Early Injuries for Gang Green Highlight Draft Day Flub

Jets GM Joe Douglas hasn’t done a whole lot wrong in the early portion of his tenure at the helm, but one criticism he faced immediately following the NFL draft looks to have a chance to come back and haunt him already.  The Jets were thin at wide receiver and in a historically deep class, he used just one selection on a pass catcher in Denzel Mims.

Now after just a few days of training camp, Mims is nursing a hamstring injury, Vyncint Smith, whom Douglas praised heavily before the draft, is out for up to two months, and potential depth piece Josh Doctson opted out due to Covid.  With this being the case, the Jets are down to just seven wide receivers and after just a few practices, head coach Adam Gase had to take things easy on his team today to allow his receivers to get healthy.

#Jets had only 7 WRs available today:

Breshad Perriman
Jamison Crowder
Jeff Smith
Jehu Chesson
Josh Malone
Lawrence Cager-R
George Campbell-R

In coming days, they will have Denzel Mims, Chris Hogan + Braxton Berrios back on the field.

— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) August 18, 2020

When Douglas was armed with three fourth-round draft choices, there were plenty of observers who felt at least one of those picks would be used on a wide receiver.  Perhaps Antonio Gandy-Golden out of Liberty, Gabriel Davis out of UCF or even Virginia’s super versatile Joe Reed.  Instead, Douglas opted to go with running back LaMical Perine, project quarterback James Morgan and offensive lineman Cameron Clark.

Clark has the potential to fill an area of need whereas Perine plays arguably the most disposable position in the sport and Morgan figures to take a year or two before he’s ready to be Sam Darnold’s true backup, if he ever gets to that point.

If this season was supposed to be about getting Darnold some help, more draft resources should have been used to take advantage of a deep class.  When all is said and done it’s entirely possible that Douglas’ approach to this years class will show he made the right calls, but as injuries mount early on, it’s looking like a mistake in the early going.

Glenn Naughton

Glenn was Born in the Bronx, New York and has followed the Jets religiously despite being stationed in several different countries and time zones around the world. He now resides in England and has been a JetNation member since 2005. Glenn will bleed green with the rest of us through the highs and lows.

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