It looks like Jets wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery will be a game time decision for Monday nights game with the Miami Dolphins. Cotchery and the team flew down to Miami in the early afternoon on Sunday.
Cotchery is currently listed as questionable on the team injury report. "Questionable" means there’s a 50-50 chance that a player will play.
Cotchery, suffering from a hamstring injury, has had hours of treatment for several days. Cotchery has told friends he expects to play and the extra time off should help his chances.
The Jets’ debut of Braylon Edwards may severely test the skills of the newly acquired wide receiver if Cotchery doesn’t play. Edwards is facing playing a Monday Night Football game against a division rival with a new team, a rookie QB and a couple of back ups tag teaming the other receiver spot.
That sounds like a heck of a trial by fire to me.
Edwards has reportedly been a hit with his new team mates and has been impressive in practice. The 6-3, 215-pounder is making circus catches in practice and displaying the potential to open up the entire offense.
This is great news if he is doing this against the first defense. With Edwards having come from a similar offense in Cleveland, it is obviously a great advantage as he tries to transition.
Cotchery is the Jets’ leading receiver with 23 receptions for 356 yards and one TD.
The Dolphins are sure to play us tough. They come into this match up with a rookie QB who just led them to their first victory of the season. They haven’t won a prime time game since 2004, losing just 3 weeks ago on MNF to the Colts. This means they are coming in on a high and maybe with a bit of a chip on their shoulders too.
I think that our back ups, David Clowney, Brad Smith (the likely starter) and Wallace Wright, can get the job done but I also think they will need to bring their ‘A’ game. Perhaps even their ‘A+’ game. There is no doubt that Edwards presence should greatly improve how they look on the field.
Look for Edwards ability to threaten Miami deep to really help the Jets open things up for tight end Dustin Keller. The Miami defense has been very weak against tights end so far this season. The Dolphins’ defense made Dallas Clark look like a Hall of Famer during that week 2 Monday night loss to the Colts.
Clark had 7 catches for 183 yards including an opening drive 80-yard scoring pass where he got behind linebacker Akin Ayodele and broke the tackle of safety Gibril Wilson.
I’m guessing that Keller may end up playing the biggest role of the night in defeating the Dolphins.
Xander Diaz is Editor-In-Chief at AFCBeast.com