Mims the word!
Jets general manager Joe Douglas might not have many building blocks at his disposal, but the early returns on Denzel Mims have been promising. The second-round rookie wideout has shown flashes in his first four games after months of frustration.
Mims missed much of training camp and the first couple months of the regular season due to ailing hamstring injuries. The 6-3, 207-pound former Baylor standout has 13 catches for 217 yards in his first NFL games, prompting some to wonder what 2020 could have been if not for the hamstring issues.
“I hate saying this, (but) you play the what-if game a little bit,” Adam Gase said. “I would love to see what an offseason, a training camp, a full season with him would have looked like. I feel like he’s getting better fast. He’s very coachable. He’s not afraid to ask questions. He tries to do things the way that you want. He makes mistakes, but he learns from them.
“He’s only going to get better,” Gase continued. “He does have kind of a swagger about him. He has a confidence about him to where he’s not afraid to go to him when it’s basically (crunch) time in the game.”
Mims has shown that he’s got a knack for making contested catches. His pair of nifty grabs last week against the Chargers might be a sneak peak of what lies ahead.
“I see speed. I see talent. I see hands,” said Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, who will get his first crack at slowing down Mims on Sunday. “I see play-making ability. I see a good player.”
The Jets, frankly, could use more good players as they begin what amounts to another rebuild. Mims, who had catches for a season-high 71 yards in the second half against the Chargers last week, likely will have his first chance to play in game with Sam Darnold on Sunday.
The hope before the season was that Darnold could grow with Mims for years to come.
Although Darnold’s future is in doubt for a litany of reasons, Mims isn’t going anywhere. Douglas deserves credit for landing a pair of potential foundation pieces with his first two draft picks (Mekhi Becton and Mims). It’s obviously going to take many more pieces for the Jets to break their 10-year playoff drought.
Mims is not a finished product, but each of the remaining six games should help him hit the ground running in 2021. He’ll face a solid test against a quality group of Dolphins cornerbacks that like to play tight man coverage.
“I think almost every team that we’ve gone against so far since he’s been playing has challenged him quite a bit,” Gase said. “He’s had some releases where we definitely have to get fixed, where he’s gotten shut down whether it be at the line of scrimmage or tied up down the field not getting as far as we need him to. But he’s also had some really good plays where he’s had good releases, good job attacking the football, good job even though a guy is all over him. He’s still catching the ball and coming down with it.
“I get excited when I see certain things on Sunday,” Gase added. “And I see how he’s progressing and the questions he asks and the things that he tries to do at practice. I get excited to just see how this kid is going to keep growing.”