NY Jets Roster Moves

On November 8th, 2012, the NY Jets made the following roster moves:

1. Signed Guard Hayworth Hicks off of the Indianapolis Colts' practice squad to the Jets active roster; and

2. Signed Antonio Allen to the Jets practice squad.

The inimitable Scott Salmon has already posted here about the move to cut Antonio Allen. I will only add here that by cutting him the Jets gambled a bit that no other NFL team would sign him. That gamble has payed off, as he has been resigned to the practice squad. The move preserves Allen's eligibility to return to the practice squad next year. No player who has ever been on an NFL active roster for more than 8 games in a season is thereafter eligible for the practice squad. So by cutting Allen and resigning him to the practice squad, the Jets thereby preserved a year of practice squad eligibility of Allen for next year. The move gives the Jets roster flexibility they would otherwise not have.

That brings us to Hayworth Hicks. Hicks is a 24 year old, 6' 3", 336 pound Guard out of Iowa State, class of 2012, who can also play a little Center. He won 2011 second-team All-Big 12 honors, as well as the 2011 Arthur Floyd Scott Award as Iowa State’s most outstanding offensive lineman. Since Hicks was signed off of the Colts' practice squad he will now be required to be on the Jets' active roster for at least the next 3 games. That brings the number of backup guards on the active roster to 3, a pretty large number when the Jets usually only carry a total of 3 backup offensive linemen. It suggests that the Jets are seriously contemplating not resigning both Matt Slauson, who is seemingly in the process of being gradually replaced by Vladimir Ducasse, and Brandon Moore. Hicks played exclusively at Right Guard for the Colts, lending credence to the idea that he is being brought in on an extended tryout to possibly replace Moore, our incumbent Right Guard. If Hicks doesn't work out, don't be surprised if the Jets bring somebody else in before season's end, looking for Moore's possible replacement.

I don't have much personal knowledge of Hicks' abilities, but you can find an excellent in depth analysis of his time at Indianapolis on thejetsBlog.com, here: http://thejetsblog.com/bga/bga-scouting-hayworth-hicks/

Finally, the Jets have also recently promoted Ricky Sapp from the practice squad to the active roster. This brings the number of linebackers on our current roster to 10. Given that rushing the passer is supposedly Sapp's strength, and given the anemic state of the Jets' pass rush from the LB position, I wouldn't be surprised if Sapp quickly is given a chance in some pass rushing situations. If he has some success there, I also wouldn't be surprised to see Aaron Maybin cut. I doubt the Jets carry 10 LBs the rest of the way, and Sapp and Maybin appear to occupy the same role. Given that Sapp's salary is less than 1/2 of Maybin's, and given Maybin's complete disappearing act over the last 13 games (zero sacks), if Sapp has success then Maybin will likely soon be looking for another job.