New York Jets Bolster Depth Claiming Brenden Bates, Adding Lewis Cine to Practice Squad

we have some familiar faces and some new faces who will bolster depth for the Jets let's talk the latest Jets roster moves today on locked on Jets you are locked on Jets your daily New York Jets podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome this is the lockd on Jets podcast part of the lockdown podcast Network your team every day it is Thursday August 29th 2024 and I'm your host John B from ganggreennation.com thank you so much for making the show your first listener first watch every day subscribe to the show for free on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast so you get new episodes as soon as they're posted if you enjoy the show and are listening on a podcast Wars please give it a festar review if you're watching on YouTube and enjoy the show give this episode a big thumbs up it helps us out and helps other Jets fans find the podcast today's episode of lock on Jets is brought to you by game time down the game time app create an account and use code lockdown NFL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply well on the day after cut down day the Jets made a number of roster moves they made a waiver wire claim they lost a player to the waiver wire and they signed their practice squad a very eventful day after cutd down day that's why one of the reasons we always say cut down day is just the beginning and as I mentioned yesterday that initial 53 man Jets roster was unlikely to be the roster they took into the week one game against San Francisco and we already have our first change the Jets put in a waiver Clan and they acquired tight end Brendan Bates off waivers from the Chicago Bears uh Bates was an undrafted rookie out of Kentucky and you if you're not familiar with how the waiver process works when players are cut at the end of training camp if they have less than four years of experience the 31 other teams all have a chance to claim the player and if you claim the player you get him and you take his you get the same contract he had with the old team if more than one team claims a player then he he goes to whatever team claimed him that had the highest draft pick in the first round of uh the NFL draft in the spring and we talked about this yesterday and I mentioned it that you know what the Jets were not going to carry two tight ends into that game against San Francisco week one that was a guarantee because in the initial 53-man roster they only had Tyler Conlin and Jeremy Rucker and Kenny yaboa was on injured reserve which means you know yoa probably will be back at some point this year but he won't be ready for week one and if you want to run jumbo packages you want to run you know on the goal line with three tight ends well you got to have a third tight end if somebody gets hurt then you can't run two tight end sets if you only keep two tight ends on your roster so the Jets had to add a third tight end and as I mentioned yesterday it felt like that initial roster was kind of they they just kind of it was kind of like a placeholder where they maybe they had their eye on somebody who was going to be waved and as it turns out it's Brendan Bates the tight end uh for the Chicago Bears who was just waved who you know had a good preseason I mean to the extent it matters and I don't I don't know how much it really matters um but because we've seen in the past how you know in you know how how meaningless preseason stats are when we talk about projecting Players Once the regular season begins but Brendan Bates finished third on the Bears and receptions and second and receiving yards in the preseason um more than that you know there are tools to to potentially work with I mean you know he's big he's two 65 255 pounds so you know it's pretty big for a tight end you know potential blocker by all accounts he blocked pretty well in the preseason um you know again he was productive receiving in the preseason and the other aspect of this is his athletic testing is all across the board it was average to above average so a guy who like conceivably has the tools to be a decent player now of course he's going to start as the third tight end Tyler conin is gonna be the number one tight end for the Jets uh Jeremy Ruckers gonna be the number two tight end so your number three tight end you know he's a guy who really is only going to see the field the jumbo sets and if somebody gets injured he's Insurance in case somebody gets injured so you can run multi- tight end sets I mean that's really what bates's role will be on this roster and as with any you know young developmental player they'll try and develop him and I'm not sure his spot on this roster is guaranteed any further than Kenny Yo's return because I think you know the Jets like to use Kenny ioa on special teams I think when we're talking about a third tight end again third tight end's not going to see the field that much in conventional offensive situations but the third tight end could see the field quite a bit at special teams but Bates Also may get a shot to take some of those yoa snaps on special teams and if he succeeds uh playing under brand Boer on the G in the game's third phase you know maybe he's got an opportunity to stick um you you know expectations should always be low for any waiver wire pickup you know undrafted free agent but you know they're guys who like you see you look at and there there's no pathway for them to be a good player if you look at bates's physical tools if you look at what he did in the preseason look it's unlikely he'll probably max out as a number three tight end I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you know the odds are the odds are particularly great that he's going to amount to anything but there's at least a pathway you know there's at least you can at least see like if things go right with his development if he gets the right coaching a little bit of luck you know if he takes to certain Concepts you could see him potentially being a tight end in this league and when we're talking about waiver wire claims we're talking about guys who did not make the 53 man roster of the team they were in training camp with so you know the expect you know the criteria is pretty low and that that's pretty much the criteria I have if Brendon Bates can be anything productive it'll be a win for the Jets but that's not the expectation I mean more than anything he's just at this point he's kind of a body the Jets can have around um so that they have a number three tight end they do need to make a corresponding move which they have not made at the point we are recording this podcast the Jets will have to cut or wave somebody in order to make spot on the 53 man roster for baates uh that has yet to happen I would imagine it's going to be you know somebody from one of the three position groups I talked about yesterday where the Jets are carrying nexcess that's running back izy abaca offensive line Max Mitchell would be the most obvious candidate to cut or wide receiver where Jason brownley would be the most obvious candidate to cut so you we we'll see where the jets go you know they may end up going somewhere else I mean it's not a guarantee they'll go to one of those spots but the Jets do add tight end uh Brendan Bates um the Jets also did lose a player off waivers uh Shamar B Bartholomew he was a corner uh the Carolina Panthers claimed him one of six claims the Panthers made so as I mentioned the team that the team that had the the highest pick in the NFL draft has the top priority order in waivers and I know Carolina actually traded their pick um but they go with your original pick so Carolina actually has priority over everybody else they made six waiver claims which if you're at the bottom of the league odds are players cut on you know Carolina was coming off the season where they were the worst team in the league so odds are players cut by other teams are better than Carolina's 53rd best player again Carolina claimed six players one of them came from the Jets again it was a corner Shamar Bartholomew you know probably not a name you're familiar with even if you're a DieHard Jets fan um I actually thought bartholomy played pretty well in the preseason but you know there was just no path for a corner to make the roster on this team I mean the it's a positive thing for the Jets because they just have so much good stuff at corner that there really was there was no free spot available even though I thought Bartholomew played pretty well like I I would imagine this the Panthers Pro scouting Department caught on to Bartholomew and of course the Jets played the Panthers so maybe Bartholomew made an impression when these two teams played in the preseason uh week two um and again I did think he played pretty well but you know with the Jets there was there was just no free spot for a corner because you got the top the top Trio in the league and SAU and DJ and Carter uh behind him you have Brandon Eckles who you know not the most beloved player in the fan base but a guy with starting experience a guy who can play inside and outside guy the coaching staff likes and then after that you'll have two draft picks who are show showing promise Jerick Bernard Converse and quantz diggers so if you're looking for the young guy with upside well you drafted two guys who looked really good in the preseason and tough to keep Seven Corners uh I think the Jets maybe maybe they were trying to get barthol on to the practice squad but you it's tough and you know some level it's it shows you again it shows you the talent at the corner position I mean there are years where Shamar barthol probably could have parlayed his preseason performance into a roster spot but this year the Jets have a lot of talent at the corner position you have to let good guys go um and you know I think you wish barthol me the best he's not in the AFC East he's not in the AFC I think it's easy to root for him have success elsewhere and you know a team where maybe he's got an opportunity U you tough it's tough to be a corner on the on the Jets right now just because they're so loaded with Talent at the position that on the lock on Jets podcast we'll talk about some other players who did not make the 53 man roster but guys who are staying with the Jets because they're remaining on the practice squad there's also one pretty bigname player who did not spend training camp with the Jets who's joining the practice squad and it has the fan base excited we'll talk about who that is and how excited the fan base should be continuing here on this Thursday edition of lockon jets today's episode of lock on Jets is brought to you by game time game time now has a new feature called Game Time picks that makes T getting tickets for your favorite Live Events even even easier game time picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets it makes an already awesome app even 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you every dayers this is a daily podcast in the New York Jets with new episodes each day through the week Monday through Friday tomorrow we are going to try and have our weekly mailbag usually we have it on Wednesday but with all the roster news this week we're kind of bumping it to late in the week so please send in your questions uh the as we talked about yesterday was a busy day um it usually is the day after cut down day is a day with a lot of moves in the NFL because you have to remember on Cut Down day over 12200 players are released or waved so that means you know most teams in the league they have a player or two they they have their eye on uh and so they see a lot of a lot of movement a lot of player movement a lot of signings a lot of waiver claims across the league but teams also can start filling out their practice squads uh teams can have 16 to 17 players on their practice squad depending on whether or not their team participates in the what's know as the international pathway program um you get you nor normally you get 16 players if you take on an international player and try and develop him you the NFL allows you to have a 17th spot um and the Jets started signing the practice squad and believe it or not the biggest name from the Jets practice squad signing was not a guy who spent training camp with the Jets it's actually a former first round pick from two years ago Louis seene a safety who played with the Minnesota Vikings who was let go by the Vikings this past preseason and this move has the fan base excited I think whenever you bring in a former first- round pick and you can sneak him onto the practice squad people start dreaming you know the the cliche whenever one of these guys assigned well he must have talent if he got picked in the first round if we can just figure out a way to hone this Talent will be in good shape and look the practice squad is there to try and develop players practice squad exists for for a couple reasons um first of all it's kind of a reserve uh system for your for your team you if you you have an injury you need you need you need a replacement player if a safety goes down just can call Cen up off the practice squad and you can play for them it's like not exact it's not exactly like a minor league but it's some ways it kind of functions like it it's kind of like your triaa system even though in many ways it's different from a a conventional minor league your practice squad also works on the scout team and each you know each week you're preparing for a given opponent and you don't want you know know you don't want like your starting offense to like em you don't want your starting offense to emulate that week's opponent to get your defense prepared so frequently what happens is the practice squad the guys on the practice squad essentially function as the scout team and ENT so they'll you'll get a wide receiver who tries to mimic the way a receiver runs routes for that week's opponent try tries to like mimic those Tendencies so that your defensive players get used to like facing that opponent um but it's also a spot where you're trying to develop talents you know you're deal with guys who were not uh not necessarily highly rated players and guys who um who maybe need some work on their game guys who maybe need a little bit of refinement as they try and hone their craft and of course the Jets are going to try and develop lisine into a good player you know I think whenever whenever you're bringing guys in to to the practice squad it's because on some level you've evaluated that they have a chance to succeed in this league but I do think it's important to keep expectations in check with a player like this in part because part of the reason Cen was let go by the Vikings I think is it doesn't seem like he's ever recovered from a serious injury he suffered as a rookie he suffered a compound fracture um his rookie season and um the the one thing I'll tell you is that teams like to look smart and teams do not like teams do not like admitting mistakes in this league and that's pronounced in many areas but maybe none more so than in the way teams hold on to their first first round picks because if you cut a first round pick it's an admission you you failed it's an admission you know you went wrong somewhere along the line now I again seen suffered an injury so maybe there's a little bit of a caveat to this but when a team cuts a first round pick after two years a first round pick's a huge investment in a player to cut your losses after two years is not something that's commonly done in this league so the fact that Vikings were able to let scene go you know that's probably a sign that this is a tough this gonna be a tough Hill to climb for him it's not gonna be impossible but you if Minnesota had like any reason to hold on to him at all they probably would have done it because they they just have so much invested in him it's in the team it's in every team's interest to try and make it work with a first round pick to do everything in their power and typically only after a team has has concluded there's no chance this player is going to succeed with us that's really the only point where where you move on now that's not to say it's impossible for a first round pick to be cut and then go on to a new team and have success it it has been known to happen in this league but I think it's worth noting that the Vikings were willing to move on after two years and was that due to injury well if it was then that's a sign that you know the the doctors who evaluated scene maybe have concluded that he's not going to get back to the level he needs to be at to be a successful player in this league so I I think it's important to remember this is a practice squad player you know this is a guy who was a first round pick two years ago who you know did not find an active roster spot in this league and again none of this is to say it's impossible for louine to turn it arounds there are some mirac ulous recoveries in this league there are guys who you know have written off injury-wise who you know find you figure out a way to put it together who figure out a way to get healthy who you know maybe get a little bit of luck with their injuries and turn it around um but I I think that it's important to keep your expectations in check Cena is not a player who's likely to play a very big role for the Jets this year and it's frankly when you're when you're talking about a guy who's a first round pick who's now on a practice squad the odds are against him so you know I think it's un I think some of the expectations that are being put on him are a bit unfair I think that the I think it would be great if he could turn it around I think it would be great if he could make a career for himself it would be an amazing story especially since it seems like his career was derailed in part because of an injury you always like to see it when a when a guy can bounce back from that uh but it it is going to be a tough road back for him and I think I think we need to be cleare eyed about that I think that we should set expectations low I mean look he's not one of top four safeties on this team right now so I I you know he's not a guy the Jets are going to count on I don't think he's going to be active for many games if their if their top safeties are healthy we know the top safeties on the team are Tony Adams Chuck Clark then Ashton Davis then Isaiah Oliver you know Cen is at least below him at least below all those guys on the depth chart um you know look this defensive coaching staff they've done a very good job with players they've done a good job putting players in the right position to succeed you know could the J potentially find a role for SC you know maybe he's not a full-time starter could they could he turned into a good role player potentially there are guys who have they who they've been able to figure out how to do that with including Ashton Davis but so all this is to not write scene off it's just to make people understand that this is not like some slam dunk move that the Jets manag to get some star safety on their practice squad it's gonna be a tough road it's gonna be a long process now H lock on Jets podcast we'll continue talking about the Jets practice C because there are some more familiar faces you know we we we didn't have Louis in training camp but most of the players that jet signed for the practice squad are on the team and it kind of reveals one of their plans about the way they built this roster and we'll we'll go into more detail on that continuing here on this Thursday edition of lock on Jets today's episode of lock down Jets is brought to you by FanDuel you know you've heard me talk a lot about FanDuel America's number one sports book well now I have something a little different for you now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from 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this Thursday we're talking about Jets roster moves yesterday jets made a waiver claim they lost a player to waivers and they signed their practice squad now biggest named player the Jets added to their practice squad was LS seene the former first- round pick by the Minnesota Vikings we just talked about him there are of other familiar faces though who were signed to the practice squad and you know on yesterday's show I mentioned I was I don't know a little surprised about a couple of the players the Jets cut and among them were Anthony ferer who's a tight end fullback uh another guy uh Sam mavin who was nominally a linebacker but a special team they both signed to the Jets practice squad and you know I thought both of them would be on the team and the fact they're on the practice squad got me thinking a little bit and I remember the Jets kept three undrafted rookies and gu veterans like aavin and ferer they are not subject to the waiver clim the waiver process so you're your placed on waivers you have less than four years of experience for veterans who have been around the league more than four years you just become a free agent you could sign with anybody you're not exposed no no team can claim you you just sign wherever you want I wonder maybe the maybe the Jets had a little deal in place with these guys maybe the Jets were a little worried about losing the undrafted guys to waivers if they cut them so they went to these veterans and said you know why don't we have a deal we sign you we sign you to our practice squad maybe we'll Elevate you for a couple games you maybe Jets maybe our jets are playing the game a little bit in order to make sure they keep their promising rookies and they they're keeping but they also keep the veterans that they want around you know good stuff by the if so I I like the move I I think that's pretty Savvy stuff by the Jets I mean I don't I think sometimes we overrate the likelihood that our undrafted rookies are going to be claimed by other teams but if you have to risk it don't risk it so I thought that was I I don't know maybe I'm overthinking this but pretty sad stuff by the Jets if that's if that's how it went down and you know some other key name some other familiar names on the practice squad list so Adrian Martinez beat out Andrew Andrew Peasley for the temporary number three quarterback job we know that once Jordan Travis is healthy he will be the number three quarterback but the jet signed Martinez to their practice squad so for the temp for the time being he'll be the number three quarterback now he will not be active on game days um unless the Jets Elevate him but and the number three quarterback cannot be the emergency quarterback he has has to be one of the ACT if you elevate the if you elevated a quarterback from the practice squad he has to be one of the active players he can't be the emergency quarterback who doesn't count against your active players if you're familiar with that but Martinez stays as the number three quarterback I kind of agree with that I think Martinez showed a little bit more than Peasley I mean look neither of them looks that great neither of them really looks like they're gonna have much of a future in the NFL but if it came down to it with Martinez in the game over Peasley you you could at least build in some quarterback run plays for Martinez because he's pretty mobile so you can design some quarterback runs and try and keep your offense afloat that way um Mr Irrelevant makes the practice squad Jaylen key the safety that the Jets drafted with the final selection in 2024 um he makes the team as a safety so you know that that he might be in battle with lisen for who's the top safety off the practice squad um jets also brought back Zack coun who an who's an Uber athletic tight ends um really did not flash much in the prec in fact if anything flashed negatively because you know ball or two went through his hands that should not have um you know coun is the classic guy who's a great athlete who they're trying to turn into a football player uh there was really no justification for keeping him on the roster you know another year on the practice give him one more year on the practice squad to see if he can amount to something to see if he can make good on those physical tools um you know nothing wrong with that Brandon Smith a wide receiver who flashed in the preseason makes the practice squad you know for how little depth the Jets have a wide receiver I would not have minded to see Smith make the team Smith Smith was part of some big plays in the preseason you know I don't know how good he'd be if he had was called upon in real games but I thought he flashed enough he showed enough playmaking ability I wouldn't minded seeing him on the regular roster but the Jets are able to get into the practice squad which you know is not a bad thing again practice squads for a lot of these guys is about development for guys who flash some ability but you're looking to see them put it together more consistently so Brandon Smith also on the practice squad and you know so Jets ended up with signing 17 players we don't need to go through the whole list um you know those those are the big names some veterans who are from familiar who maybe the Jets came to like kind of a handshake deal with before training camp a number three quarterback and then a couple promising guys who you play different positions anyway that's all for today's episode this has been the lockon Jets podcast part of the lockon podcast Network your team everyday is our motto as always if you enjoy the show hit the Subscribe button where you're watching or listening so that you'll never miss an episode if you enjoy the show and or listening on a podcast horse please give it a festar review if you're watching on YouTube and enjoy the show give this episode a big thumbs up it helps us out helps other Jets fans find the podcast enjoy your Thursday everybody we'll be back tomorrow the close out the weekend please send in your mailbag questions