New York Jets: Eric Decker made a big impact in three years with the team

Former New York Jets wide receiver Eric  Decker announced his retirement on Sunday. We take a look back at his three years wearing the green and white.

As we look ahead to the final preseason game for the New York Jets and then the 2018 season, we take a few moments to look at a receiver that made a strong impact in just three seasons with the team.

For anyone who missed it, Eric Decker announced his retirement on Sunday. Here is the tweet from Ian Rapoport along with Decker’s statement:

Decker may have only been in New York for three seasons, but in that time he made a big impact, even in being injured.

So let’s take a short trip down memory lane and look back at Decker’s time here in New York.

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It all started back in 2014 after Decker spent his first four seasons with the Broncos. It was quite the education, working with both Peyton Manning and Tim Tebow.

However, prior to the 2014 season, much maligned general manager John Idzik signed Decker to a five-year, $36.25 million contract.

Despite the doubts that he could be a number one receiver he posted 74 catches for 962 yards and five touchdowns.

Remember who the quarterback was? If he could post those numbers with Geno Smith there was no telling what he could do with good QB play.

His coming out party came in 2015 after the Jets acquired both Ryan Fitzpatrick and Brandon Marshall.

Decker had a receiver in Marshall to take the pressure off of him and he had a quarterback in Fitzpatrick that would at least be more accurate than Geno ever was.

The result was 26 touchdowns for the Marshall/Decker duo, with 12 of them going Decker’s way. He added 80 receptions for 1,027 yards.

Everyone has that great memory of Decker’s overtime game winner against the Patriots at MetLife. What a day that was.

2016 it fell apart. In week two against the Bills, Decker succumbed to injury. He finished the night with eight catches for 126 yards and a touchdown and the Jets won 37-31.

It seemed like the offense was going to be OK, but we saw him make one catch the following week before missing the rest of the season.

All of the coverage cycled to Brandon Marshall and the passing game became nonexistent. One could argue that being injured proved that Eric Decker was the most valuable player on the team in 2016. Without him the team was bad, finishing with five wins.

As part of the rebuild, Decker was released and he was off to the Titans for the 2017 season.

It wasn’t a long time with the team but it was a memorable stint. He caught 163 passes for 2,183 yards and 19 touchdowns. Thanks for the memories Eric and enjoy your retirement.