Brian Winters will miss the Jets’ Week 17 game against the Patriots because of abdominal injury that induced an IR trip, Brian Costello of the New York Post tweets. The Jets ended their starting right guard’s season with this move.
The Jets promoted defensive lineman Deon Simon from the practice squad to take Winters’ roster spot. Winters missed the Jets’ Week 16 game because of injury and will have additional time to recover from it.
Winters is now the longest-tenured Jets offensive line starter. During an offseason that featured rampant cuts, the Jets took care of their fifth-year guard, re-signing him through 2020 for $29MM. He started 13 games up front for New York this season, just as he did last year. Only this year, he operated as the O-line’s centerpiece after Nick Mangold‘s offseason release.
The 26-year-old interior blocker’s first season on this second contract did not go especially well, per Pro Football Focus, which graded the former third-round pick as a bottom-10 guard among full-time qualifiers.