The Jets made a small roster shuffle Tuesday morning, but the move says plenty about how different their receiver room looks now.
New York announced it was bringing wide receiver Jamaal Pritchett back to the practice squad after cutting him this past weekend. The opening came after the team activated veteran Tim Patrick off injured reserve, leaving the Jets with a spot to fill.
That meant another veteran was the odd man out. Tyler Johnson was released from the practice squad, giving the six-year pro a chance to catch on somewhere else. Johnson spent the entire 2025 season with the Jets and returned in September after New York lost both Omar Cooper Jr. and Patrick to injury.
Johnson’s departure works as a clean snapshot of where the Jets have been and where they are now. In 2025, the receiver depth chart was thin enough to make just about any body count. Garrett Wilson was the lone real headliner, and New York leaned on Josh Reynolds, Allen Lazard and Johnson as starters at different points.
At the start of that year, and especially once Wilson was basically shut down because of a lingering knee injury, the group was stripped down to the bare minimum. Johnson wound up being part of that scramble. In 12 games with five starts, the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers draft pick caught 12 passes for 197 yards and one touchdown.
The difference now is that the Jets had enough depth to move on without blinking. They didn’t need Johnson over the last month, which tells you how much Darren Mougey has changed the shape of the room.
That change really took hold before the trade deadline, when the Jets added John Metchie from the Philadelphia Eagles and Adonai Mitchell in the Sauce Gardner deal. Neither one arrived as a pure No. 1 receiver, but both were a clear upgrade from what New York had been scraping together early in the year.
And in 2026, the group looks like an actual strength, at least when injuries aren’t piling up. Mitchell has settled in as a solid secondary target opposite Wilson.
Cooper, even with only one game under his belt this season, flashed his yards-after-catch ability. Patrick brings value as a strong run blocker and a reliable pair of hands.
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