Former Michigan running back Donovan Edwards led the Jets in rushing during the preseason, but it wasn\u2019t enough to earn him a spot on the team\u2019s 53-man roster to begin the season.<\/p>\n
The undrafted rookie was waived by New York on Tuesday, which was cut day across the NFL. <\/p>\n
Edwards had a strong showing at the NFL combine and ran a 4.44-second 40-yard dash, but it didn\u2019t result in him hearing his name called at the draft. The Jets gave him a heavy workload during the preseason with a team-high 26 carries for 89 yards and a touchdown. The former top-50 recruit out of West Bloomfield High also had a long touchdown run called back because of penalty in the team\u2019s preseason opener against the Packers. <\/p>\n
Edwards also displayed his pass-catching ability with four receptions for 39 yards, but he was not one of the four running backs to make the team.<\/p>\n
From the moment he arrived at Michigan, Edwards oozed confidence. He had a breakout sophomore year in 2022 with 991 rushing yards while averaging 7.1 yards per carry, but his production dipped his final two seasons. <\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Edwards is responsible for some of Michigan\u2019s biggest moments during its three-year run as Big Ten champions from 2021-23. In 2022, he rushed for 216 yards and two touchdowns at Ohio State and was named the MVP of the conference title game against Purdue, totaling 185 yards and a score on the ground. <\/p>\n
In the 2023 national championship victory against Washington, Edwards had two touchdown runs of over 40 yards. But his career also was defined by inconsistency. He averaged under 5 yards per carry in 2023 and 2024 and never seized the lead role in Michigan\u2019s backfield. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like as though I lived up to the expectations in some way,\u201d Edwards said at the NFL combine in February.<\/a> \u201cI did the things that I needed to do. Is my legacy going to be what I want it to be? Yes and no. I know I could have done more, but I have no regrets being there. Ultimately, for me, I don\u2019t care. I\u2019m grateful for every opportunity that I had. I\u2019m grateful for all the fans that supported me. I\u2019m grateful for the big plays that I made. I\u2019m grateful for the great games that I had against top 10 opponents and teams. I did everything that I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n If Edwards goes unclaimed on waivers, he can join the Jets\u2019 practice squad. <\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Michigan running back Donovan Edwards led the Jets in rushing during the preseason, but it wasn\u2019t enough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[7,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,31185],"class_list":{"0":"post-320738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-jets","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-jets","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkjets","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-nflraw25"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115098790489386456","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}