Recently, New York Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie caused a fracas in the team's locker room by suggesting that he might be the team's second-best receiver. By the time the Jets' training camp is over, Cromartie might be correct by default. An already paper-thin receiver corps was dealt another blow when Santonio Holmes suffered what appeared to be a serious rib injury in Saturday's scrimmage.
On the play, according to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News, Cromartie made a clean tackle on Holmes, and that's most likely when it happened.
"I don't know if Santonio broke a rib or not, but the fact that it was sticking out was probably an indicator," Jets coach Rex Ryan said after practice. "He's a tough guy, but I don't think he's going to be running out there tomorrow or the next day,"
Any injury to Holmes is a bad thing right now for a couple of reasons -- first, the Jets' receiver corps is already seriously banged up. The team went into Saturday's scrimmage with four totally healthy receivers outside of Holmes in their alleged 12-man group. Several players have suffered through hamstring injuries and conditioning issues, and rookie Stephen Hill was probably the most talented receiver on the active roster alongside Holmes.
Now, for whatever amount of time Holmes will be out, the pressure will be on Hill to now only perform, but to stay healthy enough to field a multiple receiver group.
The second reason Holmes' injury is a problem is that, to say the least, the Jets' offense has been struggling mightily through training camp. Reading the Twitter feeds of any reporter covering the team is like reading through an LSU practice report -- there are far too many "1 for 10, two interceptions" reports about Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow.
"Man, that's tough," linebacker Aaron Maybin said of Holmes' injury. "We definitely had some injury problems at that position. Anytime that somebody goes down, one of the things that Rex preaches is the next man up. You have to be ready to step in and fill the void when somebody goes down. He's somebody that we definitely count on a lot. Like I said, we're looking forward to somebody stepping up and picking up the slack until he gets back."
If there's anybody left to pick up the slack, that would be nice. Maybe Cromartie and Tebow could comprise Jets Wideouts 2.0?