The New York Jets will have to operate without Marcus Maye for another significant portion of the season.
The New York Jets have been firing on all cylinders on defense, but they’ll have to try and do it without some of those cylinders moving forward.
Jets safety Marcus Maye is expected to miss several weeks with a thumb injury he suffered in the win over the Indianapolis Colts. Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News says Maye left the stadium in a cast after the game.
#Jets safety Marcus Maye is expected to miss 3-4 weeks with a thumb injury suffered in yesterday’s win over #Colts, I’m told.
Maye left the stadium in a cast last night.
— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) October 15, 2018
The injury appears to be a broken thumb. Maye also missed the first three games of the 2018 season with a foot/ankle injury that he had been rehabbing during the entire offseason.
You can’t miss what you don’t have and the Jets haven’t had Maye for the majority of the season to date. But when he’s on the field, his impact is tangible. Marcus is one of the hardest hitting safeties in the league and has proven to be a decent ball hawk.
Where this hurts the Jets the most is in the secondary. Obviously, the safety position will have to survive without him, but the cornerbacks have to as well.
Corners can’t be as aggressive if they don’t trust the safeties having their backs behind them. So it appears Maye could be out for the next month, although it all depends on how the bone heals.
For context, here are the next four games for the Jets:
- Week 7: Minnesota Vikings at Jets
- Week 8: Jets at Chicago Bears
- Week 9: Jets at Miami Dolphins
- Week 10: Buffalo Bills at Jets
The Jets will have to rely on Doug Middleton in the meantime. Middleton performed a very serviceable job for the first three weeks of the season.
