THAT’S GOTTA HURT
Parade of injuries major part of Jets’ painful season
This is how bad the Jets’ injury situation is: An assistant coach was wearing a walking boot at practice on Wednesday.
Assistant defensive line coach John Scott Jr. fit right in on this banged-up team that has sustained an unbelievable amount of injuries this year, which has led to tremendous roster turnover.
On Saturday against the Patriots, the Jets will have just one starting offensive lineman — left guard James Carpenter — left at his position from the start of the season. Four other starting offensive linemen are on injured reserve.
The numbers are staggering when it comes to Jets injuries and turnover. They have used 70 players this season, more than any other team in the NFL, through 14 games, according to Elias Sports Bureau. They used 60 players all of last year. Starters missed a combined 20 games for the Jets in 2015. This year they will miss at least 81. According to Spotrac, the Jets have had 22 players on injured reserve (some have been waived), tied for most in the league.
If you are looking for differences between 2015 and 2016, it is easy to point to Ryan Fitzpatrick’s regression, Darrelle Revis’ decline and Todd Bowles’ coaching decisions. If you dig a little deeper, though, you will see the team had incredible luck with health last year and terrible luck in this season.
“It’s just bad luck,” Bowles said. “It happens.”
The biggest injury this season was to wide receiver Eric Decker, who played just three games before undergoing surgery on his shoulder and hip. But he is not alone. On the offensive line, tackle Breno Giaco- mini will wind up missing 11 games with a back injury, and center Nick Mangold will miss eight games with a bum ankle. Starting inside linebacker Erin Henderson was placed on the non-football injury list in October. He will miss 11 games.
All of the injuries have led to roster turnover that has been disruptive. Of the 53 men on the active roster right now, 38 were on it to start the season.
Saturday the Jets will have their ninth different offensive-line combination. It is possible the Jets will have different starters at eight positions on offense against the Patriots from the group that started the season against the Bengals.
Of those, only quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has been benched.
“It’s part of it,” Bowles said. “Last year we didn’t [have the injuries]. This year we have. You’ve got to go as you see fit. The other guys have got to step up and play and get experience right away. You’ve got to make sure you understand what they can do when they go in there. Obviously, they don’t do the things that the guys in front of them do, but you have to make sure you have a good grasp of what they can do and try to let them do it.”
Running back Matt Forte, who might miss Saturday’s game with a shoulder injury, said dealing with the changing faces has been difficult.
“It affects you,” Forte said. “You try to have the next-manup mentality, but when you have starters out, it’s always going to hurt a team. It’s just difficult to deal with when the cliché ‘injury bug’ hits. It’s just tough to deal with as a team.”
Nowhere has the roster fluctuation been felt more than on special teams. The Jets have struggled this year in that area, but special teams coach Brant Boyer has had a vastly different cast of characters every week. The kickoff return team that opened last week’s game with the Dolphins featured eight players who were not on the Jets at the beginning of the season.
“It’s tough,” Boyer said. “I’m not going to lie. [Ask] any coach, that’s part of the profession. … You’ve got to be ready when your number’s called. That’s part of being a professional in this league. I had to do it as a player. [Bowles] had to do it as a player. There’s a lot of people that have had to do that. That’s the way you make a career for yourself, is to be ready when your number’s called. If your number’s called and you don’t take advantage of it, you’re not going to make it very long. It’s been a frustrating year.”