The Jets appear to have lost reserve running back Jesse Chatman for the season with a left knee injury.
“I would say with Jesse, it doesn’t look real good,” Eric Mangini said today. “Odds are it’s going to be season-ending.”
Chatman just returned three games ago from a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s banned substance policy and has been a valuable member of the special teams.
That leaves the Jets with only Thomas Jones, Leon Washington and FB Tony Richardson on the running back roster. They’ll look to add some inssurance by Wednesday.
In other injury news, Mangini was more vague on LB David Harris, who hurt his hip during the game and didn’t return.
“It could be just something that’s soreness,” Mangini said. “It could be something that’s a little bit longer. I don’t really know yet.”
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Mangini somewhat implicated WR Chansi Stuckey in the Brett Favre INT that was returned 91 yards for a TD late in the game.
Favre was trying to dump the ball off to Stuckey over the middle and Brandon Flowers stepped in front of him and picked it off. Mangini indicated that Stuckey should have finished his route better.
“Yeah, he should have kept going on that,” Mangini said. “Worst-case scenario, if the guy (Flowers) does catch it, you have to be able to make the tackle. It’s a turnover, but it’s not a turnover which (should) result in a touchdown, and (Stuckey) could do a lot better job on that play of finishing that route.”
Stuckey defended himself, saying, “(Flowers) recognized (the play) from the first time. We beat him up pretty good on that play in the first quarter and he recognized it a little bit, so he dropped inside and I tried to get inside of him, but he gave me a little bump that got me off my route.
“He just kept running and the ball came right to him. He just made a play. I could’ve tried to grab the guy and get offensive pass interference before the ball was thrown, because he was in front of me. That was all I really could’ve done.”
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Jets S Kerry Rhodes, asked if he felt the stress of the possibility of losing to the lowly Chiefs Sunday, said, “I went into the locker room and had three or four more grey hairs pop up. This game is very, very stressful. Fans were sitting there about to pull their hair out, too.”
