The Jets’ running back room looks mostly spoken for, but Isaiah Davis’ injury has cracked the door open for an undrafted rookie to make a real push.
Breece Hall is locked in as the lead back after signing his new extension this offseason, and New York figures to lean on him heavily once the season starts. Behind Hall, the Jets have Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis, both third-year backs who have filled change-of-pace roles over the last few seasons. Allen is working his way back from a season-ending knee injury suffered early in the 2025 season, while Davis has been out for a large chunk of training camp with his own knee issue.
Kene Nwangwu appears set to hold the fourth spot on the depth chart because of his kick-return value, which leaves little room for another runner to break through. But Davis’ absence has given Chip Trayanum a path to more meaningful preseason work.
Trayanum, a UDFA out of Toledo, has been one of the more interesting names to follow in New York this offseason. He comes to the Jets after a 1,000-yard, 12-touchdown season with the Rockets, and he was a four-star recruit coming out of high school.
He hasn’t drawn much buzz in camp so far, but that could change quickly now that Davis is expected to miss the rest of training camp and the preseason. When Aaron Glenn made the injury public, he said the 24-year-old back was likely to be out for the remainder of camp and the preseason, which means he won’t play Friday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Glenn has also said he intends to play his starters during the preseason, so Hall and even Allen should see snaps across New York’s three exhibition games. That means Trayanum’s best chance may come later in those contests, when the second half opens up and the Jets need fresh legs in the backfield.
That’s where he can make his case. If Trayanum performs well enough, he could even push a player like Davis or Nwangwu on the depth chart.
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The idea floating around is to bring in a seasoned passer rather than lean only on the current options, with rookie Cade Klubnik also part of the long view as a possible future answer. For Glenn, the bigger issue is less about the name attached to the backup spot and more about whether the Jets make the kind of move that helps them stay competitive now, because those decisions may say as much about his tenure as any single game this fall. [Read more 🡒]