Week 17 Jets Roster Power Rankings

15 down, 1 to go. The Jets have put together their second three game losing streak of the season, and are one loss away from matching last year’s 5-11 finish.

How is the roster stacking up with one game left?

The rankings are meant to list the players in order of greatest net impact on the team over the course of the season. I take into account the season’s full body of work and contribution to wins and losses, not future potential or past reputation.

You can check out last week’s rankings here.

10. Buster Skrine, CB (Debut)

Here he is! After some of what we’ve seen from Buster this year, nobody could have ever expected him to appear on this list. Back in early November, fans rated him 30th of 31 players listed on the poll. And it made perfect sense.

However, Buster has come on strongly enough since the bye to earn a spot in place of Darron Lee, whose midseason hot streak of his own has seemed to fizzle. Skrine has played excellently over the past five games, making some great plays on the ball, and I feel comfortable placing him in this spot. However, it’s not a great indictment on the team that he is in this position. Skrine was awful to start the year, almost single-handedly losing the game in Miami. Yet, he has a legit top 10 argument. Now the question is, has he done enough to warrant not being cut?

9. Morris Claiborne, CB (Last week: 9th)

Claiborne probably had his best game post-injury against the Chargers, but still was beat for a few completions. He has an argument to be brought back, as he’s showcased a very high ceiling, but the Jets screwed up if Claiborne is their #1 corner opening week next season.

8. Steve McLendon, DT (Last week: 8th)

McLendon continues to do a nice job in his role. He and Leonard Williams make up a formidable pair of interior men going into next year. If the Jets can find an active DE or two to replace the sluggish Mo Wilkerson, they can get back to their days of dominance on the defensive line.

7. Jermaine Kearse, WR (Last week: 7th)

Jermaine Kearse found some room in the middle of the field to help Bryce Petty to some of his only acceptable throws of the day. Kearse has caught for a career high 50.1 yards per game while tying a career high with 5 touchdowns, taking in 63.2% of targets for 12.5 yards a reception. Worth $5M?

6. Jamal Adams, S (Last week: 6th)

Adams gave up a TD to Antonio Gates, but it certainly was a perfectly timed combination between a HOF tight end and potentially HOF QB. He looks to be improving his coverage instincts, while his play against the run is still very strong. Things to clean up, for sure. But if you are disappointed by Adams this year, you might be in for a pleasant surprise in the future. There is real star potential in Adams.

5. Bilal Powell, RB (Last week: 5th)

What a marvelous performance by Powell, putting Bryce Petty on his back and carrying the Jets offense throughout. Powell gained more yards on his 19 rushing attempts (145) than Petty did through the air on his 28 passing attempts (119), representative of the day for the Jets offense.

Powell finally got his much-deserved chance to lead the Jets offense in carries, and has delivered with 5 touchdowns and 4.4 yards per carry. He will turn 30 next season, though, so the Jets might look to add more help at RB. Or, will Elijah McGuire be ready to step up?

4. Marcus Maye, S (Last week: 2nd)

The list is without a safety in the top two for the very first time this season. Maye has seen a few more mistakes in recent weeks than earlier on, missing a few tackles he usually makes and appearing late in coverage a couple times.

3. Leonard Williams, DL (Last week: 3rd)

The Jets now have a hole at DE with Wilkerson on the way out, who was as inactive this past Sunday as he had been throughout the entire season. If the Jets can get a legitimate threat beside Williams, look out. The impact he has made in spite of the attention he receives is actually really impressive, regardless of what the box score says.

2. Demario Davis, ILB (Last week: 2nd)

Outside of Robby Anderson, Davis has been as close to elite as any Jet. He is PFF’s 9th ranked linebacker, the best ranking of any player on the team. His run defense has been consistently strong, while his pass rushing game has become an added weapon. In coverage, he hasn’t been exposed nearly as much as in the past.

Davis will be 29 in January. Inside linebacker is one of the most ageless positions in the game, as our old friend David Harris showed us. He could have a few more years like this in him. He already has lots of value as a team leader, but now backs it up with his play. Having cleaned up many of the fundamental issues that plagued him, he has definitely proven he is one of the top priorities for the Jets this offseason.

1. Robby Anderson, WR (Last week: 1st)

5 catches for 51 yards. A pedestrian statline, but in this Christmas Eve’s circumstances it was highly, highly impressive. Anderson was playing against the league’s top ranked cornerback with Bryce Petty throwing the passes. Robby did everything he could to make Bryce look good, and did about as well as you could hope.

Dropped off list:

Darron Lee, ILB: Lee has made some nice strides this year, but has to clean up his tackling and coverage. He isn’t as consistently lost as last year, making some better reads to the ball in the run game, but has to finish better. His coverage is also still one of the biggest targets of the Jets defense.

Do keep in mind that Lee was a young rookie at just 21 years old, and only just turned 23. As Demario has showed us, ILB is the kind of position where it can take longer to figure out the mental nuances that breed success. It’s not a position like RB or WR where you can just come in and make plays. That’s not an excuse for Lee’s struggles, but there’s been progress for him this year, enough to give him another shot.

Knocking on the door:

Kelvin Beachum, LT: The Jets offensive line stinks. We all know that. However, Beachum has had a pretty decent season. I’m not his biggest fan, but he has held up solidly on the blindside and against L.A. flashed with some hole-opening plays in the run game. There are a lot of holes on this team. Beachum is not an elite left tackle, but the Jets might regret letting him go and betting they can improve on him.

Josh Martin, OLB: Jordan Jenkins gets the most hype among the Jets’ edge players since he is somewhat of a draft success story, but Martin is my favorite edge rusher on the team. He flies under the radar, but I think Martin has played solid football this year and has been the Jets’ best edge defender out of a mediocre group. Martin has made more plays in far less playing time. Check it out:

Martin is also among the leaders in special teams tackles once again, with 10 on the year (tied with Julian Stanford for the team lead).