The Jets are headed into 2026 with a pass-catching group that looks young, intriguing and still very much unsettled. The biggest wrinkle isn’t just who lines up where - it’s how the slot snaps get split once the offense starts sorting itself out.
Last season, New York leaned on the slot more than once per play. The Jets posted 931 pass-game snaps in the slot across 612 dropbacks, which works out to 1.52 slot snaps per dropback. In other words, multiple players were living there on a regular basis.
Isaiah Williams led the team with 147 slot snaps, accounting for 66.8% of his routes run. Mason Taylor followed with 133, then Arian Smith with 110, Garrett Wilson with 94, John Metchie III with 93, Allen Lazard with 81 and Tyler Johnson with 72.
Adonai Mitchell finished with 49, Jeremy Ruckert with 38, Josh Reynolds with 37 and Stone Smartt with 31. Isaiah Davis had 15, Breece Hall 13, Andrew Beck 8, Jelani Woods 5, Kene Nwangwu 2, Quentin Skinner 2 and Braelon Allen 1.
A few things jump out from that list. Williams had the heaviest slot workload on the roster, but that kind of usage does not look likely to carry over in the same form with the room now reshaped.
Taylor’s slot number also figures to come down in 2026, especially with Kenyon Sadiq in the mix. The cleanest way to pair those two would be to use Sadiq in the slot and Taylor inline, which fits Taylor’s size and blocking and Sadiq’s speed and receiving ability.
Wilson’s slot usage is another key piece of the puzzle. Even though he played only seven games, his 38.8% slot rate was a career high, topping his 30.2% mark from 2024. With a very different receiver group around him and a full 17-game season ahead, his role there will be worth watching closely.
There’s also a lot of volume available. John Metchie III, Stone Smartt, Tyler Johnson, Josh Reynolds and Allen Lazard combined for 314 of the Jets’ 931 slot snaps last season, or 33.7%, and none of them are coming back.
The scheme change matters too. Those 2025 numbers came under Tanner Engstrand.
Now Frank Reich is running the offense, and that brings a different history with it. Reich has leaned heavily on 11 personnel, and in each of his last six seasons as a play caller he was well above the 2025 league average in that category.
His teams averaged 72% usage of 11 personnel, a rate that would have led the NFL in 2025. That kind of approach suggests the Jets could be leaning on the slot even more.
The biggest question is whether first-round rookie Omar Cooper Jr. becomes the main slot target right away. That would be a lot to ask, but the Jets are clearly hoping he can handle it.
Cooper Jr. has played both inside and outside, but his 2025 production came almost entirely from the slot. He caught 69 passes for 937 yards and 13 touchdowns while running 83.3% of his routes from there.
The year before, he showed big-play juice as a deep threat, finishing with 594 yards and seven touchdowns on 28 catches and averaging 21.2 yards per catch.
Wilson’s alignment could shift again depending on how Cooper Jr. develops. If Cooper Jr. becomes the player the Jets expect and Adonai Mitchell handles the other boundary spot, Wilson’s slot work could dip.
That would also open the door for him to play more on the outside, where Geno Smith’s tendencies could matter. At his best, Smith has been one of the league’s top deep passers, and moving Wilson outside could let that part of his game breathe more.
Using Smith’s recent workload as a guide, the Jets could land around 935 slot snaps if he averages about 603 dropbacks and the team reaches roughly 1.55 slot snaps per dropback. Based on that, the projected split looks like this: Kenyon Sadiq 350, Omar Cooper Jr. 202, Garrett Wilson 80, Isaiah Williams 75, Mason Taylor 60, Tim Patrick 43, Arian Smith 40, Adonai Mitchell 30, Jeremy Ruckert 25, Breece Hall 20 and Isaiah Davis 10.
That projection is only a guide, not a lock. Smith could throw more or fewer passes than expected, and Reich’s system could change how the slot is used. Still, the expectation is that Sadiq leads the group in slot snaps, with Cooper Jr. right behind him.
Hall should still get occasional slot work, with Reich having a history of using running backs there to create mismatches in 11 personnel. Patrick, meanwhile, should carve out a useful depth role. He has topped 75 slot snaps in each of his last four seasons, though that number should fall some because he fits better as an outside run-blocker in this offense.
Williams remains part of the picture because of his speed, but his slot workload is expected to shrink sharply from last season’s 147 snaps to 75 in this projection.
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