Jets have no reason to bring in another buddy for Aaron Rodgers
ESPN Senior Writer Bill Barnwell put out his post-NFL draft moves predictions and he believes that the Jets still have one move to make: sign former Green Bay Packers tight end Marcedes Lewis. This isn’t a huge leap that Barnwell takes. Since Aaron Rodgers announced his intention to play for the New York Jets the […]
ESPN Senior Writer Bill Barnwell put out his post-NFL draft moves predictions and he believes that the Jets still have one move to make: sign former Green Bay Packers tight end Marcedes Lewis.
This isn’t a huge leap that Barnwell takes. Since Aaron Rodgers announced his intention to play for the New York Jets the team has been doing everything they can do make the future Hall of Famer comfortable in New York.
The reports of Rodgers “wish list” included four names. The Jets already signed two of those, Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb, and appeared to be on the verge of signing Odell Beckham Jr. before the Ravens swooped in and gave him a massive one-year deal. The last remaining name from Rodgers' alleged list is Marcedes Lewis.
The Packers appear to be out on re-signing Lewis after drafting two tight ends in this year’s draft. Green Bay appears to be all in on the youth movement. Lewis is on the verge of playing more seasons than any tight end in NFL history, passing Tony Gonzalez and Jason Witten.
To sign Lewis would be openly admitting another draft failure on the part of GM Joe Douglas’ part. In order to sign the soon to be 39-year-old, the Jets would need to make room in their extremely crowded tight end room. The most likely candidate to get the axe would be last year’s third round pick and Long Island native Jeremy Ruckert.
Looking at the tight end room, Ruckert is the most obvious choice to be buried again or even released for the 2023 Jets. Tyler Conklin was clearly the team’s TE1 in 2022 with 58 catches and 552 yards and he had a decent year as a run blocker.
C.J. Uzomah was supposed to be the prized free agent acquisition in the tight end room years ago but wound up being supplanted by Conklin and managing only 21 receptions and 232 yards receiving last year. The problem is his cap hit. According to Spotrac, the tight end has a dead cap hit of over $12 million if the Jets cut him this year. The team would actually lose close to $6 million if it were to cut Uzomah, so his roster spot is safe by default.
In the 2023 the draft, the Jets took a flyer in the seventh round on Zack Kuntz out of Old Dominion. Early reports out of rookie mini camp is this kid could be a matchup nightmare in the passing game. If he continues to progress, it could be easy to see the Jets hanging on to a weapon like that.
Which leaves Jeremy Ruckert on the outs. Ruckert, who grew up a Jets fan, was the 101st pick in the 2022 draft out of Ohio State and he basically used his rookie season as a red shirt year as he was unable to get on the field ahead of Tyler Conklin, C.J. Uzomah and even Kenny Yeboah. Ruckert played only in only 9 games with zero starts and 46 offensive snaps in 2022.
His best chance of making the team would be a special teams role and he did play 101 special teams snaps in 2022, but as we all know, those jobs are never guaranteed. Yeboah played over 200 special teams snaps in 2022, so it's pretty clear which tight end the Jets would prefer in hypothetical choose-one-or-the-other scenario.
The Jets will need more production out of a guy they thought highly enough to take in the 3rd round. A pick that high should be making some sort of impact on the team by Year 2. The team can’t afford to continually miss on guys drafted outside of the first round. It’s not possible to build and sustain a successful franchise if they can’t identify and develop talent that isn’t top 15 picks.
Lewis doesn’t constitute a need for the Jets and would only make a crowded room overflow. It is much more important to develop a guy like Jeremy Ruckert than it is to bring in another of Rodgers’ friends from Green Bay.
