Coach not running from Lee at LB
The Jets’ run defense is dead last in the NFL. They have been shredded for 370 yards over two weeks. One of the main culprits has been second-year linebacker Darron Lee.
Lee was pushed around against the Raiders on Sunday. Guard Kelechi Osemele drove him 5 yards off the ball on one long touchdown run. Center Rodney Hudson pushed him to the ground on another. A tight end knocked him to the ground on a long gain by Marshawn Lynch.
The 2016 first-round pick has been a disappointment. But don’t tell coach Todd Bowles that.
“Darron is fine,” Bowles said. “You’re singling out Darron. We had a lot of guys not playing the run very well. Take that as you wish.”
Lee is only 230 pounds and looks overmatched against big offensive linemen. Bowles said that was not the case, though.
“Situations are different,” Bowles said. “It’s a matter of whether he’s blitzing, what gap he’s supposed to be in and what he’s supposed to do. There were more guys involved in that play than you guys see. He’ll be fine. Linebackers hit and shed big linemen all day, every day. That’s their job.”
Would he consider moving Lee outside?
“He’s a linebacker,” Bowles said. “He’s going to play linebacker.”
The Jets will see quarterback Jay Cutler on Sunday when the Dolphins come to town. Cutler was one of the quarterbacks the Jets considered signing during free agency in March.
“We were just feeling each other out,” Cutler said on a conference call with New York reporters. “It wasn’t aggressive. It wasn’t super-vague. We were just feeling each other out. It just didn’t work out.”
Cutler was actually supposed to visit the Jets, but that visit was canceled when the Jets decided to sign Josh McCown, who played with Cutler on the Bears.
“I’d just been cut from Chicago, where I’d spent eight years,” Cutler said. “I wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere. I just wanted to go through the process and if something really jumped out, I’d investigate a little bit more.
“They were able to sign Josh, and that was kind of the end of that. It worked out for myself and for Josh.”
Bowles did not sound that enthusiastic about Cutler.
“He came up in conversation, but we went the way we went,” Bowles said.
When it was pointed out that a visit was scheduled, which is usually a sign of some deeper level of interest, Bowles did not seem aware of that and said, “You’d have to talk to upstairs for all that.”
Bowles said Jeremy Kerley and Elijah McGuire are working as kick/punt returners this week after the team cut Kalif Raymond. … DE Muhammad Wilkerson (shoulder), WR Robby Anderson (knee) and RG Brian Winters (abdomen) did not practice. Wilkerson said his shoulder is not a concern.