Jets' Garrett Wilson has hyperextended knee, report says
Denver Broncos safety Talanoa Hufanga, top, reacts after breaking up a pass for New York Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson in the second half on Sunday in London. Credit: AP/Ian Walton
The Jets were back in North America on Monday, trying to pick up the pieces after their latest dispiriting loss. But they might have to do so without one of their most important pieces.
Wide receiver Garrett Wilson had an MRI on Monday that ESPN reported revealed a hyperextended knee. He is expected to be sidelined for a couple of weeks. The Jets will host the Panthers on Sunday, then visit the Bengals on Oct. 26, followed by their bye week.
Wilson hasn’t missed a game in his four-season NFL career.
Coach Aaron Glenn said earlier Monday that Wilson “has a knee” and is being evaluated regarding the seriousness of the injury.
“We’ll find out more about that and I’ll be able to give you that on Wednesday,” Glenn said in a video news conference following up on Sunday’s 13-11 loss to the Broncos in London.
Asked about his level of concern, he said, “I don’t really want to speak on that now, to be honest with you, because I don’t really know what it is.
“Today I’ll have a better understanding of that and I’ll be able to let you know on Wednesday. But it’s always concerning when you lose one of your better players, I will say that.”
Wilson leads the Jets with 36 receptions for 395 yards and four touchdowns.
He might have suffered the injury late in the fourth quarter as he twisted to try to catch a pass thrown behind him by quarterback Justin Fields.
“It’s really messing with my mental,” Wilson said after Sunday’s game. “I don’t even want to think about it, for real. Just pray that everything comes back good.”
It was another in a series of low moments for an offense that totaled 82 yards, netted minus-10 passing yards and allowed nine sacks of Fields.
Glenn lauded the improvements he saw against Denver in his defense and special teams and tried to find some positives on offense. But he admitted, “We took a step back.”
That includes Fields, who was 9-for-17 for 45 yards passing. But Glenn reiterated on Monday what he said after the game: that he has no immediate intention of benching Fields.
“I don’t think you just try to bench a player after having one true bad game, because I thought the other games he played fairly well,” he said.
Glenn did concede there were times when Fields held on to the ball too long, resulting in a sack when he could have gotten rid of it and let Wilson and Co. try to make a play. “Before [Sunday], I thought he was doing a really good job getting the ball out,” Glenn said. “This particular game, we didn’t get it out as fast as we wanted.”
Two of Fields’ linemen defended him on Monday.
“He’s fine,” Josh Myers said. “I’ve played a lot of snaps with him before and he’s an amazing football player, leader, quarterback, all of those things. I think we have to do a better job around him.”
Said Joe Tippmann: “If Justin needs five seconds, we need to be able to give him six. So at the end of the day, that falls on us as an O-line, not to receivers, not on Justin. It’s on us. We’ve got to be able to hold up for as long as he needs no matter how much it is.”
Glenn admitted rethinking his decision to let the first-half clock run out rather than try a desperate pass on fourth-and-1 from the Jets’ 47-yard line.
Glenn reiterated that the decision resulted from confusion over whether the Jets had gotten a first down or not but said, “I wish I could have taken the clock down to five seconds and just thrown a Hail Mary. That’s a mistake that I made, and I hold myself accountable for that.”
As he has many times, Glenn preached patience and referenced his previous experiences with poor starts in Detroit and New Orleans.
He said he has had “really good conversations” with owner Woody Johnson, who “understands everything that we’re trying to do.”
Glenn said he spoke on Monday morning with Bill Parcells, who early in the 1993 season, his first with the Patriots, lost to the Jets, 45-7. The Patriots started 1-11.
“You have to go through these times,” Glenn said. “You have to figure out exactly how you’re going to end up winning games and continue to press forward. I’m not wavering from that.”
The Panthers are next. They have won three of their past four games.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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