Jets rookie receiver Quentin Skinner stood on the sideline at MetLife Stadium on Saturday night, knowing that the events of the next hour were spring-loaded with potential of the best and worst kind.
The right plays could pull him closer to his lifelong dream of making an NFL roster. The wrong plays could send him tumbling out of reach.
But as Skinner got ready to take the field against the Giants in the second preseason game, the undrafted rookie out of Kansas wasn’t thinking about where he stood on the depth chart – it had been an uphill climb from the bottom of the wide receiver depth chart since he arrived for rookie minicamp in early May – or how much was riding on every play he made or didn’t.
He was taking a moment to appreciate where his journey had already taken him. And as he got ready to take the field, he felt compelled to share that sentiment with fellow undrafted rookie Brady Cook.
“What’s wild was, I was just small talking with him,” Skinner told NJ Advance Media this week. “The defense was out on the field, and I was like, ‘It’s just crazy that we’re here at MetLife.’”
Skinner laughed and shook his head, recalling the moment before pracice this week.
“I definitely should have been more locked in on the game,” he said. “But you know, it’s just small talk. So I was telling him: ‘It’s crazy that Odell Beckham really one-handed a catch, right over there!’”
A few minutes later, Skinner was on his back, lifting his right and the football toward the sky as Jets fans roared. Skinner had just caught his fourth pass from Cook on a 12-play drive. And his best catch had been the last: when he leapt, launching his body horizontal to the painted turf, snagging the ball with one hand, and collecting it with the other as he crashed into the end zone turf for a touchdown.
Now, Skinner could look to the opposite corner of the same end zone where Beckham became a legend and say he made his first pro touchdown catch, right over there.
It was a signature moment for Skinner. The opportunity presented itself when it mattered most, and he had seized it. Jets coach Aaron Glenn shouted out the 6-foot-5, 23-year-old by name in the postgame press conference.
“I thought Quentin really showed up,” Glenn said, highlighting his 6-5 frame and ability to “high-point” the ball in traffic. “It was a good showing.”
For Skinner, who has steadily improved throughout the last four months, It only took a moment, but suddenly the uphill climb to make the 53-man roster didn’t seem so daunting. And the timing couldn’t be better, less than two weeks before the Jets decide the players who will remain on that roster and 16-man practice squad.
But it was hardly a cause for excess celebration. If Skinner wants the opportunity to make the same kind of a plays in the regular season, and keep making them, he knows the work is just beginning. And that’s how he likes it, because not all that long ago, it would have been hard for anyone to imagine him making it this far. Skinner had to work for it.
“I’ve always been patient,” Skinner said. “My story, early on in my college career, even in high school, I’ve always had, like, the walk-on, chip-on-my-shoulder mentality.”
He had big dreams at Claremore High School in Oklahoma where he was a gifted multi-sport athlete. He played soccer – he had an offer to join US Soccer’s U18 team as striker – and starred in track in field – as a junior, he finished fifth in Oklahoma’s state high-jump championship in 2019.
He chose to pursue his true love, football, as a receiver. But it all looked like it might come to an end before he got his high school diploma, when Skinner tore his ACL early in his senior season.
He was a two-star recruit with no Division I offers. And most of his Division II offers were from schools who wanted him to play defensive back. But Skinner was determined to keep his wide receiver dream going, so he took the best option available: an offer to walk on at Kansas.
His first two years must have felt like a struggle just to get noticed: he redshirted 2020 and played exclusively special teams in 2021, all without a scholarship.
But Skinner remembers the training camp of his first season, 11 months after his injury, as pivotal juncture of his college career. Because that’s when he got his confidence back. .
“That camp, it was kind of a reinvestment into myself,” Skinner said. “You know, just to lock back in, and to believe that I can do it and come back even stronger, even better.”
That self belief paid off during his season on special teams in 2021, when he led the Jayhawks in special teams snaps, and got the full attention of the coaching staff, earning a scholarship and the opportunity to compete for a role in the receiver room.
He made the most of that opportunity, catching 80 passes for 1,584 yards and 11 touchdowns over the next three seasons before deciding to turn pro.
When Skinner arrived in Florham Park, he wasn’t intimidated by the idea of learning a new offense – partly because he plenty of experience adapting at Kansas where he had three offensive coordinators in his final two years.
“I’ve been through fourt offensive coordinators,” Skinner said. “So it comes quicker to me than the normal athlete.”
The big challenge for him was staying positive when a day didn’t go the way he wanted it to, or staying grounded when he had a long-awaited breakthrough.
“Just staying constantly consistent,” Skinner said. “And reminding yourself, you know, ‘You got this. You’ve got people to help you.’”
Skinner said he’s relied on his faith in God throughout his football journey.
“I’ve been in my book a prayer every day,” Skinner said. “When there’s times that are highs and times that are lows, you’ve still got to remember your main priority.”
And he has also leaned on his receivers coach Shawn Jefferson, a former NFL receiver; and offensive assistant and UCLA receiver Junior Clark. And he praised the veterans in the receiver room for helping him on and off the field.
Skinner didn’t stop turning heads in Saturday’s game. He made more big plays in Tuesday’s practice, including another leaping catch in individual drills, which got the attention of starting quarterback Justin Fields.
“Q’s done a great job making plays,” Fields said. “Of course, he’s a big body. He’s a smooth route runner, solid hands, and he can go up and get it.”
With veterans like Josh Reynolds, Allen Lazard and Tyler Johnson ahead of him on the depth chart, and other young receivers like Jamal Pritchett and Brandon Smith turning in strong camps, nothing is guaranteed for Skinner heading into the final game of the preseason Friday against the Eagles. He only knows that he will get another big opportunity, with Glenn saying he’ll primarily be playing the young guys who are trying to earn a roster spot or role.
So how will Skinner approach the final test of his first pro training camp, and the nervous moments leading up to cut-down day next week?
“The same way I’ve started, it’s the same way I need to finish,” Skinner said. “Just hearing the feedback from my coaches here, coaches back home, my family: Just continue to be me, and try to be even greater than I have been for just the next day.”
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Andy Vasquez may be reached atavasquez@njadvancemedia.com.
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