The Jets’ wide receiving corps has been a unit in flux all season. A season-ending injury to top receiver Santonio Holmes and minor injuries to other receivers have created inconsistency and uncertainty in the group.
This week, they most likely will not have Clyde Gates (concussion), and Jeremy Kerley (hamstring, heel) and Chaz Schilens (concussion) have missed practice time this week. That led coach Rex Ryan to call on rookie Stephen Hill to pick up the slack.
“He’s basically just saying, ‘Go out there and get the job done,’” Hill said. “That’s been my motto the whole year. I haven’t gotten certain things done, but definitely this is the week for me to come out and get the job done.”
It’s been an up-and-down year for Hill, who was the team’s second-round pick out of Georgia Tech. He has 16 catches for 212 yards and three touchdowns, but his most memorable moment was a dropped pass in New England that might have cost the Jets the game.
Twelve weeks into his rookie year, Hill still is very raw.
“I don’t think Stephen would tell you that he’s to the point that we’d like him to be,” offensive coordinator Tony Sparano said. “This guy, he has a ton of arrow-up upside. He’s got all the athletic ability and he’s got a tremendous work ethic and he’s a smart kid, so those are all qualities that help you grow in our business. But I think Stephen would tell you the same thing. He has room to improve right now, certainly.”
Hill said he hit the “rookie wall” early in the season. He was fatigued in September and began to wonder if he would make it through the whole season.
“I was like, ‘Man, this is going to be a long ride.’ Once I got used to it, I was fine,” Hill said.
The Cardinals have a strong defense, but the Jets will need Hill to make plays today.
“They have a lot of physical guys out there, but we’re going to go out there and do our thing and get this win,” he said.
* Ryan got his start in the NFL as an assistant with the Cardinals when his father, Buddy, was the head coach there in 1994-95.
“The best thing that ever happened to me, being in my profession and learning the game,” Ryan said this week about his experience in Arizona. “From my perspective, I’m only about probably 100,000 times better [a] coach than I was then but I appreciated it for myself.
“Learning under my dad—my dad was 50 years ahead of his time as a coach, a defensive coach—so that really helped me learn how to attack offenses and all of that kind of stuff.”