FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Jets Coach Robert Saleh is not ready to say goodbye to Denzel Mims.
At least not yet.
Despite the third-year wide receiver’s request Thursday to be traded by the New York Jets, Saleh said it remains “business as usual” with Mims after the two spoke Friday morning.
“It’s not over,” Saleh said. “I’m not going to say it’s over with him.”
Saleh, who has regularly praised Mims’ work ethic during the offseason and training camp, agreed it’s disappointing when a player doesn’t necessarily achieve to a level the team and player hope.
“You go into this and you’re trying to fight for all your guys and you’re trying to get them to where you want them to be,” Saleh said. “You just want to see these guys have success. All the individual players, you want them to have successful careers and achieve all their personal goals.
“With that said, I do think Denzel has done a great job – I’m standing by it. He’s had a really great OTAs and he’s done a really good job in training camp. It’s just a matter of him finding his niche and finding his role.”
That has been the issue, though, for Mims.
The 2020 second-round pick out of Baylor has just 31 catches for 490 yards and no touchdowns in 20 games over two seasons. He was no better than sixth on the team’s wide receiver depth chart in camp, behind Corey Davis, Elijah Moore, Garrett Wilson, Braxton Berrios and Jeff Smith.
The Jets have been trying to find Mims a role on special teams, an area where he has little experience.
“When you have a guy like Corey and Elijah, and you draft Garrett Wilson, those guys are just going to get first dibs,” Saleh said. “It’s not a knock on (Mims). He’s part of a really good room. And that’s why I think you see the frustration where he has a desire to do more, and I that’s why I think the events from yesterday from his agent happened.”
Mims practiced Friday and, almost fittingly, ended practice with an impressive catch in the end zone while working with the third-stringers – but was ruled out of bounds.
“It’s just time,” Mims’ agent, Ron Slavin, wrote in a statement Thursday officially requesting the trade. “Denzel has tried in good faith, but it is clear he does not have a future with the Jets.”
Mims dealt with hamstring issues as a rookie, a case of food poisoning that caused him to lose 20 pounds last offseason, a bout with COVID-19 last season, and then saw his role in the offense dwindle to nearly nonexistent.
“I know he’s frustrated, as we’ve talked about before, that he’s not where he wants to be,” Saleh said, “but it doesn’t mean that he can’t get there. He just continues to grind.”
But Slavin said in his statement that Mims worked hard in the offseason to come back better than he has been in the pros. “Still, he has been given very few opportunities to work with the starting offense and get into a groove with them,” the agent wrote. “We feel at this point, a trade is our only option since the Jets have repeatedly told us they will not be releasing him.”
BILLS: The attorney for a California teenager who has accused a Buffalo Bills rookie and two of his former college teammates of gang rape last fall said that the NFL team has not contacted him for details despite saying it had conducted a “thorough investigation.”
Dan Gilleon said he has not heard from team officials since first informing them of the allegations against Bills punter Matt Araiza in late July, when he says he had a phone conversation with Bills team counsel Kathryn D’Angelo.
“She seemed like she was concerned. She says she’ll get back to me, and then she never did,” said Gilleon, who posted and then deleted a screenshot on social media of the email he says he sent to D’Angelo. “I even followed up and said, `Hey, you guys haven’t talked to me and called me back like you said you would.′ And they just ignored that, too.”
The Bills declined multiple requests for comment Friday, a day after issuing a short statement saying they were aware of the allegations and had conducted their own investigation.
Araiza was with the Bills for their preseason finale at Carolina on Friday night but was not expected to play.
It was unclear if the Bills’ investigation was finished before they named him to their opening day roster and the statement provided no details, a familiar lack of transparency that raises fresh scrutiny on how NFL teams conduct internal reviews into allegations of misconduct.
JAGUARS: Jacksonville has yet another new kicker, its second of the week and fifth since training camp opened a month ago.
The Jaguars claimed Jake Verity off waivers from Indianapolis. He joins James McCourt in the team’s competition at kicker. Jacksonville claimed McCourt off waivers from the Los Angeles Chargers earlier this week.
Verity and McCourt could both kick in the team’s preseason finale at Atlanta on Saturday.
Jacksonville previously tried and cut undrafted rookie Andrew Mevis and journeymen Elliott Fry and Ryan Santoso.
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