New York Jets should cut ties with Darryl Roberts, stick with young guys

The New York Jets should cut veteran cornerback Darryl Roberts. Here’s why the team should stick with the young players on the roster and move on.

The New York Jets have found a few diamonds in the rough at the cornerback position in Bless Austin and Arthur Maulet.

Per Pro Football Focus grades, they both finished with the highest defensive grades from Sunday’s game vs the Oakland Raiders:

• Bless Austin (81.7)
• Arthur Maulet (81.4)

The Oakland Raiders threw Austin’s way six times and completed three passes for just 24 yards.

While Maulet was tested seven times and that went for six receptions for 32 yards, per Connor Hughes of The Athletic.

Bless is only 23 years old and Maulet is only 26 years old, but the Jets have a decision to make at the cornerback spot.

Veteran cornerback Darryl Roberts has been battling a calf injury and is expected to return to practice this week, but that doesn’t mean the coaching staff should hand him his starting job back.

In the NFL one day you can have a job and another day an injury could cost you your spot. In this specific scenario that is exactly what happened.

Roberts has been a trash bag full of rotten mangos.

Per ESPN’s Rich Cimini, “Roberts ranks 57th out of 71 CBs in passer rating allowed (106.1), per NextGen Stats (based on nearest defender, min: 200 coverage snaps.”

While the Jets did just hand him a contract extension in the offseason (three-year $18 million contract with $4 million guaranteed), there’s an out after this year.

If the Jets cut him at the end of 2019, there will be zero dead cap over the final two years of his deal. The Jets would save $6 million against the cap by making this move.

It’s time for the Jets to go on a youth movement.

Not only does it make fiscal sense to pull the trigger, but it just makes football sense. Darryl hasn’t been the same player he was earlier in 2019 and he’s had a bad attitude. In fact earlier this season, Darryl called out Jets fans on social media.

This front office and coaching staff owes it to themselves to play the best guys regardless of circumstance.