The Jets didn’t make a move at the trade deadline, and that decision may end up sticking with them for a while - especially in the backfield.
A lot of the attention around Tuesday’s 4:00 p.m. deadline centered on whether New York would deal away players such as Nahshon Wright or Will McDonald and pick up some assets in what has become another lost season. But there was another possibility that had fans watching closely: a trade involving Breece Hall.
That idea made sense to plenty of people because Braelon Allen had been running so well while Hall was sidelined. With Allen handling the load, some believed he had earned the chance to be the clear lead back.
Instead, the Jets kept both running backs in place, even after their split-back approach looked ineffective against the Kansas City Chiefs last weekend. Part of that was game script - once things got away from them, New York had to lean on its drop-back passing game for most of the second half. Still, it also raises the question of whether the constant rotation kept either runner from ever really getting rolling.
Hall went out in Week 3 against the Detroit Lions with a quad injury, and nobody was happy to see that. But Allen’s stretch in the weeks that followed made it hard not to notice how productive he was in a starting role.
From Week 4 through Week 8, Allen averaged 5.4 yards per carry and piled up 504 yards on 93 carries. He looked like a back who thrives on rhythm, getting sharper the more he touched the ball and the longer the game wore on.
That showed up in Week 9, when Allen got only eight carries and turned them into 33 yards. He also had an ill-timed fumble, but it was fair to wonder whether the lighter workload kept him from finding a groove.
Hall finished with 61 yards on 15 carries, which was solid enough, but it didn’t match the level Allen had shown when he was getting double-digit touches throughout October.
In hindsight, the Jets might have been better off moving Hall at the deadline, getting out from under his three-year contract, and handing Allen the full-time job he handled so well while his teammate was out.
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