Denzel Mims’ breakout Jets performance could mean little in the end
Denzel Mims played the game of his NFL life on Sunday.
The Jets’ enigmatic third-year receiver caught a game-high seven passes for 102 yards and a touchdown — his first score of any kind as a pro — in the Jets’ come-from-behind 31-27 win over the Giants in the teams’ preseason finale at MetLife Stadium.
What does it mean?
Likely very little.
NFL rosters, as August gives way to September, have historically been filled with players who performed like Pro Bowlers in preseason and amounted to nada once the real games begin.
Mims, whom the Jets drafted 59th overall in the second round in 2020, produced eight receptions for 133 yards and no touchdowns in 11 games (three starts) in 2021, nearly eclipsed those numbers on Sunday afternoon, three days removed from directing his agent to publicly request the Jets trade him as reported first by The Post’s Brian Costello.
No disrespect intended toward Mims — because you can only compete against the players the other team puts on the field — but Mims’ performance came against Giants second- and third-stringers.
There was pregame speculation that the Jets — miffed at the Mims trade request — might not even put him in the game until the fourth quarter, the epicenter of preseason football garbage time.
But the Jets — even if they entertained that thought for a minute — thought better of cutting their nose off to spite their face and instead gave Mims a chance to showcase what his 6-foot-3, 207-pound frame suggests he should be doing every Sunday in the regular season.
If nothing else, Mims catching seven of the eight passes targeted to him, including the tough 29-yard TD reception he hauled in from fourth-string quarterback Chris Streveler to tie the game at 24-24 in the fourth quarter, served as proper showcase film for prospective trade partners.
Will the Jets trade Mims, who’s essentially sixth on the receiver depth chart and has been what can best be described as a mildly willing special teams participant?
Jets head coach Robert Saleh all summer has been killing Mims with kindness whenever asked about him. Saleh’s default response has been that Mims “has done everything we’ve asked of him.’’
On Sunday, Saleh praised Mims’ performance as “gritty’’ and added that he’s “one of our best six receivers and he’s going to be here as far as I’m concerned.’’
The Jets second-year coach then added after a pause: “Unless … all the other questions are for Joe.’’
“Joe’’ is Jets general manager Joe Douglas, who is the man who spent a second-round draft pick for Mims. General managers are as likely to cut their own second-round picks as they would be handing opponents their team’s game plan the night before they play.
If Douglas was able to score a fifth-round pick in a trade for Mims, he’d probably dance a jig all the way down Jets Drive in Florham Park, N.J. But he has zero leverage, with every team in the league well aware the Jets want no part of Mims anymore.
Mims after the game did his best to say all the right things in public.
“I’m hungry,’’ he said. “I just wanted to go out there and show everyone what I can do.’’
Asked if he believes his performance swayed Jets coaches to play him more, Mims said, “We’ll see what happens. I don’t know what’s going on in their minds.’’
After he scored, Mims demonstratively pointed to his wrist and later explained, “That means ‘fever time,’ that means my time.’’
He called getting into the end zone for the first time in a Jets uniform on a game of any kind, “Amazing,’’ adding, “I feel like I can do anything that I set my mind to. All I need to do is come out, play hard, play physical, do my job and play.’’
Mims said he doesn’t feel like there’s a “disconnect’’ between him and the Jets coaches. Yet the fact that he requested a trade suggests otherwise.
“I love the Jets, I love being here,’’ he said when asked if he wants to remain a Jet. “I don’t have no problem with the Jets.’’
Asked about his relationship with Saleh, Mims said, “That’s my coach. I got nothing but respect for him.’’
Mims attributes bad luck — hamstring injuries his rookie year and then food poisoning and contracting COVID-19 last season — to derailing his first two NFL seasons.
“I feel like I’m better,’’ he said of his current state. “I feel like I’ve always been this way, but today I got a chance to show it.’’
Many questions remain for and about Mims, beginning with whether any of what took place on Sunday really matters.
