Courtney Upshaw signed by Jets

The Jets brought in a few players for a tryout earlier this week. One of them walked away with a contract. It is edge defender Courtney Upshaw.

Upshaw (6’2”, 272), the seventh-year pro, was invited to participate in the Jets’ mandatory minicamp that concluded today as a tryout player.

He entered the NFL as Baltimore’s second-round pick, 35th overall, in the 2012 NFL Draft, and played all 70 games, including playoffs, as a Ravens linebacker from 2012-15. He then signed with Atlanta as an unrestricted free agent in March 2016 and played the past two seasons on the Falcons D-line.

Upshaw does not do much to address the need the team has from an edge rusher. He has only 7 career sacks. With that said, he could plausibly be an upgrade. This is a team currently projected to give meaningful edge snaps to Josh Martin and David Bass. There was a time when Upshaw was an upper echelon run stopper at his position so he at least could bring something to the table.

Upshaw has added some weight since he first entered the league and spent some time at tackle last year so there is some added versatility.