The Jets originally suspended cornerback Dimitri Patterson indefinitely after he didn’t show up for last Friday’s preseason game against the Giants, but they came up with an end date for the ban on Tuesday.
The team announced that Patterson’s suspension will run through the rest of the preseason and he’ll be eligible to return to work on September 1. That means Patterson will miss the team’s final preseason game and the possibility that his play would boost his spot on the team’s depth chart. There have been reports that Patterson was unhappy with his spot below the starters on the team’s depth chart for the Giants game, which coach Rex Ryan addressed on Tuesday.
“He hadn’t worked to that extent, but that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t have put him in there with the ones at some point,” Ryan said, via the New York Daily News.
Patterson’s bid for a starting job was already hurt by his struggles with leg injuries this summer, but his spot on the roster is helped by the team’s overall picture at cornerback. With Dee Milliner still out, the team isn’t really in a position to take a hard line with Patterson at this point. That could conceivably change as players shake loose during final cuts, but Patterson is still an experienced hand at a spot where the Jets don’t have a lot of other options.