The New York Jets released a Wednesday injury report that reads more like a casualty list. Five players are week-to-week, and none of them practiced.
Running back Breece Hall has a knee injury. Receiver Adonai Mitchell has a finger injury. Tight end Mason Taylor has a thumb injury. Guard Dylan Parham has a knee injury. Linebacker Francisco Mauigoa has a quad injury. All five are week-to-week.
Hall Is The One That Changes Everything
The others hurt. Hall being out is a different category of problem.
Hall is the player who makes the Jets offense function, the back who turns a manageable second down into a first down and keeps defenses honest. Without him, New York becomes considerably easier to defend, and the passing game has to carry more than it is built to carry.
Knee injuries on running backs also have a habit of lingering past their initial timeline. Week-to-week in September has a way of becoming month-to-month by November.
The Offensive Line Loss Compounds It
Losing Dylan Parham at guard while also losing your starting running back is particularly cruel. You cannot replace one with the other, and a shuffled interior line makes every rushing attempt harder for whoever is behind it.
The Jets are going into Sunday against Chicago needing to run the ball with a backup runner behind a reorganized line. That is the kind of week where an offense scores 13 points and nobody can point to a single mistake.
One Piece Of Good News
Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, dealing with a groin injury, has a good chance to play Sunday against the Bears. That matters. Fitzpatrick is the most important player on the New York defense and the one player they truly cannot script around.
A Jets team that keeps Fitzpatrick on the field can hold opponents down long enough to stay in low-scoring games, which may be the only version of this season that works.
My Assessment
This is the injury report of a team about to lose games it should win. Five week-to-week starters in one week is not bad luck you coach through. It is a roster being asked to play backups at multiple positions simultaneously.
The Jets are not without talent and the defense should keep them competitive. But offenses without their best running back and a settled interior line do not score enough, and that is where this is heading.
Chicago on Sunday is now a much harder game than it looked a week ago.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.