Inactives Report: Mangold Out, Wesley Johnson to Start

Mangold is inactive. Complete #Jets inactives for #NYJvsOAK:

Petty
D. Smith
Pryor
Powell
J. Harrison
Ijalana
Mangold

— New York Jets (@nyjets) November 1, 2015

As expected Nick Mangold won’t play today against the Raiders, instead Wesley Johnson will take his place in the starting lineup. This comes as somewhat of a surprise considering Dakota Dozier is listed as the backup center on the Jets’ official depth chart. Wesley Johnson has no career snaps in a regular season game while Dozier has four. Mangold is a leader for the Jets’ offense, and his presence will be missed.

Other inactives include: Bryce Petty, Devin Smith, Calvin Pryor, Bilal Powell, Ben Ijalana, and Jarvis Harrison

Bryce Petty is inactive again today. It seems that if everything goes smoothly at the quarterback position Petty will remain on the inactives list for the season. Geno Smith will be backing up Ryan Fitzpatrick. It’s smart to give Petty at least one season on the bench to acclimate to the NFL and to learn the offense. The Jets have rushed their rookie quarterbacks into action before, and know that it usually isn’t a recipe for success.

Fellow rookie Devin Smith will also be inactive for today’s game against the Raiders. Smith is dealing with an ankle injury. Smith has been targeted 17 times, but only has six receptions for 60 yards on the season. Struggling to adjust would be putting it lightly. Smith missed all of training camp after suffering broken ribs on the first day. It seems that Smith has a long way to go still before he’s up to speed.

Calvin Pryor is also dealing with an ankle injury and won’t play today. That leaves the Jets with two active safeties for today’s game. The two starting safeties are Marcus Gilchrist and recent addition Dion Bailey. Gilchrist has two interceptions on the season and five passes defended. Bailey started two games for the Seahawks earlier this season and was released upon Kam Chancellor’s return.

Bilal Powell will miss another game with an ankle injury as well. Stevan Ridley will make his debut for the Jets in place of Powell. Ridley wanted to return last week against his former team, the Patriots but the Jets medical staff decided he wasn’t ready. Ridley will join Chris Ivory and Zac Stacy at running back. It will be interesting to see how they work Ridley into the rotation, or if they use him at all.

Even though Nick Mangold is out both Jarvis Harrison and Ben Ijalana will remain inactive. Harrison and Ijalana will only be considered if a guard or tackle goes down with an injury. Unless the Jets suffer serious injuries on the offensive line, these two should remain on the inactives report for the season.

The Jets will look to bounce back from a tough loss to their division rivals. At 4-2 the Jets are still sitting at a nice spot in the AFC, and they could make it even better by going 5-2. The Raiders are looking somewhat dangerous recently with the emergence of Amari Cooper and the steady play of Derek Carr. The change in time zones shouldn’t be a factor seeing as the Jets went from the east coast all the way to London and beat the Dolphins convincingly. Although this game isn’t against their toughest opponent, it is an important one. The Jets would feel much better at 5-2 rather that 4-3 going into week nine.

John Viscardi

John is a life long Jets fan, a recent graduate of UW with a Bachelor's in Journalism, and an all around sports enthusiast.

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