Adonai Mitchell — Week 1: Forty Yards on First-and-Twenty
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Mitchell caught all three of his targets for sixty yards, and the big one was first and twenty at the New York forty-nine with eleven fourteen left in the third: deep right, thirty-nine yards in the air, to the Tennessee eleven, two plays before Breece Hall's touchdown. He also had an eighteen-yard sideline catch that survived a replay review with thirty-six seconds left in the half, in a 23–10 win over the Titans.
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First and 20 at the New York 49, 11 14 left in the third quarter, Jets up 10 to three. Geno Smith went deep right for Adonai Mitchell, 39 yards in the air, and Mitchell was tackled at the Tennessee 11 for a 40-yard gain. Two plays later — a seven-yard Smith scramble to the four, then Breece Hall around left end — it was 17 to three. The catch was worth +2.7 expected points added, which is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position, and 7.1 points of win probability, the second-largest swing on any Jets pass Sunday behind Omar Cooper's 30-yarder on the opening drive.
The line: three targets, three catches, 60 yards, no touchdowns, +3.1 expected points on the targets. The other two came in the last minute of the first half on a drive that started at the New York 20 with a minute 10 left. Second and 10 at the 33, 36 seconds left: deep right, pushed out at the Tennessee 49 for 18 yards, and the replay official reviewed the completion and let it stand. Next snap, short middle for two. Then a false start with 16 seconds left, a 10-second runoff, and the half ran out. 58 of his 60 yards came on the two deep throws; the two deep balls were 57 of Smith's hundred 68 air yards.
Three targets put him level with Mason Taylor and Kenyon Sadiq, second on the team behind Garrett Wilson's seven, on a day the Jets threw 24 times and ran 32 to the backs. He was one of 10 Jets thrown to. Cooper left in the first quarter after one catch, and of the remaining 23 throws, 10 went to Wilson and Mitchell between them.
Back in June the preview's read on Mitchell was a 70-third-ranked receiver at four and a half a game with no durable target-share footprint. Sunday did not build a footprint — three targets is three targets — but two of them were the deepest completions Smith threw, and one of them set up the touchdown that put the game away. The footprint question stays open, and one game with a 40-yard catch does not close it. New York is home to the Packers on Sunday the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Adonai Mitchell's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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