Injuries Mount for Jets: Holmes is Done for Season

It seems that things have gone bad to worse for the New York jets. About nine days after learning that they will be without the services of Derelle Revis for the rest of the year with a torn ACL in his left knee, the Jets now learn they will be without the services of Santonio Holmes who is done for the year with a foot injury. Here is the story provided by ESPN.com.

For the second time in nine days, the New York Jets announced a season-ending injury to one of their best players. This time, it's wide receiver Santonio Holmes.

As expected, Holmes was diagnosed with a Lisfranc foot injury, ending his season after only four games, the Jets confirmed Wednesday. Holmes, the team's leading receiver with 20 catches and 272 yards, will have surgery.

The Jets waited until Wednesday to reveal the bad news, but they were braced for the worst-case scenario on Tuesday. Anticipating it, they signed veteran wide receiver Jason Hill, formerly of the Jacksonville Jaguars and San Francisco 49ers. 

In back-to-back games, the Jets lost arguably their most important non-quarterback players. The bad luck started with All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in a Sept. 23 win over the Miami Dolphins.

The organization considers Holmes and Revis the top playmakers on their respective sides of the ball. The loss of Holmes is a crushing injury to an already struggling offense, which had scored only two touchdowns in the last 12-plus quarters.

Before the Hill signing, the remaining wide receivers on the roster had only 125 combined career catches. Hill had 25 receptions for 367 yards and three touchdowns for the Jaguars last season. Interestingly, Hill made headlines before the Jags played the Jets in 2011 when he said Revis was "overhyped" due to the New York media.

Hill ended up missing the game with a hip injury as the Jets beat the Jaguars handily. Holmes was injured on the first play of the fourth quarter in Sunday's 34-0 loss to the 49ers. He caught a short pass in the flat and, as he turned upfield to run, his left foot got caught in the turf. He was transported out of the stadium on a golf cart, carrying crutches and wearing a walking boot on his foot.

Before signing Hill, the Jets had only three healthy receivers on the roster after they released Patrick Turner on Tuesday. Jeremy Kerley and Chaz Schilens are the starters, with Clyde Gates in reserve.

Rookie Stephen Hill missed the last game with a pulled hamstring, as did tight end Dustin Keller. Keller is likely to return for Monday night's game against the Texans.


And so with that Holmes is out for the year, and it is a HUGE blow to a somewhat depleted wide receiver core. Holmes was hurt on on this play last sunday vs the 49ers:

(apologies for poor quality of Video as it was the best one available)

So now with Holmes done for the rest of the season, the Jets are going to have to rely on Chaz Schilens, Clyde Gates, Stephen Hill (When Healthy), Jeremy Kerley, and Dustin Keller (when healthy) to catch passes from Mark Sanchez. This is going to be a real tough stretch for the Jets who are 27th in the NFL in passing yards and 24th in the NFL in rushing yards.

These stats bring me to another point. Some critics, both fans and some in the media, feel that Mark Sanchez is going to be replaced by Tim Tebow as the starting quarterback for the New York Jets. That is not the problem! The problem with why the Jets offense has struggled this year is the offensive line. The line has not given proper holes for Shaun Greene to run through and he can't get his running game going. As for the passing game, for Mark Sanchez to really be effective, he needs to have time to set his feet and get off good throws. He doesn't have the time if he is getting pressured a lot and that's why his throwing is off. Yes Sanchez has made a few poor decisions with the football, but I haven't seen it enough to warrant taking him out as the starter when there is no solid offensive line to protect whoever is at quarterback.