The Jets were awarded two players off waivers today: kicker Blake Grupe and linebacker Trevin Wallace. They lost quarterback Brady Cook to a waiver claim by the Miami Dolphins.
Blake Grupe was brought in because the Jets clearly were not sold on Jason Sanders as the Jets 2026 kicker. Grupe is a 27 year old kicker who has been in the NFL three years, with stints with the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts. He has made 81.9% of his field goal attempts for his career, including 19 0f 27 from beyond 50 yards. A concerning note is that he has made just 75% of his attempts from 40 - 49 yards, a distance that has become almost automatic for the best kickers in the league. One would assume Jason Sanders will be cut to make room for Grupe on the roster.
Trevin Wallace is a 23 year old, 6’ 1”, 244 pound linebacker out of Kentucky. He was drafted by the Carolina Panthers with the 72nd overall pick in the third round of the 2024 NFL draft. Wallace played in 25 games with the Panthers over the last two years, starting 20. He is a physical specimen, running a 4.51 40 yard dash with a 37.5” vertical at the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine. A 244 pound man with that kind of explosiveness is a rare commodity, but his lack of football instincts eventually led to the Panthers giving up on him. Now the Jets will try to develop a young linebacker with tremendous physical tools who needs a fresh start. Best case scenario here might be something like Quincy Williams, a young linebacker with great tools who struggled at the start of his career but blossomed into a star with the Jets.
Waiver wire pickups are for the most part inconsequential. You are claiming somebody who couldn’t make the top 53 of another team. It’s unlikely that player will become a difference maker for your team. As an example, this time last year the Jets claimed three players off waivers: Cam Jones, Esa Pole and Jelani Woods. Jones and Pole are long gone. Woods is slated to be the team’s TE4 and unless there are injuries in front of him on the depth chart, he will rarely see the field on offense.
However, there are occasional exceptions. As just one example, in 2019 the Los Angeles Rams cut little known defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers. The Jets claimed him on waivers. Franklin-Myers was out injured all of 2019, but in subsequent years he has developed into one of the better defensive linemen in the NFL, and is still playing at a high level seven years later. Chances of something like this happening with any one waiver claim are quite low, but you just never know.
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