Adonai Mitchell Camp Update — August 23: Two Catches on the Opening Drive

Adonai Mitchell finally put numbers in a game report: two catches for 29 combined yards from Geno Smith on the Jets' opening drive in Friday's 17 to nothing win at Pittsburgh, per Jack Bell at the team's website. That drive was the night's centerpiece — 10 plays, 69 yards, Smith seven for seven, finished with a touchdown to tight end Jelani Woods — and Mitchell was the leading receiver on it. Randy Lange's receivers file at the team's site confirms both catches came on the one series the starters ran. After going unmentioned through the Tampa Bay window, being the first-drive target of a quarterback who threw seven passes and completed them all is the right kind of reappearance.

The honest limits: it was one series, against a Pittsburgh defense that limited its starters' snaps, per Nick Faria at Jets on SI, and the fork the June preview built for Mitchell still is not fully testable from it. That preview described two different players — a six percent target share in Indianapolis, then 25 percent of the Jets' targets after the trade, earned entirely with Garrett Wilson's season already over — and said the question was whether the big share survives Wilson's return. None of the game reporting this week logs Wilson's participation or a target chart for the drive, so what we can bank is narrower: with the starting offense on the field and the ball coming out fast, Smith went to Mitchell twice and both were completed.

What to watch: whether Mitchell keeps drawing starter-series targets in the preseason finale, and where he sits when the receiver room gets trimmed at cutdown to 53 on Sunday, August thirtieth — a settled rotation spot alongside Wilson and the rookie Omar Cooper is the thing the June fork is waiting on. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._