New York Jets: The Emergence of Jace Amaro in 2016

The New York Jets tight end play was dismal in 2016. However, this upcoming 2016 season will be a breakout year for Jace Amaro.

He knows it, the coaching staff knows it, and the fans know it. Jace Amaro missed a golden opportunity to grow in Chan Gailey’s offensive system last year when he went down with a shoulder injury in the preseason opener. His rookie year had its ups and downs. Amaro did struggle at times with drops but he has worked on this a lot in the offseason. The time is now to put that behind him and emerge as a reliable force in this offense.

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Amaro had a rookie season of 38 catches for 345 yards and 2 touchdowns. This stat line doesn’t seem that impressive. However, most tight ends take a few years to get going. In fact, Amaro had more yards in his rookie season then Charles Clay, Delanie Walker and Martellus Bennett. He was only 44 yards behind San Diego’s Antonio Gates’ rookie season, and 11 yards behind Jimmy Graham. This goes to show you can’t write off a young tight end after one season.

Most people don’t want to remember that Geno Smith was Amaro’s quarterback with Marty Mornhinweg as his offensive coordinator. That is not exactly the best situation to fall into. This season with Brandon Marshall, Eric Decker, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Chan Gailey, Amaro has the potential to be a pleasant surprise every Sunday. Gailey’s spread offense will provide a lot of familiarity for him since he played in a similar system at Texas Tech. Mornhinweg’s offense was an awful fit for Amaro.

Amaro has a lot of confidence. He told Brian Costello of the New York Post, “They just haven’t really seen what I can do. I’m just trying to get open and catch every ball and do every assignment correctly. I’m blocking as hard as I can because that’s ultimately going to mean me playing a lot, you know as much as I want to. I’m just trying to do the little things right and get better with every practice. I feel like I did that in these first four practices.”

Showing up to training camp 16 pounds lighter was a good sign. The coaching staff did not seem happy with Amaro last training camp, and made it known publicly. I believe that had a lot to do with his conditioning. We all know that Amaro isn’t the best blocking tight end in the league. Thats why the Jets keep Kellen Davis around. Amaro is a receiving tight end and shedding those extra pounds was crucial to him succeeding in this league.

I expect Amaro to be spread out wide in red zone situations a lot this year. The Jets lack top flight speed on their roster, but they more than make up for it in size. When you have a four spread wide set of Amaro, Marshall, Decker and Quincy Enunwa, opposing defenses will have a lot of trouble matching that size. The Jets should be much more efficient in the red zone then they have been in many years.

I expect Amaro to emerge as a reliable receiving option for Fitzpatrick and the Jets, and be a great value pick in late rounds for fantasy football players. The Jets have a lot of receiving threats in their offense, but there is enough room for him to get consistent targets.