NY Jets: Browns will be without their top 4 wide receivers in Week 16

The NY Jets are set to face a depleted Cleveland Browns team in Week 16.

The NY Jets will be looking for their second consecutive victory when they return home to take on the Cleveland Browns in Week 16. And it seems as though they’ll have a little help in the form of a few absent Browns players.

It was reported on Saturday that a member of the Browns tested positive for COVID-19. That player turned out to be linebacker B.J. Goodson who, of course, was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list and will be unable to play this week.

But Goodson isn’t the only player who will miss this week. And he’s far from the most notable.

The Browns announced later in the day that they had officially placed their top four wide receivers on the COVID-19 list meaning that Jarvis Landry, Rashard Higgins, Donovan Peoples-Jones, and KhaDarel Hodge will be sidelined for this week.

Rookie third-round linebacker Jacob Phillips will also join them on the reserve list. As a result, the Browns were forced to elevate wide receivers Derrick Willies and Ja’Marcus Bradley and linebacker Montrel Meander from the practice squad.

The Browns will be very thin at wide receiver against the NY Jets

That leaves the Browns with only three healthy receivers on their active roster, the other being veteran Marvin Hall who was claimed off waivers from the Detroit Lions earlier this month.

Hall has yet to catch a pass with the Browns. The same goes for Bradley who has played in two games this season. An undrafted free agent out of Louisiana, Bradley has been elevated twice this season but has yet to record a reception.

As for Willies, the 26-year-old was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Texas Tech in 2018. He hauled in three catches for 61 yards in his rookie season, but hasn’t recorded a catch since.

That means that of the three receivers the Browns will have on their roster this week, none of them have caught a pass with the team in two years. Not an ideal situation for Cleveland.

After picking up their first win of the season in shocking fashion against the Los Angeles Rams a week ago, the Jets now appear to be in decent shape to perhaps score their second victory in a row.

Could the Jets actually manage to pull off their second consecutive upset against a playoff-caliber opponent? They’ll certainly have a better shot at it now.