New York Jets tight end Jace Amaro (shoulder) was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday, ending his season. Amaro was going to be the H-back for the Jets in several offensive sets as the team looked to utilize their second-year player.
Jace Amaro’s shoulder injury creates some fantasy football value for Jets
Amaro is out for the season with a shoulder injury. There may be more fantasy implications from this than you might think.
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The Jets are now left with Jeff Cumberland and Kellen Davis as their best options at tight end. Neither guy has done much to suggest they'll be able to step in and fill the void alone, so it will likely be a team effort. Interestingly, offensive coordinator Chan Gailey used a four-receiver set more than any other offense from 2010-12. He also was fifth in the NFL for three-wide sets in that span (stats via ESPN's Rich Cimini).
In the preseason, Cumberland had just one catch and all tight ends had just five completions in the three games. Plus, the Jets are also poised to hand the ball off to running back Chris Ivory a ton -- Ivory is a wonderful target in the middle rounds of standard drafts, by the way. Amaro really can't block yet, so he was basically just another receiver out there.
Perhaps the biggest beneficiary from the Amaro injury is receiver Quincy Enunwa. They could use him in the slot and he's likely already ahead of guys like Jeremy Kerley and rookie Devin Smith. He basically could be running the same routes as Amaro.
The Jets do have a solid offensive line, ranking 13th on Pro Football Focus. They were actually eighth-best on pass blocking, so there could be even more to like about guys like Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker. The bottom line here is don't get too caught up in the quarterback issues. The Jets could turn in some decent fantasy value. To be clear, Enunwa is only an option in very deep leagues and Cumberland is just a low-end TE2 in deep leagues.
