Jets Release Kalen Ballage

The Jets have waived running back Kalen Ballage.

Ballage’s brief tenure with the Jets included a terrible Thursday night game where he missed multiple blitz pickups and a special teams assignment that led to a long punt return. Ironically, one of his failed blitz pickups led to Sam Darnold’s long touchdown run as Darnold broke a tackle on an attempted sack. Still that was luck.

The Jets originally tried to trade for Ballage near the end of training camp, sending a conditional seventh round pick to Miami. The trade was called off after Ballage failed his physical, but the Jets signed him a few weeks later.

It didn’t seem like there was a deeper reason in the Jets’ interest in Ballage than the fact Adam Gase coached him in Miami. Based on how the acquisitions of other former Gase players have worked out in his two years with the Jets, they should probably stop using a past history with the coach as a criteria for bringing players in.