Jets Fly at Low Altitude on ESPN's NFL Skill Players List

Aaron Rodgers's has some proven weapons to deploy, but the New York Jets' cache, as a whole, is average at best according to ESPN's team playmakers rankings.

Despite adding battle-tested veteran receivers Allen Lazard, Mecole Hardman and Randall Cobb, Gang Green jumped up only two spots from their 2022 standing. As a group, ESPN staff writer Bill Barnwell placed the Jets at No. 22 overall.

Explaining his process for NFL team wide receiver, tight end, running back rankings for 2023, Barnwell said, "... focused my rankings by considering the top five contributors for each team, where the rankings were close I usually broke ties by considering depth and what a team has in the sixth through eighth spots."

Although it's up for debate, and could change over the course of the 2023 campaign, the Jets' Top 5 appears to consist of receivers Garrett Wilson, Lazard and Hardman along with running back Breece Hall and tight end Tyler Conklin.

On Barnwell's list, the Jets were sandwiched in between the Washington Commanders and Los Angeles Rams. By comparison, AFC front runners Kansas City and Buffalo were slotted at No. 19 and No. 20, respectively, while the Cincinnati Bengals claimed the No. 2 spot overall. The San Francisco 49ers topped the circuit in the standings.

Excerpt from ESPN.com:

22. New York Jets

2022 rank: 24
2021 rank: 30

"For the Jets, it’s all about the class of 2022. Garrett Wilson won Offensive Rookie of the Year and produced upper-echelon wideout numbers with replacement-level quarterback play. His 1.92 yards per route run were in line with DK Metcalf and DJ Moore a year ago. Drops were a concern — Wilson put five balls on the ground — but he’s already a No. 1 receiver with the potential to be a superstar. ...

... Wideouts Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb afford Rodgers some level of familiarity within the offense, but they weren’t helping the Packers last season. Rodgers posted a 62.2 QBR when Cobb and Lazard were on the sideline, but when one or both of those wideouts were on the field, his QBR dropped by 23 points (39.2). In other words, with those guys off the field, Rodgers was the fifth-best quarterback in football. With one or both involved, he ranked 26th.

I’m not sure there’s a ton behind them on the wide receiver depth chart, either. Mecole Hardman has his role as a useful gadget player, but he was never able to turn into much more in Kansas City. ... Tyler Conklin played ahead of C.J. Uzomah a year ago, as the former Bengals tight end missed two games and finished with only 232 receiving yards. Whether it’s Conklin, Lazard or somebody else, the Jets desperately need a second receiver to step up behind Wilson."

— Bill Barnwell

Seeing it differently than Barnwell. Rodgers sounded satisfied with the team's lineup of skills position players following OTAs.

"But it will be exciting to get Randall back and Mecole back and Conk [Tyler Conklin] back and Breece [Hall] back, there’s a lot of guys who are going to be part of this offense that we haven’t seen. But the guys that we’ve had, I think we’ve done some nice things," said the four-time NFL MVP after the Jets' final voluntary springtime practice.

Rodgers heads into his 19th professional season and 16th as an NFL starter. The Jets will report for training camp in Florham Park on July 19.

Three #Jets Takeaways from Last Week: The summer solstice coincided with talk of psychedelics, an ACL tear and Super Bowl visionshttps://t.co/3mlcQoBe25
— Jets Pigskin (@JetsPigskin) June 28, 2023

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