La'Mical Perine

Perine hasn't done much since the Jets drafted him in the fourth round out of Florida in 2020. He was limited to just eight touches last season, failing to beat out the likes of Ty Johnson and Austin Walter for playing time behind Michael Carter and Tevin Coleman. New York bolstered its running back room by adding Breece Hall in the 2022 NFL Draft, which could spell the end of Perine's Jets tenure barring a clear improvement ahead of his third NFL season.

A fourth-round pick in the 2020 draft, Perine earned a role off the bench early on in his rookie season, averaging 7.2 touches for 27.9 yards over a nine-game stretch Weeks 2-11. He then missed four games with a knee injury, eventually returning for Week 16 but then landing on the COVID-19 list a week later. Perine will compete for snaps in touches in a wide-open Jets backfield this summer, going up against Tevin Coleman, Ty Johnson and 2021 fourth-round pick Michael Carter. The rookie is largely touted for his pass-catching skills, and the new coaching staff led by HC Robert Saleh and OC Mike LaFleur (both coming from San Francisco) might favor Coleman for his familiarity with the scheme. On the other hand, Perine might have the most diverse skill set of the bunch, as he held his own on both early downs and third downs in a gruesome Adam Gase offense last year. Still, a big workload is a longshot, with a bit role in a three/four-man committee the far more likely outcome.

Taken in the fourth round of this year's draft, Perine joins a backfield that has become fairly crowded, as the Jets also picked up the ageless Frank Gore in free agency. While Perine never had to handle a big workload in college, he showed a strong work ethic and turned himself into a useful receiver during his final year at Florida. He is not a premium athletic specimen, but Perine showed good patience and vision in waiting for holes to develop, and the power and balance to get through them to the second level. In some ways, he is a bargain-bin version of Le'Veon Bell, but as the real deal demonstrated last season, coach Adam Gase's offensive scheme might not be a great fit for that particular skill set. With two veterans ahead of him on the depth chart, Perine could wind up spending much of his rookie season trying to make a positive impression on special teams while waiting for his path to a larger role to open.