Talking Jets: The First Correct 53 Man Roster Prediction
With one more round of cuts in the books the only cut left is the final 53. You will see a lot of people and their predictions of what they believe the final 53 will look like but I can assure you, mine is the only one that matters because I am the only one who will get it right, So let’s go over the final 53 Final Jets Roster Predictions. Please keep in mind that all these predictions are mine and mine alone and I will also be including trades.
Final 53 Man Roster Predictions
#TakeFlight #JetsJoint https://t.co/EBuFOhbGxe — G (@gmf1369) August 24, 2022
Quarterback (3): Zach Wilson, Joe Flacco, Chris Streveler
The Jets Quarterback room is really easy to break down. Zach is the QB of the future and is the most straightforward lock on this whole roster. Flacco has played his way into the backup job and according to some fans and reporters who aren’t sold on Zach, Flacco should be QB1. I don’t buy that at all but, some people are crazy enough to believe that playing the 37-year-old is a better idea. Streveler has outplayed Mike White this preseason and has played his way into the QB3 job. Mike White ultimately gets traded elsewhere because he has value as a QB2 or Highend QB3 on a team. You send him away for whatever you can get for him.
Running Back (3): Breece Hall, Michael Carter, Tevin Coleman
The belief that the Jets carry more than 3 running backs is a bit naive in my opinion. With two really high-profile players in Breece Hall and Michael Carter. I fully expect that those two will get most of the carries and RB3 will be brought in for very few situations. Coleman gets the nod at RB3 because this coaching staff loves the guy and ultimately he wins the job that way. We also need to remember that the Jets ran the ball the fewest number of times amongst any team in the NFL.
<img decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/jetsjoint.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/23/2022/08/joint-practice-courtesy-of-usa-today-e1661095087741.png?w=880&ssl=1" alt="Jets Falcons joint practice courtesy of usa today" class="wp-image-330 lazyload" data-recalc-dims="1" />
Jets RB Breece Hall Showing his speed. Courtesy of USA Today
Tons of people will pound the table for Zonavan “Bam’ Knight but ultimately hasn’t shown anything to me that makes me believe he deserves a roster spot. In the run game, he wasn’t very productive, and even though he looked good on special teams, he won’t beat out the guys above him on the roster for those reps. As long as Berrios is on the team, you give the pro-bowler the nod on special team reps.
Wide Receiver (5): Elijah Moore, Corey Davis, Garret Wilson, Braxton Berrios, Jeff Smith
With the amount of high-end wide receiver talent the Jets have and how some of the UDFA kids look. I think we take a risk and hope that a few of those guys clear waivers and makes it onto the Practice squad. In this situation, we are trading away Denzel Mims. Acquiring future assets is the name of the game here and Mims gets you a mid-round pick from a desperate team. It truly sucks to see a player like Mims go especially with his skill set but with a top four of Elijah Moore, Corey Davis, Garret Wilson, and Braxton Berrios as WR1 through WR4 it’s hard to imagine Mims getting more than 5 snaps a game. Get the draft pick in return and let him earn and play higher up the depth chart on another team. Jeff Smith comes in as the next best wide receiver on the team and gets WR5. You hope to never see him on the field and he will contribute on special teams.
Tight End (3): CJ Uzomah, Tyler Conklin, Jeremy Ruckert
The Jets would love to carry 5 tight ends if they could. This team loves their tight ends and now that we have a competent room expect 12 and 22 personnel packages almost constantly. The holdovers from last year are only here to take preseason reps and build themselves up enough to get traded. Also, for all you Lawrence cager fans out there. While he has looked good let’s make sure we understand the context of that. The Jets staff knew that Cager was making the switch to Tight end at the end of last season. Knowing this they still went out and signed two new tight ends and drafted one in the third round. He also showed all his flashes against 3rd and 4th team guys. You cut him and hope he makes it through waivers. The same goes for Kenny Yeboah. The kid has potential but isn’t worth a spot at his current level.
Full Back (1): Nick Bawden
To all you people out there that think we should cut Nick Bawden, it shows a few things. It shows how little you know about Coach Mike Lafluer and his play-calling tendencies and two it shows that you don’t truly understand at how high a level Nick Bawden played last year after being acquired by the Jets. Nick was an ELITE level FB and will make the Jets better. Keep an eye out for a Nick Bawden article soon. I will go into a deep-level analysis of Nick and what he brings to the table.
Offensive Tackle (4): Duane Brown, George Fant, Chuma Edoga, Max Mitchell
The offensive tackle spot is pretty simple. You have your starters in Duane Brown and George Fant. Then you have your backups in Max Mitchell a fourth-round pick we hope develops into a solid right tackle for this team’s future and Chuma Edoga the best remaining tackle on the roster. McDermott got hurt and I think that will cost him this spot but also I like what I saw from Edoga in the context of being a backup. We hope he doesn’t play at all this year but if he does it isn’t the end of the world. The real concern for the Jets is next year and how you address that.
Interior Offensive Line (5): Connor McGovern, Alijah Vera-Tucker, Laken Tomlinson, Nate Herbig, Dan Feeney
The Jets Interior Offensive Line is another really easy position group to figure out. You take your three starters obviously and a backup guard and center. Nate Herbig gets the nod for me as the backup guard cause he played really well in pre-season but also because he has positional versatility to play center as well. The same thing can be said about Dan Feeny but ultimately if Connor McGovern goes down Feeny steps into the role and he showed us he can play the role pretty well for a backup.
Defensive End (5): Carl Lawson, John Franklin Myers, Jermaine Johnson, Jacob Martin, Jabari Zuniga
This edge group is DEEP! The rotation for this group will be insanely productive. Carl Lawson coming back from injury looks better than ever and JFM showed us last year what he can do off the edge. Jermaine Johnson II is a first-round pick that the Jets felt comfortable picking at 10 so he makes the team of course. Jacob Martin was a player we went out and paid and is being underrated by a lot of Jets fans because no one saw him cause he played on the Texans last year. Watch out for Martin because he is a third-down specialist and knows how to get into opposing offenses’ backfields. The last spot goes to Zuniga because I think the Jets should look at trading Huff. Even with a rotation I rarely want to see Huff Or Zuniga whoever gets the nod on the field, Huff has a higher trade value on the market so he gets moved and Zuniga stays
Defensive Line (5): Quinnen Williams, Solomon Thomas, Sheldon Rankins, Micheal Clemons, Jonathan Marshall
The first thing people will question about my list is the fact that I put Clemons on the interior and yes I did. Almost all his snaps in the pre-season games were taken inside and at practice, he has been working both inside and out. Expect to see him play both but ultimately be an inside guy. I expect Quinnen Williams and Solomon Thomas to start. I decided to keep Sheldon Rankins and hope that he lives up to the first-round draft pick pedigree and chose to keep Jonathan Marshall because he was bigger and stronger than Tanzel Smart and I wanted a bigger body up the middle.
Linebacker (6): CJ Mosley, Kwon Alexander, Quincy Williams, Marcell Harris, Jamien Sherwood, Hamsah Nasrildeen
This room is the biggest question mark of the whole roster. I went with the more swings at the plate the better chance of a hit approach. By cutting some of the fat around other places on the roster I was able to carry all the Linebackers. CJ Mosley, Kwon Alexander, and Marcell Harris are all solid players but all these guys are really only here for 1 year. We need to keep Quincy Williams, Jamien Sherwood, and Hamsah Nasrildeen to see what we have in these guys. We need to evaluate this room and come up with a plan for the future. So if that means carrying one less wide receiver or one less running back then that’s what we should do. Especially since those two rooms are really strong for this team.
Cornerback (6): DJ Reed, Ahmad Gardner, Bryce Hall, Bradin Echols, Michael Carter II, Javelin Guidry
Before the preseason games I was leading the march on that we should trade Bryce Hall away to a team who needs a starting CB desperately. With Isaiah Dunn looking promising and Echols having starting experience from last year and going into year two I wanted the draft pick we would have gotten for Hall. Unfortunately, Bryce Hall played in the two pre-season games and looked HORRIBLE so now it’s almost impossible to trade him at this point for any value that is worth it. The rest of the CBs are just the best 6 guys.
Safety (4): Jordan Whitehead, Lamarcus Joyner, Jason Pinnock, Ashtyn Davis
The safety room has a lot of different opinions floating out there. Some people cut Davis for Parks, some people cut Joyner because of Pinnock, and some people only carry 3 Safeties. For me, it was pretty simple. Whitehead and Joyner are slotted as the starters. Pinnock needs a full year at safety to truly learn the position as he was a cornerback who converted to safety late last year. And lastly, I don’t believe Joe Douglas is ready to give up on Ashtyn Davis and his athleticism.
Special Teams (3): Greg Zuerlein, Braden Mann, Thomas Hennessy
With the cutting of Eddie, it really makes the whole special teams player selection really easy. My choice of kicker was Greg “The Leg” Zuerlein anyway so it feels good to be right about this pick. Braden Mann will be trying to recover from last year’s injury derailing his progress. And finally, Thomas Hennessy is the GOAT and we need more people buying Hennessy Jerseys.
Final Thoughts
Going through this exercise is always fun and allows us all to play armchair GM for our favorite teams. Ultimately though this is an exercise in futility because once other teams cut their players and waiver wire pick-ups happen there will be players no one even expected to be on the roster.