Garrett Wilson injury leaves Jets light on options at receiver

At this point, it would be a surprise if Jets receiver Garrett Wilson is ready to play against the Panthers on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.

Wilson, who suffered a knee injury in Sunday’s loss to the Broncos in London, did not practice for the second consecutive day Thursday.

Jets head coach Aaron Glenn wasn’t available to reporters Thursday, which is his regular schedule. And Wilson was asked by a team official if he would speak to reporters Thursday and he declined.

Given how poorly the offense played in Sunday’s 13-11 loss to the Broncos, imagine how it might look without Wilson, the team’s best offensive player.

This will put the onus on the other receivers on the roster to pick up the slack without Wilson, the team’s leading receiver with 36 receptions for 395 yards and four touchdowns.

Next up are Josh Reynolds, who returned to practice Thursday after sitting out Wednesday with a hip issue. He has eight catches for 72 yards.

Allen Lazard, who missed last week’s game with his wife giving birth to their first child, has four catches for 24 yards, as does rookie Arian Smith. Tyler Johnson also has four catches for 72 yards.

So the four receivers behind Wilson have combined for just 30 receptions for 184 yards and one TD.

“To me, it’s next man up,’’ offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand said. “They are all professional football players, and they’re all here for a reason, and we’ve got the utmost confidence in any of the guys that need to step up.’’

Reynolds said: “We just have to stay the course. We know we’re going to miss G [Wilson] out there, but we can’t sit here and sulk on losing him. Even as valuable as G is, we have to continue to push forward.

“If my number’s called, I’ve got to go out there make plays.’’

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Smith said he “welcomes’’ the chance for more passes coming his way.

“It sucks that [Wilson] might not go this week, but he wants us to go out there and do the things that we should do, because we’re a brotherhood and he wants to win.

“I don’t see it as pressure, we see it as our job and we’re excited to have opportunities.’’

In other injury news, CB Qwan’tez Stiggers and LB Cam Jones, both with hip injuries from the Denver game, did not practice. CB Michael Carter II, who’s been in concussion protocol, practiced fully for the past two days and just needed clearance from the independent doctor to be able to play Sunday.

For the Panthers, G Damien Lewis (chest) was added to the report Thursday and didn’t practice. Nor did LB Pat Jones II (back). CB Jaycee Horn (shoulder), who didn’t practice Wednesday, practiced fully on Thursday. So, too, did TE Ja’Tavion Sanders (ankle).

Engstrand, who’s coming off a dreadful coaching performance in London, showed some accountability, taking responsibility for the mess.

“We all know what we did wasn’t good enough offensively in any of the phases, whether it was the run game, pass game protection or myself,’’ he said. 

Asked why RB Breece Hall didn’t have a single target in the passing game, the first time in his career, Engstrand’s explanation didn’t make a lot of sense.

“It’s a great question,’’ Engstrand said. “What I would say to that is, last week going into it, we knew [the Broncos] were the leading sack team in the league the previous year, and they already led the league in sacks going into the game last week. So, protection was really at the forefront.

“So, we had those [running backs] in some situations where we were checking our protection. So, it might have taken those guys just a little bit longer to get out as we were attempting to shore up the pocket to give a little bit more time to the quarterback. That might have been a byproduct of the protection plan last week.’’

Screen passes to the running backs are often used as a way to get opposing defenses to back off the blitz.