NEW YORK — The Jets made a puzzling move Wednesday and released starting cornerback Bless Austin.
The Jets' cornerback room was already one of the most inexperienced groups in the NFL and Austin was the only cornerback on the roster coming into the season with double-digit starts (16) in the league.
Austin, 25, ran with the first-team defense in all but two practices during training camp, so his release is a shocker.
Granted, Austin isn’t a top-tier corner, but with the Jets' cornerback spot having major questions, he was arguably their best corner. The only other player who could be in the conversation was Bryce Hall.
Jets head coach Robert Saleh’s reasoning for the move centered around wanting to roll with the youth.
“I’m very appreciative toward Bless,” Saleh said. “He’s a good young man. With the youth that we have at corner and the competition they’ve been able to provide and the growth they’ve all been able to have since OTAs and training camp, we’re going to give those guys a run and give them an opportunity to compete over this last week and a half and roll with those guys.”
But the former Rutgers star from Queens wasn’t a dinosaur, he was only in his third year and was clearly better than the options.
Saleh says the options to fill that role are between Brandin Echols, Isaiah Dunn, Javelin Guidry and Jason Pinnock.
“When we were looking at it, those young guys have such tremendous value and there’s so much growth that they can all experience,” Saleh said. “They all have potential to be high end starters in this league.”
The only other players who received reps at the outside spot were Echols and Dunn during camp. When Austin didn’t play in the Jets second preseason game against the Packers due to a personal reason, Dunn started in his spot. So the undrafted free agent out of Oregon State may get the first crack at starting.
Saleh wants his staff to take on the challenge of coaching his young guys up:
“It’s a challenge accepted in terms of this coaching staff is excited to get their hands on them and you’re gonna see tremendous growth as the year goes on.”
