Damning new report exposes ugly truth about Malachi Corley’s Jets downfall

With the roster cut deadline looming next week, wide receiver Malachi Corley is one name widely expected to be among the New York Jets’ final casualties. It’s a stunning fall from grace for a player the previous regime was enamored with just 16 months ago.

Corley's time in New York has been nothing short of a disaster. The Western Kentucky product appeared in nine games as a rookie, finishing the season with just three catches for 16 yards. Now, just one year after he was drafted 65th overall, he's expected to be part of final roster cuts.

Where did it all go wrong for the self-proclaimed "YAC King"? As it turns out, his Jets' downfall may have had just as much to do with off-field issues as on-field shortcomings.

SNY's Connor Hughes shared a damning report about Corley on a recent episode of Jets Final Drive this week. Hughes revealed that as a rookie, Corley “didn’t want to play special teams because he thought he should be a starting receiver.”

He added that Corley’s “entitlement” and “immaturity” damaged his standing with the team early on, and it was a setback he never truly recovered from.

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Malachi Corley's Jets career was marred by on-field struggles and off-field blunders

As an added sidenote, Hughes explained that Corley was reluctant to give up his No. 17 jersey when the Jets traded for Davante Adams last offseason. When Adams offered $20,000 for the number, Corley countered with a whopping $120,000.

That kind of attitude is a surefire way to derail a young player’s career, especially in a locker room trying to build accountability under a new regime this year.

For Corley, it set the tone for a disastrous rookie year and created a perception that has followed him into his second season — one that now seems destined to end with his release.

The Corley situation doesn't feel like any of the other Jets Day 2 wide receiver busts (of which there have been many!) in recent years. Two different coaching staffs have evaluated Corley and essentially determined that he isn't an NFL-caliber player.

Corley spent basically the entire summer working with the third-team offense and is realistically WR9 or WR10 on the current depth chart. That's behind multiple undrafted rookies in one of the weakest wide receiver rooms in football.

It should speak volumes that the very regime that was so high on him — infamously ranking him as their WR4 ahead of players like Ladd McConkey and Brian Thomas Jr. — ultimately decided he wasn’t even good enough to see the field as a rookie.

Now, we have a bit more insight into why that decision was made. Corley’s struggles were never just about talent — they were about mindset, maturity, and a refusal to embrace the grind every rookie has to face.

That combination all but sealed his fate, and with roster cuts looming, his time with the Jets is set to end much the same way it began: in disappointment. What a disaster of a draft pick.

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