The Jets landed their quarterback. Now they face the question: Whom is he going to throw to?
That question is the biggest one surrounding the Jets right now and surely prompted the call from the team last week to the agent of former Giants receiver Plaxico Burress. The much-discussed call appears to have been just a fact-finding mission, with the chance of them signing the troubled receiver remote.
The fact that they would even discuss Burress speaks to how bleak the Jets’ receiver outlook is. Beyond Jerricho Cotchery, the team has no proven receivers. They talked to Arizona about Anquan Boldin, but the price was too steep. Instead they chose to gamble on quarterback Mark Sanchez in the draft and take care of the receiver hole later.
When it leaked Sunday night the team had looked at Burress, the Jets began damage control saying they were just doing their “due diligence.”
The team is publicly pretending it believes it has the answer in-house. It’s hard to believe that, though, when the Jets spent the past two months talking about how much they believed in quarterbacks Kellen Clemens and Brett Ratliff, then pulled the rug out from underneath them.
General manager Mike Tannenbaum did his best to sell his current receivers Sunday after he failed to address the need in the draft.
“When you look at Brad [Smith] and David Clowney, they’re really hard-working guys that, in my opinion, have gotten better every year that they’ve been here,” Tannenbaum said. “And I think people like Marcus Henry have great opportunities. There’s really a lot of guys here we like.
“If there’s an opportunity to improve our team and the decision is something (coach) Rex (Ryan) and I believe in, we’ll keep going through the rest of the offseason. If there’s another player out there, we’ll certainly evaluate that opportunity, but we really feel good about the guys we have. Their football acumen, their toughness, their work ethic, they are guys we really do believe in.”
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The Jets added another quarterback to their roster with a little less fanfare than Sanchez generated. They signed Chris Pizzotti, a 6-foot-5 signal-caller from Harvard. He will compete with third-team QB Erik Ainge for a roster spot.
The Jets also waived two players: punter Reggie Hodges and running back Marcus Mason.
Hodges averaged 42.8 yards per punt last season in 12 games. Interestingly, he wore No. 6 last year, which is now Sanchez’s number.
Cleveland State basketball star J’Nathan Bullock reportedly signed with the Jets, who see the 6-foot-5, 240-pound power forward as a tight end. Also signing was former Rutgers defensive end Jamaal Westerman.