{"id":254008,"date":"2025-11-01T06:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T06:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/254008\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T06:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T06:47:10","slug":"jets-john-metchie-iii-finally-has-dream-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/254008\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets’ John Metchie III finally has dream opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

At two different points, John Metchie III\u2019s football future was in flux. <\/p>\n

Any of the potential he\u2019d flashed faded into the background.<\/p>\n

As a freshman at Saint James School in 2014, Metchie found out about an enlarged heart condition that sidelined him for most of the season. <\/p>\n

Then, after already tearing his ACL in the 2021 SEC Championship game, doctors diagnosed Metchie with acute promyelocytic leukemia before his first training camp with the Texans in 2022, and he missed his entire rookie year.<\/p>\n

Mike Still, his assistant coach in high school who keeps in touch with Metchie, vividly remembers the conversations after the heart condition, asking, \u201cIs this it?\u201d It was a fluke situation \u2014 \u201cYou\u2019re used to ankle injuries,\u201d Still said. <\/p>\n

The leukemia was out of nowhere too, current Saint James head coach and former assistant Colin Ponder said.<\/p>\n

But Metchie fought back from both. He blossomed at Saint James, spent a prep year at The Peddie School and joined a stacked receiver room at Alabama. He returned to practice with the Texans in 2023, logged his first games that year and caught his first touchdown pass the following season. <\/p>\n

If the diagnoses were filled with uncertainty and fear, then the milestones on his journey back served as emotional touchpoints.<\/p>\n

Metchie\u2019s talent and his feel-good story hit obstacles to the field, though. Talented receivers rooms, most recently featuring the Eagles\u2019 A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, blocked his lane to consistent snaps. <\/p>\n

But after getting traded to the Jets this week<\/a> with a 2027 sixth-round pick in exchange for cornerback Michael Carter II and a 2027 seventh-round pick, Metchie has perhaps his clearest path to the lineup yet.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Metchie III of the Philadelphia Eagles catches a pass against Cobie Durant of the Los Angeles Rams during the third quarter at Lincoln Financial Field on September 21, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Gang Green\u2019s depth has been an issue all year, and top options Garrett Wilson and Josh Reynolds entered the bye week injured. So on his third team in 10 weeks, Metchie has a chance to finally become a version of the receiver everyone expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now in the NFL, he is dying for that shot,\u201d Still said Friday. \u201cI think he\u2019s been, since Alabama, in receiver rooms that have been unbelievably stacked. I\u2019m not saying that in New York, that\u2019s not the case, but I feel like there\u2019s an opportunity for him to be involved way more \u2014 and I think that\u2019s what we\u2019re all anxious for for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, Still knew something was up. He\u2019d found clips of the Eagles practice that seemed to show Metchie practicing with the first-team offense, and with Brown set to miss their game Sunday, Still expected an increased number of snaps after Metchie had logged just seven combined the previous two weeks and 22 for the season. <\/p>\n

But then Metchie only appeared for nine offensive snaps and didn\u2019t log a target.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Metchie III was traded to the Jets this week. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Two days later, Still found out about the trade. He instantly texted Metchie, \u201cJ-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets,\u201d and when the pair spoke that day, Still sensed his former player\u2019s excitement about getting another shot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s anxious to be put into a system where those talents matter,\u201d Still said. \u201cNot that they didn\u2019t matter anywhere else, but I think he just wants to be a contributor more than a superstar.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were plenty of moments when Metchie\u2019s ceiling certainly seemed to push into the upper tier, though. He shared wideout depth charts at Alabama with names that included Smith, Jerry Jeudy, Jaylen Waddle and Jameson Williams. <\/p>\n

He collected 1,142 receiving yards and eight touchdowns on 96 catches as a senior in 2021 before tearing his ACL. <\/p>\n

When the Crimson Tide crushed a Justin Fields- and Garrett Wilson-led Ohio State team in the national championship game the previous year, Metchie contributed eight catches for 81 yards. His new quarterback and receiving partner witnessed what he could add on the sport\u2019s biggest stage firsthand.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Metchie caught 16 passes for 158 yards once he returned from leukemia treatment in 2023 before adding 254 receiving yards the following year while sharing targets in Houston with Nico Collins and Tank Dell. He brings juice, Devin Singletary, his Texans teammate in 2023, told The Post\u2019s Ryan Dunleavy, someone who can run all the routes and be savvy. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about finding the right situation, with a sputtering Jets offense his latest place to construct a consistent role.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the insider\u2019s view on Gang Green\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Jets by Brian Costello, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

And when he does, Singletary said, \u201cThe sky\u2019s the limit, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t wish that on anybody,\u201d Singletary said of Metchie\u2019s 2023 return. \u201cBut for him to make it out of that and still be able to do what he loves to do and do it at a high level, it\u2019s big. It\u2019s real big. It was really emotional, but he a champ, man, and he\u2019s still proving it. He\u2019s gonna continue to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 The Post\u2019s Ryan Dunleavy contributed reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At two different points, John Metchie III\u2019s football future was in flux. Any of the potential he\u2019d flashed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,1723,514,1747,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-254008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-new-york-jets","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}