Elijah Moore won’t play against Broncos after Jets trade request
Disgruntled wide receiver Elijah Moore was back at the Jets’ practice facility on Friday, one day after he requested a trade over his lack of involvement in the team’s offense.
But the Jets’ 2021 second-round draft pick will not play Sunday against the Broncos in Denver, head coach Robert Saleh decisively announced Friday, before practice in Florham Park.
“It’s part of what we deal with every day. We’ve had our discussions with Elijah, but trading him is not an option,” Saleh said, adding that Moore was “in the building” for workouts, but not attending meetings. “He’ll rejoin the team on Monday.”
The 22-year-old Moore got into an argument with offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur and was sent home Thursday by Saleh for what the team initially described as a “personal day” after he expressed his unhappiness with his role last Sunday in the Jets’ 27-10 win over the Packers. Moore, who had no targets in Green Bay, has 16 receptions for 203 yards and zero touchdowns in six games this season.
“In my view, whether we agree or not doesn’t matter, but to ask him to play a football game with where he is from a mental standpoint wouldn’t be fair to him in my opinion, but that’s strictly my decision,” Saleh said.
Moore’s ill-timed trade request and the discussion of his mental state came after the Jets won for the third consecutive game to improve to a surprising 4-2 entering their visit to Denver on Sunday. Saleh does not envision Moore’s absence being a distraction to his surging team.
“I get that this could look bad,” Saleh said, “but this part of it is part of what we go through, part of the business. But I will stand by that young man every day of the week and knowing exactly where he is and where he needs to get and where I know he’s gonna go.”
Moore, for now, is going nowhere ahead of the Nov. 1 trade deadline, just as the organization decided when third-year receiver Denzel Mims requested a trade in August. Mims will be active for the first time this season Sunday against the Broncos, Saleh said.
The organization had high hopes during the preseason for Moore, who was not made available to the media on Friday. He overcame a slow start as a rookie to make 34 of his 43 receptions over his final six games last year before suffering a season-ending quad injury in December.
But the addition of No. 10-overall draft pick Garrett Wilson to a receivers group that includes veterans Corey Davis and Braxton Berrios, and the emergence of rookie running back Breece Hall, has made it more difficult to keep all of the skill players heavily involved.
“If I say what I really wanna say…I’ll be the selfish guy…we [are] winning. Grateful! Huge blessing! All I ever wanted. [Bitter] sweet for me…but I’ll be solid. So I’ll just stay quiet. Just know I don’t understand either,” Moore posted Sunday on Twitter.
He since has deleted that tweet, as well as a couple of cryptic ones he posted after being sent home on Thursday, one of which read: “God makes no mistakes….I trust u through it Allllllll…”
Second-year quarterback Zach Wilson stressed earlier this week that “it’s not like I’m not trying to throw to [Moore] on purpose,” explaining that he went 10-for-18 against the Packers because the Jets successfully ran the ball 33 times for 179 yards.
“The trade deadline is going to pass here next week, and from there, it’s a choice to put your head down and grind and work and do the things that you’re great at, or not,” Saleh said. “That’s for everybody on the team, and that’s for me as a coach.
“And I know Elijah, and Elijah is going to put his head down. He’s going to work like he does all the time, just like he’s going to this weekend, the work that he’s going to put in. I’m not worried about him from that standpoint. He’s not a bad kid.”
Even if he clearly has been put in timeout for this weekend.
— Additional reporting by Brian Costello