Jets Sign DE Jabari Zuniga to the Practice Squad

Earlier this week the Jets decided to part ways with their 2020 3rd round pick Jabari Zuniga to make room for their waiver claims.

Head coach Robert Saleh commented that the Jets would like to sign Zuniga to the practice squad if he made it through waivers, last night it was confirmed that all 31 teams had passed on the opportunity to take the former Florida man, so the Jets acted quickly in re-signing him.

Speaking before Jabari cleared waivers, GM Joe Douglas wanted to express that the Jets were still excited to work with Zuniga:

“We’re still very much excited to work with Jabari,” Douglas said. “That was another difficult decision. Claiming a defensive end from Kansas City, Timmy Ward, we made the decision. (Zuniga) was back healthy today. Jabari was ready to go at practice and we told him we were going to make this move, get him through waivers (and) bring him right back to practice squad, assuming he clears.”

It’s been a slow start to his NFL career for Zuniga, he appeared in 8 games last season while registering just 5 tackles and 0 sacks. This is a far cry from his college career where he appeared in 42 games (including 27 starts) for the Gators and totaled 118 tackles, 34.5 TFLs and 18.5 sacks.

It’s hard to judge Zuniga as we haven’t seen a whole lot from him, even when making an appearance on the field, he’s failed to really make any eye-catching plays and has struggled to work his way to the ball carrier. The Jets may be excited to work with him still and maybe he’s the kind of player that takes a while to get going, but cutting him to make room for Tim Ward who only has one career appearance to his name (1 sack & 5 tackles against the Chargers in week 17 last season) doesn’t bode well.