Mark Sanchez has no clue who his wide receivers are. That might not be the best thing for the quarterback to tell the media considering he is on thin ice with Jets fans and coaches. As injuries plague New York's receiving corps, the position has been filled with rookies or second year players. Sanchez could not name one of them.
The Jets got rid of several playmakers in the offseason, including wide receiver Braylon Edwards and tight end Dustin Keller. The issue is that they failed to replace them with better talent. As it goes now, Clyde Gates is out with a hamstring injury. Jeremy Kerley is having heel issues. Stephen Hill has a knee injury. Santonio Holmes, the only big name left, is still nursing a foot injury. This is just the receivers. Now, Sanchez is left with a bunch of guys he is not familiar with.
"We came up with some funny nicknames for some of them because you don't even know their names and they're just in there," Sanchez said.
The roster of wide receivers practicing in OTAs includes Joseph Collins, Zach Rogers and Thomas Mayo. Each guy has never played an NFL game in their life. The only player with NFL playing time is Jordan White. He caught one pass, for 13 yards.
Wide receivers coach Sanjay Lal admits that practices have been frustrating considering the young group he is working with. The coach stressed getting the group a lot of reps to try and develop them as quickly as possible. New York has had issues with the receiving group for a few seasons now, mostly due to injury. 14 receivers caught passes last season and only Kerley played all 16 games.
"Looking back on the whole season, we didn't have a healthy receiver from the beginning of the offseason to the very last game we played. We never had everybody out on the field that was, on paper, a starter," Sanchez said.
The Jets were hoping to get Holmes back sooner rather than later, but now it looks like he might not even be ready for Week 1 of the 2013 season. Concerns remain surrounding his injured foot and while head coach Rex Ryan believes Holmes is making progress in his rehab, he is nowhere near ready to begin football activities.
So as Sanchez fights for his job as the starting quarterback, he is throwing passes to a group of players he cannot even name. For a quarterback that has struggled in recent years with turnovers, this is not the best situation to be in.