Do the New York Jets have the NFL’s deepest WR depth chart?

The New York Jets have assembled a solid group of wide receivers for Zach Wilson. Do they have the deepest group in the NFL? With the additions of Corey Davis, Keelan Cole, and Elijah Moore to a unit that already featured Denzel Mims and Jamison Crowder (and let's not sleep on Braxton Berrios), the New York Jets have assembled a rock-solid wide receiver depth chart for Zach Wilson. Just take a look at how Wilson's weaponry on the outside compares to the arsenal that Sam Darnold was given entering his rookie season in 2018. The magic of New York's current wide receiver depth chart lies in its depth. Sure, the Jets do not have a wideout who can currently be considered a bona fide star (although Davis was close to one in 2020 while Mims and Moore have the potential to earn that billing down the line), but not many teams have a fifth wide receiver as good as Cole or a sixth wide receiver as good as Berrios. Because of this, when injuries hit, the Jets will experience a far smaller drop-off in wide receiver talent than most other teams will. When it comes to the talent of their fifth and sixth-best wide receivers, do the Jets have the deepest wide receiver depth chart in the league? Let's get the answer to that question by comparing the Jets' depth to that of the other 31 wide receiver groups. No. 5 WR (Keelan Cole) Let's say for now that Cole would be the Jets' fifth receiver, edging out Berrios. He has the advantage over Berrios in experience (64 games vs. 32), hands (8.5% drop rate vs. 10.4%), explosiveness (14.1 yards per reception vs. 11.5), and versatility (56/44 outside-slot split vs. 23/77). Over 64 career games throughout four seasons (never missing a game, adding to his appeal as a backup), Cole has collected 159 catches on 276 targets for 2,242 yards and 12 touchdowns. That gives him per-game averages of 2.5 catches for 35.0 yards and 0.19 touchdowns, and per-17-game averages of 42 catches for 595 yards and three touchdowns. In 2020, while catching passes from some of the worst quarterbacks in football (Jacksonville's quarterbacks cumulatively ranked 29th in PFF's passing grade), Cole caught 55 of 88 targets for 642 yards (40.1 per game) and five touchdowns. Jaguars quarterbacks had a 98.8 passer rating when targeting Cole and an 81.4 passer rating when targeting all other players. That's some awesome production for a guy who is (most likely) the fifth-best receiver on the team. How does Cole compare to other WR5s? Here are the fifth wide receivers across the league that I compared him against (obviously we have no idea how depth charts will shake out, this is how I stacked things up right now in my personal opinion). Rookies are in bold: Looking across the NFL, there aren't many teams who have a No. 5 wide receiver that can go to battle with Cole. Here are the teams who I think have someone comparable: Bills (Isaiah McKenzie) Dolphins (Allen Hurns) Ravens (Willie Snead) That's. . . pretty much it. Buffalo has one of the best wide receiver groups in the league. Stefon Diggs and Cole Beasley return at the top while Emmanuel Sanders slides in for John Brown. Standout rookie Gabriel Davis (599 yards and 7 TDs on 62 targets) rounds out a devastating 1-through-4 lineup. Slot receiver and gadget weapon Isaiah McKenzie was Buffalo's fifth wideout last season and is set to return to the role. McKenzie was incredible at his job last season, picking up a touchdown or first down on half of his targets (17 of 34), but that was a huge outlier compared to the rest of his career, as he had a bad conversion rate of only 29.2% over his first three seasons. Compared to Cole, McKenzie is less durable (playing in 78.1% of possible career games) and has never been a featured option (only 14.9 career YPG with career-high of 17.6), so we'll give the edge to Cole. The Jets' young defensive backfield will have its hands full this season, as Buffalo is not the only team in the division with a great wide receiver unit. Miami boasts a 1-to-4 lineup of Devante Parker, Will Fuller, Preston Williams, and first-round pick Jaylen Waddle. That lineup leaves Allen Hurns as the likely favorite for Miami's No. 5 receiver spot. Hurns last appeared for the Dolphins in 2019 but opted out of the 2020 season due to COVID-19 concerns. A former teammate of Cole's, Hurns was once a budding star, as he posted 1,031 yards and 10 touchdowns for the Jaguars in his second professional season back in 2015. That proved to his peak, however, as he has steadily declined since then. Over his two most recent seasons (2018-19), playing for the Cowboys and Dolphins, Hurns averaged only 23.7 yards per game with just four touchdowns in 30 games, but he did post a solid 8.7 yards per target. Hurns is going to turn 30 years old this season, so age isn't quite on his side. We'll give Cole an edge over Hurns as well. The one No. 5 weapon who I think can beat out Cole is the Raiders' fifth man, regardless of who it ends up being. Like the Jets, Las Vegas' wide receiver room does not have a star, but it is full of solid pieces. The Raiders have three intriguing homegrown pieces at the top in Henry Ruggs, Bryan Edwards, and Hunter Renfrow, followed by veteran slot man Willie Snead and veteran deep threat John Brown. The youngsters appear poised to take the top-three spots while Snead and Brown battle for the fourth spot. Snead has been a good slot receiver throughout his career, averaging 39.5 yards per game for the Saints and Ravens. He averaged only 31.6 yards per game in a run-heavy Baltimore offense over the past three years, but in New Orleans, Snead averaged 48.1 yards. In 2020, Snead averaged 33.2 yards per game on an efficient 9.0 yards per target, and he ranked 10th out of 72 qualifiers with 6.0 yards after catch per reception when lining up in the slot. Brown still has gas in the tank after averaging 50.9 yards per game and 8.8 yards per target for the Bills as their third option last year. Whether it's Brown or Snead who ends up as the fifth option in Nevada, I'd take him over Cole. But that's it. Scanning every depth chart in the league, Keelan Cole is probably the second-best No. 5 receiver in the league. No. 6 WR: Braxton Berrios Here are the No. 6 wide receivers who I compared Berrios against: Let's not pump up Berrios too much - there's a reason he is slated to be a team's sixth receiver - but he offers a lot more intrigue than most other sixth receivers in the NFL do. Berrios averaged 24.6 yards per game last season, which is the most of any wide receiver in the league who is currently projected to be No. 6 on their team's depth chart. That's just based on my perception of how each unit will stack up - obviously, nobody knows exactly how every depth chart will end up looking - but there really isn't any competition even if you extend the pool to include players who appear to be on track for spot No. 7 or lower. Miami's Jakeem Grant averaged 26.6 yards last year and could land anywhere from No. 5 to No. 7 on the Dolphins' depth chart (I see him at No. 7 behind Hurns and Lynn Bowden), but other than that, just about every player who is clearly not among their team's five best wide receivers was not nearly as productive as Berrios last year. The only player close is Cleveland's KhaDarel Hodge, who averaged 20.0 yards, but he did it in only nine games, posting a receiving yardage total that was less than half of Berrios' (180 vs. 394). Volume production aside, what makes Berrios intriguing as a No. 6 receiver is what he did in a backup role near the end of the 2020 season. Over his final few games, Berrios was only getting on the field for a few snaps each game, but when he did, he produced at a supremely efficient level. From Weeks 13-17, Berrios caught 13 of 16 targets for 171 yards, six first downs, and one touchdown. That's an average of 10.7 yards per target and a conversion rate of 43.8% - fantastic numbers on a per-target basis - but here's what makes that stat-line special: Berrios posted those numbers over just 27 routes run. Twenty-seven! In 2020, the average NFL team ran 39.2 passing plays per game, which means that 27 routes run would make up about two-thirds of the average game. So, imagine that Berrios caught 13 passes for 171 yards and seven conversions by the time that the Jets hit the five-minute mark of the third quarter. That's how well he played in his backup role over the final five weeks of the season. He showed an ability to contribute at a high level in limited spurts, which is an enticing trait for a backup. There are some young players out there who could prove to be better options than Berrios out of the sixth spot - Baltimore's Devin Duvernay or James Proche, Houston's Nico Collins, Washington's Dyami Brown, and Tampa Bay's Jaelon Darden come to mind - but as things stand, no team has a sixth receiver who showed more appeal last season than Berrios. I am not here to tell you that the Jets have the best wide receiver depth chart in the league - not even close - but I do think that it is reasonable to suggest that they have one of the deepest. The Jets are six-deep with solid options at wide receiver, which is something that not many other teams (if any) can say. That should ensure Zach Wilson will not have to play with a group like this when starters go down: CBS Sports (Jets at Bears, 2018) Emphasizing the accumulation of depth at wide receiver is just one of many things that the franchise has done to effectively support its young quarterback.