NY Jets’ wide receivers ranked among the worst in the NFL by PFF

The NY Jets’ new-look wide receiver corps is still considered one of the worst in the NFL.

The NY Jets completely remade their wide receiver room in the offseason through both free agency and the 2020 NFL Draft. And come the start of the season, fans will be witness to a new-look group of pass-catchers taking the field.

However, just because something is new doesn’t mean it’s automatically better. And that’s what analysts seem to think about the Jets’ wide receiver position heading into 2020.

Pro Football Focus recently ranked every wide receiver group in the NFL and the Jets ranked near the bottom of the league at No. 28. Only the Miami Dolphins, New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Washington Redskins were ranked below Gang Green.

On the surface, this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.

Outlook of the NY Jets’ wide receiver corps.

The Jets lost arguably their most talented wide receiver in the offseason when Robby Anderson signed a two-year, $20 million deal to join the Carolina Panthers. And his replacement, Breshad Perriman, doesn’t have quite the same track record of success.

The Jets will be counting on Perriman to fill Anderson’s deep-threat role, but the former first-round pick has just five games of starting-caliber production under his belt.

More from The Jet Press

• NY Jets: Jonnu Smith would be a smart free-agent target
• NY Jets: 3 non-quarterback trade targets on offense
• NY Jets expected to be ‘much more aggressive’ in free agency this year
• NY Jets: Patriots will not use the franchise tag on Joe Thuney
• NY Jets officially place the franchise tag on safety Marcus Maye

Before his late-season stretch of dominance last season, Perriman was all but written off as a first-round bust. The hope is that he’ll be able to build off of the momentum he built at the end of last season with a career-year in 2020 now that he’ll be a featured part of an offense.

Perriman is expected to start alongside rookie second-round pick Denzel Mims on the outside. Mims has the potential to be a No. 1 receiver at the next level, but his inconsistencies in college combined with his limited route tree could make his development a gradual process.

As PFF noted in their analysis, the Jets are putting an awful lot of pressure on Mims to become “the guy” at wide receiver early on in his career. And despite his incredible potential, that probably isn’t a wise thing to do.

The article did seem to undersell Jamison Crowder a bit referring to him as a “specialized, complementary piece” which seems a bit unfair.

Crowder hauled in 78 grabs for 833 yards and six touchdowns in 2019 and with a healthy 16-game season from quarterback Sam Darnold, it’s easy to see the former Redskins receiver reaching the 1,000-yard mark.

He’s not a No. 1 receiver, but Crowder is one of the better slot receivers in the NFL so it seems unfair to diminish the role he plays on offense to simply a “specialized piece.”

Still, this overall analysis seems to be fair. The Jets will need a lot of things to go right in 2020 to have anywhere close to an average receiver corps. Obviously, the hope is that the presence of players like Le’Veon Bell and Chris Herndon will mitigate many of those concerns.

But that remains to be seen.

For now, however, the Jets’ receiver room looks pretty underwhelming on paper.