Elijah Moore requests a trade from Jets after being excused from practice Thursday

New York Jets wide receiver Elijah Moore, apparently frustrated with his lack of a role in the offense, has requested a trade. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network broke the story Thursday afternoon.

The troubles began Sunday as Moore voiced his frustration with his lack of involvement in the Jets offense in a since deleted tweet:

“If I say what I really wanna say... I’ll be the selfish guy... we winning. Grateful! Huge blessing! All I ever wanted. Butter sweet [sic] for me em but I’ll be solid. So I’ll just stay quiet. Just know I don’t understand either.”

Moore was not on the practice field Thursday afternoon. The Jets termed it an excused absence at the time.

That obviously was not the case.

Moore has faded from view the last three weeks in the Jets passing game.

The lack of targets coincides with Zach Wilson’s return to the lineup. I’m not convinced this is a Zach Wilson thing, though. I recently researched Moore’s performance in Green Bay. I couldn’t find a passing play where he was designed to be the primary target.

I’m not sure anybody could defend Moore demanding out with his team on a three-game winning streak. That said, this presents a challenge for Robert Saleh and the Jets coaching staff.

They need to figure out a way to resolve this issue. This is a better football team with Elijah Moore than without Elijah Moore. The team correctly doesn’t seem to be considering honoring this request.

It does, however, sound like Moore could be inactive for Sunday’s game. It frankly is difficult to see how the coaching staff could have him playing in this week’s game. That could open the door for Denzel Mims, who is just a few weeks removed from his own trade request, to step into the lineup.