New York Jets Use of Key Receiver Huge Question Entering Steelers Game

How the New York Jets use on of their star wide receivers is a big question mark going into Sunday’s game with Pittsburgh.

Oct 14, 2024; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; Buffalo Bills cornerback Christian Benford (47) knocks the ball away from New York Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson (5) during the second half at MetLife Stadium. / Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

One thing lost amid the buzz around the acquisition of New York Jets wide receiver Davante Adams is that Garrett Wilson is coming off perhaps his best game of the season.

Through six games Wilson has 41 receptions for 399 yards and three touchdowns. All of those totals are among the top 12 in the NFL.

But the reason his game against Buffalo sticks out is because he caught eight passes on 10 targets for 107 yards and a touchdown. The game before, against Minnesota, he caught a whopping 13 passes but was targeted at 23 times. He also had 101 yards receiving and scored a touchdown.

But his yards per catch average from Minnesota to Buffalo went up by nearly six points. So what happened?

Based on ESPN’s dive into play-calling data, Todd Downing happened.

Interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich elevated Downing to offensive play-caller after the Jets fired Robert Saleh last week. To promote Downing, Ulbrich had to demote offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, who had called the plays for the first five games.

ESPN's analysis found a notable change in how Downing deployed Wilson against Buffalo.

The change was in how Downing deployed Wilson on his best routes. Against the Bills, Wilson ran deep crossers, deep overs, medium crossers and digs on 20% of his routes.

With Hackett as the play caller, Wilson ran those routes just 9% of the time in the first five games.

Clearly, Downing’s decision to concentrate on those routes agreed with Wilson and it resulted in his most efficient performance of the season.

So now the question is what happens with Adams now alongside Wilson? In fact, ESPN listed it as one of the five key stat trends that could determine who wins in Week 7 against Pittsburgh.

Adams has the ability to run similar routes and he has eight seasons of built-up chemistry with quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Wilson isn't going to be forgotten in this offense. In fact Downing used a cooking analogy to talk about how he would ensure that everybody got their touches on Sunday.

“As a chef, you would want a bunch of ingredients right?” he said. “You wouldn't want to stand in the kitchen and be looking for something in the cupboard. So it's a good problem to have that we have all these really cool ingredients. I think you have to be intentional about making sure guys understand where they fit in the plan because then they get ownership of it and they can get excited about certain plays or they can get excited about their role.

That's the challenge for coaching staff right you have all these very talented weapons now it's figuring out how you're going to make sure that everybody feels their piece of the pie.”