For the last three seasons, the Jets’ receiving corps has put fear into exactly zero opposing defenses. Not for one Sunday. Not for one series. Not for a single play.
Not coincidentally, the Jets have failed to make the playoffs the last three seasons.
A fair argument can be made the Jets have not even fielded an actual NFL-caliber receiving corps the last three seasons.
Peruse some of the names Mark Sanchez and now Geno Smith have been throwing passes to since 2011 — where have you gone Chaz Schilens, Patrick Turner, Jordan White, Mardy Gilyard, Dedrick Epps and Hayden Smith? — and it becomes easier to understand how offensively challenged the team has been.
Along the way, the Jets have — as they’ve done far too often in their history — unsuccessfully chased production from previously productive players past their primes with Braylon Edwards, Plaxico Burress and Derrick Mason brought in for various stints.
The Jets receiving situation over the course of the last three years has resembled a disorganized fire drill.
This 2014 Jets receiving corps has a chance to dramatically change the script, possibly even become a strength instead of the liability the position has been. This season could represent a new beginning of sorts for their receiving corps.
That improvement has come first through subtraction and then by addition. The Jets no longer have Santonio Holmes poisoning their locker room with his selfish, sulking behavior.
They, too, rid themselves of 2012 second-round draft pick Stephen Hill and his unfulfilled potential.
The Jets go forward with Eric Decker, their prized offseason free-agent acquisition ($36.25 million over five years with $15 million guaranteed), Jeremy Kerley in his fourth season with the team and dependable veteran David Nelson, who should benefit from a year in offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg’s system and a full offseason with the team.
There also are possible X-factors in the receiving group that could contribute in time such as speedy rookies Saalim Hakim and Jalen Saunders as well as Greg Salas, who had such a strong training camp he refused to be cut.
“I feel like this year there are no excuses,” Nelson said Tuesday. “We’re just a bunch of guys who are out there playing free and utilizing their skill set and their abilities.
There were just a lot of things that were happening last year — Santonio wasn’t healthy, Stephen was battling injuries, we had a brand-new offense, we were going through growing pains with a rookie quarterback [Smith].
“This year, all of those elements are out of the picture.”
The most important piece to that puzzle is Decker, who comes to the Jets needing to answer two questions:
– Is he the true No. 1 receiver the Jets paid him to be?
– And is he as good as his numbers the last two seasons — an average of 86 catches and 12 touchdowns — or were those numbers a product of Peyton Manning as his quarterback in Denver?
Pre-Peyton, Decker had 44 catches for 612 yards and eight TDs in 2011, catching passes from Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow. Those numbers would still make him the best receiver on the Jets.
But the Jets need better from him than that — much better.
Decker will face the pressure as a high-priced free agent trying to prove his worth in New York. The Jets hope he’ll work out better than Brian McCann has for the Yankees.
“He’s now THE GUY,” Nelson said.
Asked if more pressure comes with that, Nelson said, “If it does, I haven’t seen it from him. He’s handled it extremely well.”
Decker, of course, has not played a regular-season game or endured a regular-season slump yet, either.
“You can tell he’s come in with a chip on his shoulder and is hungry to prove that he lives up that money that he got and to the past success that’s he’s had,” Nelson said.
“I don’t look at it as pressure; I look at it as an opportunity for me to be a leader in receiver room as well as in this offense through my experience being on a winning team and knowing what it takes to get to a Super Bowl,” Decker said.
“I feel confident with the guys that we’ve got, the pieces we have now with Eric and Nelson,” Kerley said. “I feel like we’ve got all the right tools to be great. We’ve just got to go out there and perform now.”