It seems every NFL team every year has a multi-tool in the offensive shed. This year on the Jets, that player could be TE Trevon Wesco.
"Whether it's in the run game, pass pro or routes, I think Trevon's doing a good job of getting better every day in all three of those," coach Adam Gase said this weekend. "We're using him in a lot of different spots and he's doing a great job. He doesn't have mental errors, he seems to be right majority of the time when he kind of has the either/or decision, and the guy gives you everything he has.
"Now, seeing him really being such a Swiss Army knife for us on offense, it's the value that just keeps going up."
"It's just playing tight end," Wesco, last year's fourth-round draft choice, explained in simple terms. "That's your job, that's what you're supposed to do. You've got to know everything when you play tight end. You've just got to adjust."
As a tight end, one might think Wesco welcomes the opportunity to run some routes and catch some balls, which he's been doing well this training camp. But ask him about the joys of lining up at fullback, which he did last season and is doing again this summer, and a small smile flashes across his bearded face.
"I like it," he said. "You've got to be a man to be back there, that's how I look at it. Not a lot of people want to run five yards, full speed — collision."
With Ryan Griffin and Dan Brown emerging in the absence of Chris Herndon last season, Wesco didn't get to put his TE skills on display much. He played in every game but was on the field for only 214 offensive plays, during which he got three touches.
Yet Wesco gave a hint of what he might provide with those touches. As we noted at the time, in the win over the Giants in November, he had a 2-yard carry on fourth-and-inches plus a 15-yard reception on third-and-1, making him:
- the sixth Jets TE since 1970 and the first since Johnny Mitchell in 1994 to record a first down rushing and a first down receiving in the same game.
- the first Jets TE since Jace Amaro in 2014 with third- and fourth-down conversions in the same game.
- the first Jets TE since 1963 to convert at least one third-and-1 and at least one fourth-and-1, rushing or receiving, in the same game.
Now Wesco should be in line to contribute even more to the position that hadn't been all that prominent in recent Green & White seasons. Should he team up with Chris Herndon this year, it will be the first time two drafted TEs in at least their second Jets seasons worked together since Chris Baker and Jason Pociask in 2007.
The TE room is getting a little crowded these days, with Griffin back in action from active/PUP, Brown returning from active/NFI, and DL Bronson Kaufusi joining the group as a potential "slash" player. "That's a deep group," Gase said Sunday. And Wesco said the more the merrier.
"Bronson's a great dude. He's one of the hardest-working guys in the building. It's good to have him in the room," Wesco said. "And it's always good to have veterans out there. I'm always trying to pick their brains and they're always giving me good feedback. They're experienced and they helped me along my way, especially last year."
As for Wesco's part in the mix, he's waiting to see what will be coming his way in 2020. But it's all good.
"Whatever role they ask me to play, whatever they ask me to do, I just try to do it to the best of my ability," he said. "I'm just trying to help the team any way I can."
