The Jets are not making a change at quarterback or at safety.
Jets coach Rex Ryan said veteran Ed Reed will remain in the starting lineup. Ryan refused to acknowledge Reed’s play has slipped, saying he believes in Reed and he will start unless he is injured.
“I think Ed gives us the best shot,” Ryan said.
Reed, a certain future Hall of Famer, has looked like a shell of himself in three games with the Jets. He looks slow, afraid of contact and so scared of getting beat deep he plays so far off the line of scrimmage teams can pick the Jets apart underneath.
Reed missed a tackle on Brian Hartline’s touchdown Sunday and looked timid on several other plays where he could have made a tackle.
With Reed in the starting lineup, Antonio Allen has been sent to the bench. Allen had a strong start to the season, but now can’t get on the field.
Still, Ryan, who is loyal to Reed from their Ravens days, won’t budge.
“I think if you look at it from a statistical standpoint or something like that maybe I could see the question,” Ryan said. “We all saw him miss the tackle on Hartline’s touchdown. Ed did his job. I don’t think there’s any doubt. It starts with communication. I thought he did a good job communicating. The ball did not get thrown over us but, again, we weren’t successful.”
Ryan said WR Santonio Holmes only played two snaps in Sunday’s game because the coaches felt Holmes might further injure his hamstring if he played more and be lost for the remainder of the season.
“We thought that he was going to play a little more than that,” Ryan said. “What we noticed as coaches was … that the burst wasn’t quite there. Instead of him possibly having a setback, we were only going to play him in what we said was a must situation because we can’t afford him to take a step back and lose him for the rest of the year.”
Holmes did not practice last week and was questionable going into the game. After being evaluated in pregame warm-ups, the Jets activated him only to put him on the sideline for most of the game.
“Did we know we weren’t going to get Santonio at 100 percent? Yeah, we knew that,” Ryan said. “But I was expecting we’d get a little more of him? I expected that we were going to play him more.”
Ryan said the shoulder injury suffered by KR/WR Josh Cribbs is “pretty bad.” It sounds like Cribbs will be lost for the season. CB Antonio Cromartie returned four kicks on Sunday and averaged 31.5 yards per return. Ryan sounds hesitant to put Cromartie back there full-time, though, because of his value to the defense. The Jets may have to go outside for a kick returner. Joe McKnight, who was cut in training camp, is still a free agent.