The Jets face a tall order in Week 6, hosting the 5-0 Philadelphia Eagles and dealing with a plethora of injuries, including both of their starting cornerbacks. Certainly, there is a little bit of concern heading into this game, but definitely not impossible.
That said, here are three reasons to be concerned about the Jets this week against the Eagles.
How will the Jets stop the Eagles' wide receivers without Sauce Gardner or D.J. Reed?
It would have been really cool to see Sauce Gardner and D.J. Reed go up against Eagles wide receivers A.J. Brown and Devonta Brown. Alas, that will not happen as both cornerbacks are out with a concussion. So it will be Bryce Hall and practice-squad call-up Craig James tasked with defending the Eagles’ excellent duo.
That’s far from an ideal situation for the Jets. Can the Hall/James duo hold their own against Brown and Smith? New York did hold the pairing of Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy to 63 yards on seven catches, but they also faced a seemingly cooked Russell Wilson. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is far from cooked. How the Jets defend this offense will be very interesting to watch.
Zach Wilson has been okay lately but okay won't cut it this week
Jets quarterback Zach Wilson hasn’t been all that bad in the last two weeks. His play against the Chiefs gave the Jets a chance to beat the Super Bowl champions and he did enough on offense to help the Jets beat the Broncos.
But this week, just being okay probably won’t cut it. Not with the Jets having injuries in the secondary and the Eagles likely to put up points. Zach Wilson needs to take that next step this week if the Jets are going to keep up with the Eagles. He’s been good, not great. He probably needs to be great Sunday if they want to pull off the upset.
No Alijah Vera-Tucker will make protecting Zach Wilson vs. Eagles that much more difficult
The Eagles have a strong pass rush, just like the Jets, and were going to bring pressure and potentially get to Zach Wilson even if the Jets had a fully healthy offensive line. Now they have to contain guys like Haason Reddick and Josh Sweat without Alijah Vera-Tucker, who suffered a season-ending injury in Denver for the second straight season.
For now, it will be Max Mitchell at right tackle and he gets a tall task. We already mentioned that Zach Wilson really needs to step up for the Jets to hang with the Eagles. Not having AVT protecting him will make that task even tougher to accomplish.
