Eric Decker

Jets Notes: Decker, Trades, Revis

Jets wideout Eric Decker recently underwent hip surgery, and the 29-year-old is also awaiting an operation to repair his partially torn rotator cuff. Despite these setbacks, Decker said he wouldn’t miss any games in 2017.

“I’m not worried about missing any time next year,” Decker said on ESPN New York (via Darryl Slater of NJ.com). “I’ll be fine by the start of next year.”

Decker will be on crutches for a few more weeks, and he’ll have his shoulder surgery once he’s recovered from his hip operation. The shoulder should take about eight months to recover, which should line up perfectly with offseason workouts.

“I think they say eight months is kind of the time frame where you’re back to full strength lifting,” Decker said. “But there are a lot of guys that say after six weeks, after eight weeks, they feel pretty good. And then it’s a matter of obviously strengthening the shoulder.”

Let’s check out some more notes from the Gang Green…

Eric Decker’s 2017 Season In Question

Jets wide receiver Eric Decker underwent hip surgery today, according to a press release from the team. Once he’s off crutches, he’ll have to undergo a procedure on his shoulder. He’ll need six months to recover from the hip operation followed by eight months for his shoulder, though he’ll be off crutches sooner than six months from now. It’s not clear what his total timetable is for recovery at this time, but it’s very possible that he could miss the beginning of the 2017 season as he bounces back from two major surgeries. Eric Decker (vertical)

[RELATED: Jets Sign CB Nick Marshall]

Decker appeared in three games for Gang Green this season and totaled nine catches for 194 yards and two touchdowns. He enjoyed his best season as a Jet last year, catching 80 passes for 1,027 yards and 12 touchdowns.

The Jets, sans Decker, fell to 1-5 last night in a one-sided contest against the Cardinals. Next up is a Sunday tilt with the Ravens.

AFC Notes: Fins, Ravens, Patriots, Jets

Defensive end Mario Williams needs to “play better” and “play harder,” Dolphins D-coordinator Vance Joseph told reporters, including Chris Perkins of the Sun-Sentinel, on Thursday. After the AFC East rival Bills released Williams in March, the Dolphins quickly signed the 2006 No. 1 overall pick to a two-year, $17MM deal. Williams, 31, has underwhelmed on the stat sheet in Miami, where he has picked up just seven tackles in a sack in five games. While Pro Football Focus grades Williams’ overall performance a decent 44th among 99 qualifying DEs, his production is way down since last season. Over his past 20 games, Williams has recorded a meager 26 tackles and six sacks.

Elsewhere around the AFC…

  • Ravens tight end Dennis Pitta endorsed the Monday firing of offensive coordinator Marc Trestman, saying Wednesday, “Marc Trestman is a great guy, a great coach. It was difficult to see him go, but I think it was something that this offense needed” (via Jeff Zrebiec of the Baltimore Sun). Although injuries limited Pitta to just seven of 48 regular-season games from 2013-15, he bounced back this year under Trestman to catch 28 passes on 37 targets. As a whole, though, the Ravens’ offense ranks 18th in yardage, 22nd in scoring and 27th in DVOA. The unit will try to better its production under Marty Mornhinweg, whom Ravens players “have a lot of faith in,” Pitta added.
  • The Patriots might have to consider a long-term deal for contract-year tight end Martellus Bennett, observes Ryan Hannable of WEEI. The offseason trade pickup from Chicago has racked up 21 receptions with four touchdowns and a whopping 15.0 yards per catch over his first five games in New England. His production has helped make up for a slow start from Rob Gronkowski, who was either out or limited for the first four games of the season. Gronkowski broke out against the Browns last Sunday in a 33-13 win for New England, which appears to have the best tight end duo in the league with him and Bennett. “I’ve felt at home here since Day 1. It’s a place I feel like I belong,” Bennett said. The soon-to-be 30-year-old is currently on track to net a raise over his $5MM salary.
  • Jets receiver Eric Decker will undergo surgery on his injured right shoulder within the next two weeks, he announced Thursday, adding that he’ll need six to eight months to return to full strength (per Kimberley A. Martin of Newsday). “Getting surgery was really going to be the only answer,” said Decker, whom the Jets placed on injured reserve Wednesday because of a torn rotator cuff. Decker caught nine passes for a whopping 194 yards and two touchdowns in three games this season.

Jets To Place Eric Decker On IR

6:45pm: The Jets have official placed Decker on the injured reserve, reports Randy Lange of NewYorkJets.com.

For what it’s worth, coach Todd Bowles said his team is prepared for the significant subtraction.

“He’s been out two weeks now,” he told Lange. “We kind of knew if he didn’t respond, he may have to go that route and the other guys have been getting reps, so it’s not as bad as it would seem to be.”

9:56am: The Jets are placing Eric Decker on injured reserve, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The team has since confirmed the news via press release."<strong

Recently, Decker explained that treatment for his partial rotator cuff tear would come down to pain management. Instead, it turns out that he’ll need surgery to fix the tear. The surgery will likely be a season-ender, so we shouldn’t expect to see No. 87 on the field in eight weeks.

“Of course, there’s going to be pain. Everyone plays with pain. This is a physical game,” Decker told Daniel Popper of the New York Daily News recently. “So I don’t expect myself to be 100 percent at some point. It’s just getting to where it’s manageable and…I can still play the same game that I need to play.”

Decker, 29, enjoyed his best season as a Jet last year, catching 80 passes for 1,027 yards and 12 touchdowns. Through three games this year, Decker has nine receptions for 194 yards and two scores.

The Jets filled Decker’s spot on the roster earlier today when they plucked cornerback Nick Marshall off of the Jaguars’ practice squad. The team also added reinforcements at receiver by claiming Jeremy Butler off waivers from the Bucs yesterday.

Extra Points: 49ers, Bengals, Jets, Cowboys

49ers linebacker NaVorro Bowman is done for the season with a torn Achilles, but the 28-year-old doesn’t expect the injury to have long-term effects. “It’s just a minor setback for a major comeback,” he said Thursday (via Matt Maiocco of CSNBayArea.com). It’s the second catastrophic injury over the past three years for Bowman, who previously tore both his ACL and MCL in the 49ers’ NFC title game loss to Seattle in January 2014. Bowman returned last year to improbably earn first-team All-Pro honors for the fourth time on the strength of an NFL-best 154-tackle campaign.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • Tight end Tyler Eifert‘s health (or lack thereof) for the rest of the year will determine how extension talks between him and the Bengals go during the offseason, writes Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Eifert missed the Bengals’ first four games of the season because of an ankle injury, and just as he was set to return this Sunday, a back problem came to the fore Wednesday to put his status in question. Various injuries have limited Eifert to just 28 of the Bengals’ 52 regular-season games since they drafted him 21st overall in 2013. The ex-Notre Dame star broke out last season with 52 catches and 13 touchdowns, making a case for big money in the process, but Eifert’s injury history could give Cincinnati pause. Luckily for the Bengals, Eifert’s still under their control next season by way of his fifth-year option, so they still have time to decide whether to make a long-term commitment.
  • Contrary to a Wednesday report, the Jets are not considering placing wide receiver Eric Decker on injured reserve, head coach Todd Bowles said Thursday (via Brian Costello of the New York Post). However, Bowles and Decker disagree on whether the wideout is progressing from the partially torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder. Bowles told Costello that he hasn’t seen any progress, while Decker said he’s improving each day. Either way, Decker is likely to miss time – albeit an undetermined amount – and may eventually need surgery. “It has been a discussion,” Decker said. “Again, that’s something that, down the road, we’ll have the conversation again and look at it again. They’ll let me know the right thing to do.”
  • Aldrick Rosas will be among the kickers auditioning for the Cowboys on Friday, Charean Williams of the Star Telegram tweets. Rosas, formerly of Southern Oregon, signed with the Titans after this year’s draft. They cut him Sept. 2.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

Jets Considered Placing Eric Decker On IR

The Jets considered placing wide receiver Eric Decker on injured reserve due to his partially torn rotator cuff, tweets Adam Schefter of ESPN.com. It’s unclear if New York has made a final decision on Decker’s status, but he’s expected to be week-to-week for the time being.Eric Decker (Vertical)

[RELATED: Jets Could Add Wide Receiver]

“Of course, there’s going to be pain. Everyone plays with pain. This is a physical game,” Decker told Daniel Popper of the New York Daily News. “So I don’t expect myself to be 100 percent at some point. It’s just getting to where it’s manageable and…I can still play the same game that I need to play.”

Decker, 29, enjoyed his best season as a Jet last year, catching 80 passes for 1,027 yards and 12 touchdowns. Through three games this year, Decker has nine receptions for 194 yards and two scores.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jets’ Decker Suffers Partially Torn Rotator Cuff

Jets wide receiver Eric Decker has suffered a partially torn rotator cuff, as Daniel Popper of the Daily News writes. Decker is officially out for Sunday’s game against the Seahawks, according to coach Todd BowlesEric Decker (vertical)

[RELATED: Jets Re-Sign WR/KR Jeremy Ross]

Decker will be evaluated on a week-to-week basis and it’s not yet known whether he will undergo surgery. If Decker goes under the knife, it stands to reason that he would be a candidate for IR, though the new rules would allow for him to return in two months. After the Jets’ offense fizzled against the Chiefs on Sunday, they’re certainly hoping that they won’t be without Decker for an extended period of time.

Decker, 29, enjoyed his best season as a Jet last year, catching 80 passes for 1,027 yards and 12 touchdowns. Through three games this year, Decker has nine receptions for 194 yards and two scores.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jets Notes: Marshall, Decker, LBs, Smith

Jets wide receivers Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker, accompanied by Kimberley Martin of Newsday, took a helicopter ride to Marshall’s doctor’s office recently, where the older of the two New York starting wideouts received an advanced treatment as he prepares for training camp. Here are some of the highlights from that conversation, along with some additional Jets news.

  • An 11th-year pro who’s registered 1,000+ yards for four franchises in the past eight years, Marshall told Martin he spends around $200K per year on various health maintenance routines and spent a recent evening undergoing the same treatment Kobe Bryant used late in his career. Marshall uses the Regenokine Program, an anti-inflammation treatment involving injections, multiple times before training camp during the seasons to help accelerate recovery. “It’s what a lot of people call ‘the Kobe Bryant shots,’ ” Marshall told Martin. “For older athletes . . . this is like the fountain of youth.” The 32-year-old Marshall underwent this treatment for turf toe and knee maladies during the 2015 season and received injections in both areas during the recent visit.
  • Marshall admits he wasn’t sold on Decker as much more than a Peyton Manning-propelled player before he saw Decker’s Jets work, Martin reports. “Today he told me, ‘I honestly thought you were a product of Peyton [Manning]. Like I didn’t believe you were good,” Decker said. Decker doesn’t quite have Marshall’s body of work but displayed last season he could thrive without Manning’s assistance. The now-29-year-old receiver delivered his best statistical sample for the record-setting 2013 Broncos, gaining 1,288 yards through the air and finishing a two-season stretch with Manning where he scored 24 touchdowns. In 2015, Decker added 12 more scores and 1,027 yards.
  • As training camp approaches in less than six weeks, Marshall admitted he’s tired of talking about the Ryan Fitzpatrick saga, that still sits with the sides disagreeing on a three-year, $24MM offer. Although the duo was reported to have skipped a portion of Jets OTAs as a show of support for the team to re-sign Fitzpatrick, Marshall would prefer to know who his quarterback is soon. “It was funny and cool at the beginning,” Marshall told Martin regarding the Fitz situation, “Like, you can throw some punchlines in there. But now it’s like, it’s time to roll.”
  • The Jets have offered Fitzpatrick $15MM in guaranteed money and still want him to be their starter despite Geno Smith‘s offseason progression, Rich Cimini of ESPN.com writes. Todd Bowles said recently Smith is “light years” ahead of where he was going into last year before the locker room sucker-punch incident derailed his season, but Cimini points out the fourth-year former second-round pick’s status atop the Jets’ depth chart this close to camp has strengthened the 33-year-old Fitzpatrick’s leverage. Although no other teams appear to be in on him at this point, Fitzpatrick and his camp has a Smith-led Jets offense as a point in their favor as the sides’ impasse continues.
  • Lorenzo Mauldin and Jordan Jenkins reside as the favorites to start at outside linebacker for Gang Green, Brian Costello of the New York Post reports. Third-round picks in the past two drafts, the duo would obviously bring little experience to the position, although Mauldin did back up Calvin Pace last season, playing 261 snaps. Two-hundred-twenty-four of those came on passing downs, which enabled him to see pass-rushing work en route to four sacks last season — second-most among Jets ‘backers. As Roster Resource details, the Jets are counting on these two young cogs, with Pace gone and no one drafted above the seventh round sitting behind them.

AFC East Notes: Brady, Jets, Watkins, Jordan

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has added a couple of powerful allies – the AFL-CIO and high-profile attorney Kenneth Feinberg – as he seeks to overturn his four-game suspension for his role in the Deflategate scandal, details The Associated Press. In a friend of the court brief filed Monday, the AFL-CIO asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a three-judge panel’s April decision to reinstate Brady’s suspension. According to the labor federation, the panel made a mistake in regarding NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as a neutral arbitrator. Meanwhile, Feinberg claims that Goodell “impermissibly exceeded the scope of his authority” and “used the vehicle of arbitration as a mechanism to rewrite the underlying bargain between the parties, to the sole advantage of his organization.”

As for the rest of the AFC East…

  • There was a report last week that the Jets’ Eric Decker was skipping OTAs because of the team’s lack of progress in re-signing quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, but the receiver issued a denial Wednesday. “That’s not the reason I wasn’t there,” he said (Twitter link via Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News). Decker also expressed confidence that Fitzpatrick will eventually re-up with Gang Green, according to Brian Costello of the New York Post. On the other hand, fellow wideout Brandon Marshall wouldn’t say whether his absence was on account of the Fitzpatrick situation (Twitter link via Costello). However, Marshall did acknowledge Wednesday that the Fitzpatrick-less Jets must “move forward and try to figure out how we can win some games.”
  • When news of a minor foot fracture surfaced earlier this month, the expectation was that Bills receiver Sammy Watkins would be ready for training camp. Based on the words of Watkins and head coach Rex Ryan, that’s now up in the air, as Kevin Patra of NFL.com writes. “The goal is the regular season,” said Watkins, whose walking boot will come off Thursday. “All I know is that Sammy won’t miss time in the regular season,” Ryan commented.
  • When asked about defensive end Dion Jordan applying for reinstatement, Dolphins coach Adam Gase said, “I’ll worry about that when it comes around” (Twitter link via Tom Pelissero of USA Today Sports). Jordan, the third pick in the 2013 draft, had to sit out last season after the league suspended him for violating its substance abuse policy. Jordan has missed 22 games because of suspensions during his short career and has totaled just three sacks in 26 contests.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

AFC East Notes: Patriots, Fitzpatrick, Smith, Misi

About a year ago, ESPNBoston.com’s Mike Reiss focused on Tom Brady‘s praise for unheralded Patriots running back Dion Lewis. The career journeyman’s pass-catching skills were clear, but the running back was also commended for his ability to take “a teaching point that was covered in morning meetings…and [execute it] on the field.”

We all know how that experiment ended up working. Lewis compiled 622 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns in seven games.

Today, Reiss decided to highlight some “under-the-radar” OTA participants who could play a significant role on this year’s squad. Among the candidates were cornerback V’Angelo Bentley (who adds versatility via the return game), receiver DeAndre Carter (played on last season’s practice squad), running back D.J. Foster (undrafted free agent received personal phone called from Bill Belichick to join team), and cornerback Jonathan Jones (most guaranteed money among undrafted players).

While the Patriots determine whether they’ve landed on any hidden gems, let’s see what else is happening around the AFC East…

  • We have conflicting reports as to whether Brandon Marshall‘s absence from Jets OTAs is related to the team’s contract talks (or lack thereof) with Ryan Fitzpatrick. One source tells Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (on Twitter) that there is “no story” with regards to Marshall not being in practice with his teammates. Eric Decker, however, is reportedly staying home to make a statement about his feelings on the Fitzpatrick situation.
  • Jets quarterback Geno Smith says that he is OK with his teammates voicing their support for Fitzpatrick, as Brian Costello of the New York Post writes. “When I’m out there on the field no matter who I’m with my job is to score points,” he said. “I have the utmost confidence in my abilities and myself. When the time comes when I’m out there, I’ll go out there and perform. As of right now, it’s about what we’re doing here and taking care of business.”
  • Dolphins linebacker Koa Misi was detained (but not arrested) by police following a fight outside a Fort Lauderdale nightclub on Sunday morning, according to a police report obtained by the Miami Sun-Sentinel. The report also indicated that the 29-year-old attempted to “flee a police officer” following the altercation. Misi could be in line for a team suspension, and it’s notable that the organization disciplined former defensive end Derrick Shelby following a fight outside the same club.

Zach Links contributed to this post.