Jelani Woods fixed his body. Now, the Jets TE is aligned for a comeback season

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The moment was small enough that most people didn’t notice — or, maybe, care. It was a minute detail toward the end of a miserable New York Jets season, occurring late in another blowout loss. A Jets tight end lined up on the left side of the line of scrimmage. When quarterback Brady Cook took the snap, the tight end blocked a New England Patriots linebacker before leaking across the middle. Cook found him. The tight end caught the ball as he fell to the ground.

And then life went on. It registered as a 4-yard reception in the box score. But for Jelani Woods, it was much more.

“It was meaningful,” Woods said, his large frame — 6-foot-7, 253 pounds, 83-inch wingspan — crowding a small chair at the Jets facility after a recent practice.

Woods went 1,085 days between catches. Injuries robbed him of two full seasons with the Indianapolis Colts, stalling what was an otherwise promising start to his career. His athletic testing leading up to the 2022 NFL Draft was historic — according to one measurement, it was the most impressive testing for any tight end prospect since at least 1987. But despite a 4.61-second 40-yard dash and 37.5-inch vertical leap, Woods couldn’t outrun or out-jump the imbalance in his body. A hamstring strain cost him one season. Turf toe cost him another. Two full seasons, and most of a third, without playing a football game that counted.

Woods had to relearn his body. Specialists discovered things he was doing, or not doing, that could have contributed to his injuries. He changed his regimen, his workouts and his approach to fitness. It wasn’t until he walked through the doors at the Jets facility for the first time, after the Colts gave up on him, that he started to feel like himself again.

Now, he’s thriving. Last week, he caught a touchdown toward the end of an intrasquad scrimmage. Quarterback Geno Smith recently was asked to name someone on offense who had surprised him. The quarterback’s answer: Jelani Woods.

“I like the way he’s been making plays,” Smith said.

Jets coach Aaron Glenn lights up when he talks about Woods. He’s played his way into a role in a new Jets offense that is going to emphasize the tight end position. If he was on the bubble to make the team at the start of training camp, he isn’t anymore.

“It’s training camp. It seems hard, but just going through the past two, three years makes me appreciate waking up in the morning like, all right, I got another opportunity to just get better,” Woods said. “You appreciate it way more. So, on days like today, when you’re just grinding — you gotta love it. I’ve got a whole different mindset now.”

Woods has found his place, and his peace. All it took was his body feeling like it was in one piece.

Woods returned to the Jets facility in March to re-sign with the team that claimed him off waivers last summer. As he walked through to the coaches offices, he saw Glenn first. The coach saw him and smiled; the two have developed a bond. Woods kept walking, heading to meet new tight ends coach Alfredo Roberts for the first time. But Frank Reich’s office comes first in the hallway.

Woods and Reich locked eyes. They both smiled. Reich “shot up” out of his seat, Woods said, and yelled: “JELANI!”

They hugged “for a good little minute”, Woods said, and then Frank, jubilant, told him: “Man, I’m so glad to have you back!”

“It was just big smiles,” Woods said. “And it’s been like that every day since.”

“Yeah,” Reich said recently, “I love Jelani.”

Woods always wanted to come back to the Jets — he felt a connection to this team and the organization. But Glenn hiring Reich as his new offensive coordinator in February sealed it.

“I was like, I’m there,” Woods said. “Ain’t no ifs, ands or buts about it. I didn’t even need to think about it.”

Reich was the head coach of the Colts when they selected Woods in the third round of 2022 draft. The last time Woods felt like himself was when Reich was coaching him, pushing him. “He was on me my rookie year,” Woods said. “That helped me big time because it helped me understand: This is the NFL.”

Their time together didn’t last as long as either had hoped. Woods had 312 receiving yards and three touchdowns as a rookie, but Reich was fired midway through the year. Woods flashed even after Reich was gone; there was optimism that he’d take the next step in 2023. Then he pulled his hamstring in OTAs, aggravated it during training camp and tore his other hamstring before the season started. His second year ended before it started, and he’s never been the same since.

In the 2024 preseason, Woods suffered a turf toe injury that required surgery and sidelined him for another full season. NFL players who suffer season-ending injuries often talk about how isolating that can be — spending so much time in rehab, away from your teammates, alone. Instead of falling into that, Woods stayed active in the tight end room. His brother, Jaleel, moved into his apartment so he wasn’t alone on the days when it felt that way. And then he worked to find out what was wrong, why these injuries kept happening.

“It was actually crazy because I started feeling like myself again” in 2024, he said. “I had to knock the rust off and, you know, deal with being scared about the hamstring stuff and trying to get over that. When I finally felt like I got over it — then that (turf toe) happened. It was just like, oh my gosh, OK, what am I doing wrong? What am I not paying attention to?”

He met with various specialists and arrived at a conclusion: Without realizing it, Woods’ body was unbalanced. Whether because of his injuries or his long legs and limbs, Woods was overcompensating in some areas. One side of his body was stronger than the other, and the way he was working out and lifting weights only intensified that.

“It was just learning my body because I’m kind of not normal,” Woods said. “I had to balance things out and learn my body — the whole body is a chain. So I saw the specialists to see where my weaknesses are, how it’s related to where my strengths are and to try to get it to balance out.”

Woods learned that some parts of his body were “way stronger” than the others, which is why he was “overcompensating in some ways.” The injuries exacerbated that — a calf strain left him putting more weight on his foot, which likely contributed to the turf toe.

“There’s so much that went into it that I didn’t know at the time,” Woods said.

He worked with a physical therapist who helped him discover areas of tightness on his lower body that he’d never noticed before. His new workout plan involved isolated exercises. An example: instead of doing regular squats, Woods does split squats to give each side of his body equal footing. When he used to work out, he’d favor his stronger side without realizing it — and he lifted a lot of weight, too. “You do it so often and it (your body) can get out of whack,” Woods said. “And then you train hard, you do it over a set amount of times, your balance is off and then that can lead to injuries.”

The new approach seems to be working.

Said Roberts: “I just want him to have some luck.”

Woods said he felt like “himself” the moment he joined the Jets after training camp last season, though he didn’t really get the chance to show it on Sundays. He didn’t play in a game until Week 8, when he played one snap, and then not again until Week 15. But Woods didn’t even mind — he was centrally focused on staying healthy for a whole season. He was happy to grind out reps on the scout team — at least he was playing football.

“I know the talent is there, so it was just about staying healthy and proving that I can stay healthy,” Woods said. “I felt like I got a lot of opportunities, even in practice, to showcase what I can do. That was my biggest thing: Show them who I really am, because they don’t really know.”

He still played enough to etch himself in Glenn’s memory.

“Once you say his name, I always go back to Jacksonville (in Week 15) and just watch the way he blocked,” Glenn said. “If you get a chance to go back and watch that game, just watch it and just watch how physical, how tough he is, the way he was bending. For a 6-7 guy, the way he was getting underneath guys.”

Glenn envisions Woods as someone who can help as a blocker while also splitting out to go one-on-one with safeties and linebackers who will be overmatched by his size and strength. “I’m expecting him to win that matchup,” Glenn said. Reich called him “super talented” and highlighted his skills as an “explosive blocker,” his length and his speed. “People don’t realize how fast he is once he gets the ball in his hands. He’s dangerous with the ball in his hands — he’s a big man, and he can run.”

Reich has a vision for how to use Woods even in a crowded tight end room featuring three recent high draft picks: Kenyon Sadiq (2026 first round), Mason Taylor (2025 second round) and Jeremy Ruckert (2022 third round).

Woods is an elder statesman of sorts in that room, even if he’s technically only appeared in 19 NFL games. He is a veteran of Reich; he understands how the offensive coordinator operates and the intricacies of his system. His teammates have turned to him for tips.

“Jelani’s been helping me out a lot,” Sadiq said. “He’s been giving me the rundown of how to do this, how to do that.”

Said Reich: “Jelani’s wicked smart. He’s helped that tight end room learn aspects of this offense, knowing what we want to do.”

Sadiq missed all of the spring and a chunk of training camp after surgery on his hernia, which has provided Woods an opportunity to get valuable reps with both Smith and backup quarterback Cade Klubnik. His target share in team drills has been on par with both Ruckert and Taylor. On Friday, he’ll play in the Jets’ preseason opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He’s just happy to be playing at all.