The Jets’ 2014 draft class keeps looking worse.
The team announced Tuesday that tight end Jace Amaro, a second-round pick in 2014, will miss the entire season. Amaro needs surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder and the team placed him on Injured Reserve.
Amaro suffered the injury three weeks ago in the Jets’ preseason opener against the Lions. The team called it a “shoulder sprain,” but it was more severe than they let on.
“When he got hurt it was more of the shoulder, and it was either a 2 ½-3-week period to get better, or if it didn’t get any better, we knew we’d have to go ahead and do the surgery and shelve him,” Jets coach Todd Bowles said. “We gave him time to get better, and the end result is he didn’t get better, so we had to do surgery and put him on IR.”
Amaro was part of the “Idzik 12,” the 12-man draft class in 2014 selected by former general manager John Idzik. There are now only six players from that class who can make the 53-man roster this year.
Amaro had a disappointing rookie season, catching 38 passes for 345 yards and two touchdowns. He was in the headlines this offseason after getting into a verbal war with former coach Rex Ryan. Amaro, who was a star at Texas Tech, questioned the team’s accountability under Ryan, something Ryan, now with the Bills, did not respond to well.
Amaro’s injury takes away an interesting storyline to this year’s meetings between the Jets and Bills. Of course, Ryan could not resist taking another shot at Amaro on Tuesday.
“I feel bad for the kid. Jace is a good kid. He just made stupid comments,” Ryan told reporters in Buffalo. “He’s a good kid and I feel bad that he can’t do it. He’s a talented guy, but I wasn’t exactly afraid of him.”
The absence of Amaro leaves the Jets with a hole at tight end. Jeff Cumberland will be the starter and Kellen Davis looks as if he will be the team’s blocking tight end, but they could use another pass catcher. Wes Saxton and Arthur Lynch are on the roster, but it is more likely the team will add a tight end this weekend as teams cut their rosters to 53.
“Somebody has to step up,” Bowles said. “We have a couple of guys playing this weekend that we want to see more of, and we’ll look at it from there. It’s just a chance for somebody else to play, that’s all.”
Bowles said this week that wide receiver Quincy Enunwa was sort of a “tweener” between receiver and tight end because of his size and blocking ability, but he shot down the idea of Enunwa replacing Amaro.
“He’s a big wideout right now,” Bowles said. “He was just able to block better than the rest of them. His size and his physicality present that. Going forward you’d like to see how he plays in this game as a wide receiver.”
Amaro struggled to catch the ball as a rookie, getting labeled as having bad hands. He was hoping to shake that label this year, and the team had been using him as an H-back. Amaro was not made available to speak to reporters Tuesday. Last week, he had spoken optimistically about playing this week against the Eagles.
“He was bummed out about it, but if you’re in pain and it’s not getting any better you have to fix it sooner than later,” Bowles said.