Denzel Mims Highlights a Potentially Faster, More Explosive Offense for the New York Jets
It couldn’t get much worse for the New York Jets last year, an offense that had a hard time doing almost anything a season ago now suddenly bristling with expectation. A major reason why there is hope that the Jets can move the ball and score some points this year is because of Denzel Mims.
A second round pick of the Jets in April’s NFL Draft, Mims is coming off a highly productive senior season at Baylor where he had 66 catches for 1,020 yards and 12 touchdowns. A hamstring injury for much of training camp has hurt his ability to blend into the offense as the Jets are just starting to get a look at him in real-time over the past few days.
“He’s explosive, quick in and out of his breaks, I think that’s the biggest thing and then he’s a big target,” quarterback Sam Darnold said on Wednesday during his virtual press conference.
“I mean those are all the things you want in a receiver, so whenever you got a big guy like that who can run, who can get in and out of his cuts, that’s what you want. So that’s Denzel. It’s about understanding kind of what’s going on in the game plan and locking in that way. But he was great today, we just got to continue to build off of it.”
Mims has the potential to be a playmaker in a Jets offense that lacked an ability to get into the open field a year ago. And while as a rookie, the expectation level will be modest for his output, he still will almost surely be an upgrade as a third wide receiver.
With Jamison Crowder returning and Breshad Perrriman signed in free agency, the targets for Darnold should be an upgrade over last year.
An improved offensive line and the return to health of tight end Chris Herndon, a favorite of Darnold from two years ago, the potential is there for the offense to be improved.
It may not be the greatest show on turf but there is reason for optimism that the passing offense will take a step (or two) forward in 2020.
The Jets were No. 29 in the league in passing last season.
“I think just for me personally, having a better understanding of some things and being more confident with just generally what’s going on, I think that’s the biggest thing,” Darnold said.
“And then you got guys who have been offense before like Crowder and Herndon, who’ve been helping the other guys out, Ryan Griffin, Trevon Wesco, Le’Veon [Bell] obviously. So, yeah, it’s just, being in the second year for a lot of us in the system, that’s been really good, and I think people are going to see improvements definitely from last year.”
