The Jets have a heck of a number one receiver and a heck of a lot of question marks elsewhere.
Jets head coach Aaron Glenn listed wide receiver as one of the positions he values most during the 2025 offseason. Based on the Jets’ roster construction, it seems like he was telling the truth. Wide receivers account for almost 15 percent of the players on the Jets roster as we approaching training camp. There is no question about the quantity. The real question is the quality.
The Go To Guy
Garrett Wilson
There probably aren’t enough superlatives to describe how good Garrett Wilson has been with the Jets through his first three seasons. Despite a lot of losing and a lot of bad quarterback play, Wilson has consistently produced at a high level. He is one of only eight wide receivers in the rookie wage scale era to start his career with three consecutive 1,000 yard seasons.
Wilson will be the most important wide receiver for the Jets in 2025, mainly because he’s the only proven pass catcher. Garrett’s talent is also a bit of a burden in some ways. The Jets will need to lean on him. It would not be a surprise to see him finish in the top five in the NFL in targets. There will be quite a bit of pressure on him to produce with those targets. The Jets can’t afford for him to have an off day.
If Ja’Marr Chase has a rough game in Cincinnati Tee Higgins can step up, and the Bengals can still move the ball. If AJ Brown has a rough game in Philadelphia Devonta Smith can step up, and the Eagles can still move the ball. If Garrett Wilson has a rough game, the Jets will have a challenge moving the ball. Unfortunately this has been the case through Garrett’s career, save the last three quarters of 2024 when he was paired with Davante Adams.
This sets the standard impossibly high for Garrett Wilson. Yet with his effective route running, he finds a way to deliver far more often than not. Defenses can focus on him, but he will still figure out ways to get open and produce. One of the biggest tests of new offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand will be to make life as easy as possible for Garrett, figuring out ways to deploy him within formations to get free releases and easier cornerback matchup.
No matter what, you can virtually pencil in Garrett Wilson for over 1,000 yards if he stays healthy.
Veterans Whose Solidness May Vary
Josh Reynolds
Allen Lazard
Tyler Johnson
It seems to me that whenever a player lasts a few years in the NFL he starts to get the label “solid veteran” whether or not it’s accurate.
The Jets have three veterans in their wide receiver room whose play has occasionally been solid through their respective careers but has more frequently been underwhelming.
At the top of the list is free agent addition Josh Reynolds. At the absolute peak of his career, Reynolds has been a borderline viable second option in a passing attack. He posted a 600 yard season for the Lions in 2023 and was on pace for another for Denver last year through the first six games in 2024 before he was horrifically the victim of a shooting in October. Denver waived Reynolds in December. He caught on with Jacksonville and caught 1 pass for 11 yards in four games.
If Reynolds could produce 600 yards, I think the Jets would probably sign up for that. Still, his career averages per 17 games round out at 34 catches, 458 yards, and 3 touchdowns, and he just hit the magic 30 year old threshold. Reynolds played in Detroit from 2021 to 2023 where offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand was part of the offensive coaching staff. It would be one thing for the Jets to bring him in to help install the offense as an extension of the coaching staff providing nuanced pointers on the system to teammates. Maybe the Jets could feel confident if they only needed to squeeze third or fourth option level production out of him. It’s a different matter to expect him to produce at the level the Jets need from Garrett Wilson’s sidekick.
But if Reynolds is a giant question mark, the veteran options behind him are totally uninspiring. Allen Lazard is set to return for a third Jets season after agreeing to a massive paycut. The reason he had to take that paycut is simple. He provided the Jets with some of the worst value of any free agent signing in recent memory. He’s essentially a big receiver who plays like a small receiver, seldom imposing his will on undersized defenders. Instead he gets pushed around and is weak on contested catches. The plays he makes are mostly the type any functional NFL wide receiver would make, and Lazard adds in some of the worst timed drops you could imagine.
The one plus Lazard has is his willingness to block. The actual results of his blocking are inconsistent, but he shows attitude when he latches onto a defender. (Mysterious considering how easily he is pushed around running routes.) There are even moments where he shows an ability to block a defensive lineman one on one. On an offense that figures to be run first and on a roster with a lack of quality tight ends, Lazard’s willingness to do the dirty work and clear a path for runners could be the biggest value he provides.
The Jets also added veteran wide receiver Tyler Johnson this offseason. I have to admit I was intrigued by Johnson as a late round sleeper when he entered the 2020 NFL Draft, but he has yet to show he has the ability to be anything more than a depth player in the NFL. Johnson will turn 27 next month. He doesn’t even have a 400 yard NFL season to his name, and he hasn’t played special teams in four years. I’m not really sure what the Jets saw in him when they made this signing, but it’s tough to expect much.
The New Rookie Hope
Arian Smith
If you follow the NFL long enough, you learn that it’s conceivable for any drafted player to have success and for any drafted player to fail. It doesn’t matter how high or how low you were selected.
The process of drafting is really just making educated guesses weighing a prospects green flags and red flags. The higher the proportion of green flags, the higher a player is selected in the NFL Draft.
With that in mind, I was very surprised to see the Jets pick Arian Smith in the fourth round. It really felt to me like the green/red ratio was out of line to pick a player so high.
Smith’s main green flag is obvious, his speed. I could tell you about his 4.36 time in the 40 yard dash at the Combine, but just watching him play makes it clear he is a burner. The Jets will likely look to exploit that speed by manufacturing offensive touches for him in space on day one.
I saw more things to be concerned about, however. Smith had virtually no production at Georgia until his final year when he turned 23 in season and was physically more mature than most of the opposition.
As we know, speed helps. However, speed alone does not make a good receiver or even a good deep threat. I wouldn’t say Smith is a horrible route runner. In fact, Georgia’s offense gives its receivers a fuller route tree than a lot of college systems. You did occasionally see Smith create separation by doing some nuanced things on his routes. It was just inconsistently so. Smith flashed the ability to shake a defender by changing the tempo of his speed within a route or sell a fake in his stem, but it happened less frequently than I would like to see for a prospect who is already approaching his mid 20s.
Then there is also the issue of drops. Smith’s drop rate through his college career was in the stratosphere.
This feels like a very black and white situation for the Jets. I would surmise that they believe they can coach consistency into Smith’s technique very quickly. If they can, his speed could turn him into a quality receiving threat and a headache for other defenses.
Every front office and coaching staff is convinced they can fix the flaws in physically talented prospects. Few end up being right. These tend to be the good front offices and coaching staffs. Smith will be an early test of how effectively Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey are at targeting the right type of player and helping him overcome his flaws. If they can, it will be an excellent early sign for the new regime. Smith will also be primed to contribute immediately, given the lack of proven players blocking his path to playing time.
The Old Regime’s Projects
Xavier Gipson
Malachi Corley
An NFL player can keep a roster spot for years without producing as long as the people in charge of the team thinks he has potential. Every front office and coaching staff has its own project players.
When a new regime comes in suddenly these project players need to start performing, or it will be time to ship out. The new leaders will have their own projects.
Xavier Gipson will always have a place in Jets lore. His walkoff overtime punt return for a touchdown capped off one of the team’s most memorable wins in recent memory. It ended a wild 2023 opener against the Buffalo Bills where the Jets shook off Aaron Rodgers’ devastating Achilles injury and a fourth quarter deficit to register a victory. The fact an undrafted free agent like Gipson made it through two NFL seasons is something that should be celebrated. Few players with his pedigree make it so far.
Still, that Week 1 return from two years ago remains of the few highlights of Gipson’s Jets career. He hasn’t shown much progress as a returner or a receiver, despite receiving plenty of opportunities. If he doesn’t show major growth in his third training camp, his Jets career could be ending.
The same might also be true of Malachi Corley, the team’s third round pick from a year ago. The Jets reportedly started trying to trade up early in the second round to take Corley. They were eventually able to work out a deal to move up to the top pick of the third round to snag him.
That was under a different GM and different head coach, thought. Corley was a total nonfactor his rookie season. I recently wrote about how stacked the odds are against a player who produces as little as Corley in year one.
The “why” is just as important to discuss, though. Corley’s rookie season was so invisible because he is still learning the most basic element of playing wide receiver, running routes. He was moved to wide receiver in college, but over half of his catches came on screens. He was given the nickname “The YAC King” because of the proportion of his receiving yards came after the catch. However, it was a bit of a chicken or egg situation. Naturally a receiver who catches most of his passes at the line of scrimmage is going to have a high proportion of YAC yards.
To succeed at the NFL level, a receiver needs to beat coverage to get open. This is a new concept for Corley, who spent the bulk of his college career running with the ball in his hands. Even when he ran routes at Western Kentucky, his tree was pretty limited. For all intents and purposes, he is starting from scratch trying to learn the basics while also playing football at its highest level. Let’s just say his college coaches didn’t do him any favors if the goal was to help him succeed in the NFL. If the Jets hadn’t picked two running backs in the same Draft class, I might say the best thing for Corley would be to move to running back where he would be playing a role he is familiar with, trying to make something happen with the ball in his hands.
I don’t want to completely give up on a player after year one, but it is important to understand how big of a challenge Corley faces trying to develop in the NFL. The more time goes by, the more I wonder whether Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh just got overly excited watching Corley run over small school defensive backs on film and neglected the basics of the wide receiver position in their scouting evaluations.
The Roster Hopefuls
Dymere Miller
Jamaal Pritchett
Quentin Skinner
Brandon Smith
Ontaria Wilson
This is a group of undrafted first and second year players hoping to carve out a role on the roster. Their most likely path will be convincing the coaching staff that they can contribute on special teams.
That said if any of these guys flashes ability at wide receiver, there is a possibility of earning playing time. The Jets don’t have any locks after Garrett Wilson. Fifteen undrafted rookies in pro football history have produced a 600 yard season. I’m not saying I’m predicting any of these players will be the 16th. But if any of these prospects has legitimate talent that slid under the radar in the scouting process, someone from this group might be the most likely in the NFL to do it in 2025 given the lack of obstacles they will face ascending the depth chart.