The Jets may not yet be done finding their final 53-man roster for Sunday’s season opener against the Bills, but after a weekend of cuts, waiver claims and more cuts, one move stood out among the rest.
Outside linebacker Jachai Polite, the Jets’ third-round pick in April, is now in Seattle on the Seahawks’ practice squad.
“We felt like the roster we ended up with, that was our best 53,” head coach Adam Gase said Monday in his first comments since Saturday’s cuts.
As for why Polite was not included in the best 53, Gase was less definite.
The University of Florida product did not have a strong training camp on the field but also hurt his cause off of it, racking up more than $100,000 in fines by the Jets during his tenure for violating team rules, a source confirmed to The Post’s Brian Costello.
“I’d rather not get into the details of that stuff,” Gase said. “What comes out sometimes isn’t always true and sometimes it is. It’s something we’d like to keep in house.”
It was former general manager Mike Maccagnan who drafted Polite with the 68th pick, but Gase was also in the war room during the draft. He claimed his memory was fuzzy when asked if there was any division on the pick when it was made.
“It’s hard for me to remember exactly what was going on during the draft,” Gase said. “That’s not really something I’m thinking about nowadays.”
Instead of giving Polite a shot to develop and keep him on the roster for at least a season, the Jets cut bait, even though they are desperate for pass rushers. Gase insisted the Jets are deep at outside linebacker, saying the lineup was “tough to crack,” despite Jordan Jenkins being the only player at the position to have started more than one career game in the NFL.
Gase pointed to undrafted defensive lineman Kyle Phillips, who “earned his spot” with his body of work, which included a strong preseason finale. He said the Jets also wanted “the guys that do it the way we need it done.”
“Every guy in the locker room knows they’re being evaluated in everything they do,” Gase said. “Especially when it comes training camp time and being locked in and making sure you’re doing the right things. Meetings, on the field, walkthroughs — everything is evaluated.”
That evaluation also led to the Jets swapping their kicker and punt returner, cutting Taylor Bertolet and Greg Dortch and claiming Kaare Vedvik and Braxton Berrios off waivers.
Vedvik has never kicked in a regular-season game and went 1-for-4 in field goals in two preseason games with the Vikings. But he spent last year with the Ravens, where new Jets director of player personnel Chad Alexander saw him up close.
“I feel confident,” Gase said. “This guy has a lot of talent. He’s done a lot of good things in some of the preseason games he’s played in. We have guys that have actually been with him before, so that’s always a helpful tool to use.”
Gase used it again with Berrios, the University of Miami product who got cut from the Patriots a year after getting drafted. Gase spent plenty of time with him in the pre-draft process while coaching the Dolphins and believes he can step right in at punt returner and help at slot receiver.
“He’s a guy that historically, coming out of college, was really good at getting open in the slot,” Gase said. “The way this has worked out, it’ll be interesting because he was a guy we wanted to work with.”