New York Jets: Andre Roberts needs to start at wide receiver

Robby Anderson is a great deep threat for the New York Jets, but he’s a one trick pony. So, it’s time to start someone else in his place., Andre Roberts.

The New York Jets became the first team to lose to the Cleveland Browns since Christmas Eve 2016. In fact, since the start of Mike Pettine’s second season as Browns head coach — a span of 51 games — this is the team’s fifth win. That’s not something anyone would want to be a part of, but the Jets are.

A big part of the Browns winning was the fact that the Jets had three turnovers. One of those turnovers was by Robby Anderson, who had a first down nullified by a fumble for the second consecutive week.

If the Jets want to keep Anderson, they should change his role and make him the deep threat off the bench only. It’s time to start someone else in his place who has similar speed, but is a more polished route runner — Andre Roberts.

Roberts doesn’t have a huge body of work as a starter (only 40 career starts). However, despite only starting in 37 out of a possible 64 games, he was targeted over 70 times from 2011-14. He has speed, as we saw in Detroit on two separate punt returns, and he’s a good route runner that can create separation with quickness.

The issue may be that he has a problem with dropping passes. Roberts has a career drop percentage of 11.4 percent. That could be an issue. The main problem is that Anderson’s fumbles came at crucial times against the Dolphins and Browns and resulted in points for the opposition.

We can’t have critical turnovers, and Anderson is allowing the opposition to create turnovers. Roberts has a good combination of speed and route running ability that the Jets need. With the exception of when he runs straight down the field, Anderson doesn’t create separation. It’s time for a change, and Roberts should be the guy.