Can the Jets offense produce without Marshall and Decker?

After the Jets got rid of Brandon Marshall, it might have created "15 reasons" why the locker room was a healthier environment, but it left Jets fans scrambling for reasons to believe the Jets' passing game could still be good in 2017.

The main reason to cling to hope was the fact that Eric Decker - who missed 13 games in 2017 - would be returning to the line-up. However, with the news this week that the Jets will be parting ways with Decker, we're left to wonder how the offense will fare with neither of them.

Last season

Let's start by looking at how the Jets' passing game fared last year when neither Marshall nor Decker was on the field.

The season finale against Buffalo was the only game in which both players were inactive. Of course, the Jets won this game 30-10 and Ryan Fitzpatrick had a solid game. Although he only had 210 yards to go along with two touchdown passes, he completed 20 of 30 passes and didn't throw an interception. Had the game been closer, he'd have put up bigger numbers, because he ended the third quarter with 193 yards only to throw just four fourth quarter passes.

Prior to that, there were only 68 plays with neither Decker nor Marshall in the game. That basically equates to one game's worth.

Crunching the numbers, the Jets dropped back to pass 28 times in those 68 plays, completing 14-of-26 passes for 181 yards. However, they threw two interceptions and no touchdowns.

They did, however, rush for four touchdowns, although three of those came from goal line packages which was one situation where Marshall might come out of the game.

They rushed for 147 yards on 37 carries (not including kneel-downs) in the rest of those snaps, which is just below four yards per carry. That doesn't compare favorably with their season average of 4.3 yards per carry (which, of course, does include kneel-downs). Then again, if a disproportionate amount of these plays were in short yardage situations, that might skew the numbers downwards.

For what it's worth, they rushed 30 times for 127 yards in the season finale with Decker and Marshall both inactive. That's more in line with their output for the whole season.

Which receivers produced with Marshall and Decker out?

Here's something interesting. While you might have expected the likes of Quincy Enunwa, Robby Anderson and perhaps the backs to pick up the slack when Decker and Marshall weren't in the game, that wasn't necessarily the case.

In fact, the most productive player in the first 16 games in such situations was Charone Peake, who caught four of five targets for 50 yards. Peake was often a direct replacement for Marshall if he took a breather or got banged up. He was in for 51 of those 68 plays with Decker and Marshall not in the game.

Both Robby Anderson and Quincy Enunwa caught just one of five targets without Decker and Marshall on the field in the first 16 games, with one of Enunwa's being intercepted and another being negated by an offensive penalty.

That's a major concern for the two players who will be expected to step up for Marshall, but it is alleviated somewhat by the fact that both provided more significant contributions in the season finale with Enunwa catching five passes for 81 yards and Anderson four for 43.

Ironically, Peake, who played 40 snaps, was on the only player on the team to catch fewer than 50% of his targets in that game, ending up with two catches for 22 yards on five targets.

While Decker and Marshall were not on the field, Jets quarterbacks had a quarterback rating of 77.4. That's not great, but it's better than the numbers Fitzpatrick (69.6) and Bryce Petty (60.0) posted for the season as a whole.

The other pieces

Another important question to ask is how do the players who will see playing time in 2017 compare to those who saw action with Decker and Marshall out in 2016?

In the season finale, the offensive line was made up of five players who are still on the roster. That didn't include Brian Winters - who was injured - or Kelvin Beachum - who was still in Jacksonville, so there's a good chance whoever is throwing to a Marshall/Decker-less receiving group will do so behind a line which is at least equivalent, if not better.

Of course, many of those earlier season reps would have come while Nick Mangold was still playing, although he was obviously banged-up much of the time.

At quarterback, Josh McCown replaces Fitzpatrick and has posted equivalent, if not better, statistics over the course of his career, often throwing to sub-standard receiver groups. Some of the above statistics were with Bryce Petty in there and you'd expect a one year wiser Petty to provide an upgrade over his 2016 self. Or, if he gets beaten out by Christian Hackenberg, that would suggest an upgrade too.

As for the remainder of the receiving corps, whether that proves to be upgraded might rely on some of the rookies to step up. Wide receivers drafted by the Jets have historically not done much in their first season with none having caught 35 passes in their rookie year since Keyshawn Johnson in 1996. However, players such as Devin Smith, Brandon Bostick and Brandon Wilds were among those who caught passes with Decker and Marshall out, so those are the kinds of players you're looking to upgrade from.

The team should be upgraded at tight end and the same backs should still be a prominent feature in the passing game. In fact, Matt Forté didn't feature much with Decker and Marshall out, as he missed the season finale.

Conclusions

When Jets passers threw the ball to Brandon Marshall last year, they completed less than 50% of their passes and compiled a passer rating of 49.9 which begs the question whether there might actually have been some benefits to him being out of the line-up.

That was especially true when he was banged-up. Marshall is still a good-to-great player, but if he's not 100% then the Jets would probably have been better off just giving his snaps to a younger player and trying to allow him time to recover or keep him fresh. In week 15, for example, he caught just one pass on 11 targets. He also didn't have a 100-yard receiving game after week five and the Jets were 0-3 when he led them in receiving yards.

Marshall spoke about his reduced production during the year, suggesting he was constantly double-covered and that his presence enabled some of the production compiled by the likes of Enunwa and Anderson.

Assuming that's true, then those two will find it much harder to produce in 2017 now that they'll see more coverage from their opponents' number one cornerback and more safety support rolled their way.

Context also need to be added to the sample size we investigated here. While that produced adequate albeit far-from-exciting numbers, one of the games was against a listless Bills squad who were essentially playing out the string.

In addition, approximately one-third of the other snaps came at the end of the Patriots game in week 16 where Marshall was banged up. At that stage in the game, the Patriots had a big lead and although the Jets did drive down for their only score in the game before the Patriots removed their starters, they also racked up some more yardage with back-ups in the game.

Ultimately, there's enough production here to provide hope that the Jets' offense won't completely grind to a halt without Marshall and Decker. However, it underlines how important it will be for some of the young receivers to step up and a prove they can get separation against tighter coverage than they perhaps have seen in the past.