 third-round pick, Malachi Corley, because they were overloaded in that room.
It doesn’t matter that they moved their top-performing receiver in camp, Brandon Smith, to the practice squad, in a shocking move, considering how he performed in camp. There is essentially nothing more he could do to make the regular roster.
But I promised I was done with NFL roster politics talk, so I will stick to that promise. I’m just making the point that they have tough wide receiver cuts in the process of getting down to 53.
Aside from moving on from Corley (who they had no equity in), they moved veteran wide receiver Tyler Johnson, who they gave $367,500 in guaranteed money, in a one-year deal for $1,337,500, to the practice squad.
They also cut two other training camp standouts at receiver, rookies Quinton Skinner and Jamal Pritchett, and moved them to the practice squad.
So with all these challenging cuts in the receiver room, because they had excess talent at the position, why would they now go out and make a trade for another wideout.
What is wrong with Josh Reynolds as a #2? What is wrong with Allen Lazard as a #3? What is wrong with Arian Smith as a #4? What is wrong with Xavier Gipson in the slot (who is going to have a spot anyway since he’s the punt returner)?
And keep something else in mind – Fields is often a one-read and run quarterback, so why is it so important to add another wideout? They had a hard enough time getting Reynolds a lot of touches this summer.
Quarterbacks make receivers; receivers don’t make quarterbacks.
It’s a faulty premise to think that adding extra weapons will make a QB better at going through his progressions – one, two, three, checkdown.
That is not a magic pill that will make a QB a full field reader.
Also, remember that the Jets are going to throw a ton to their tight ends and running backs, and they consider Breece Hall such a gifted receiver, they are going to line him out wide a lot, like a receiver.
But I understand why Cimini and others keep writing this stuff.
They are selling a product that is in demand.
The echo chamber and people with a fantasy football mindset are lobbying hard for the Jets to add another wideout.
But I don’t think that Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey are going to a fantasy football draft at Buffalo Wild Wings this week.
Once again, why would they add another receiver when they had a hard time making cuts at the position to get down to 53?
How does that make much sense?
September 1, 2025
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