Jamison Crowder being injured is just another problem for the Jets

The New York Jets have plenty of issues after just one game, and injury to top wide receiver Jamison Crowder is now on the list.

The New York Jets lost 27-17 to the Buffalo Bills in Week 1, but it wasn’t that close. Running back Le’Veon Bell (hamstring) was injured in the game and is now on IR.  Adam Gase has become the betting favorite to be the first head coach fired. Now, in the “we just can’t have nice things” column, Connor Hughes of The Athletic has reported wide receiver Jamison Crowder popped up on Wednesday’s injury report.

Crowder was the Jets leading receiver last year (78 catches for 833 yards, six touchdowns), and he had seven receptions (on 13 targets) for 115 yards and with a 69-yard catch and run touchdown against the Bills last Sunday.

Crowder was basically the Jets’ offense in Week 1

Crowder’s 115 yards was 45.3 percent of the Jets’ offense in Week 1 (254 total yards). He had a 37.1 percent share of Sam Darnold’s targets (35 attempts), a third of his completions (21) and over 53 percent of Darnold’s passing yards (215). The 69-yard play of course accounted for a big chunk of the yardage pie on its own.

Along with Bell, rookie wide receiver Denzel Mims is also on IR now. So an already talent-thin Jets’ offense as gotten a bit thinner already, and even a hint at a possible absence for Crowder is not good news.

Crowder did battle a bit of a hamstring issue in training camp. But with no mention of an issue for him beforehand from Gase, according to Hughes, it seems he was freshly injured during Wednesday’s practice.

With the lack of offseason work, a shorter camp and no preseason games, soft tissue injuries are going to be a thing early this season. It makes sense for teams to exercise a lot of caution, and maybe that’s all the Jets are doing here with Crowder.