Stephen Hill

A much-maligned second round pick of the Jets in 2012, Hill was cut by New York ahead of last season and subsequently signed with the Panthers’ practice squad. Although he never played for Carolina last season, Hill was a low-risk investment for the Panthers’ receiving corps. At 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, Hill has plenty of size and speed, but his skills remain very raw and inconsistent. As a result, Hill’s progress during the preseason will be interesting to monitor, as he hopes to resurface on a 53-man roster in the upcoming campaign.

Hill's upside is still that of a dominant game-breaking receiver given his enviable size (6-4, 215) and speed combination, but the Jets elected to waive him during their final wave of roster cut-downs in August.

The 6-4, 215-pound speedster came out of the gate with 89 yards and two scores in Week 1, and it looked like the Jets had drafted the second coming of Randy Moss. But Hill scored only once more all year, never again surpassed 55 yards in a game and missed the last three games of the season due to a sprained LCL on which he subsequently underwent arthroscopic surgery. Hill is 100 percent recovered heading into spring OTAs and is the favorite for the starting job opposite Santonio Holmes. Hill is considered raw, lacking understanding of NFL defenses and far from crisp in his route running. But few receivers his height run a 4.36 40, and perhaps he'll prove a quick study. At press time, it's unclear who will be throwing him the ball, adding even more uncertainty to his outlook.

Someone other than Santonio Holmes has to see targets for the Jets, and it might turn out to be the physically gifted Hill. The 6-4, 215-pound second-round pick has excellent size, plus leaping ability, a huge catch radius and blazing speed – he ran a 4.36 40 at the NFL Combine. The problem is he’s extremely raw, with little experience running anything other than straight-line routes. Hill isn’t nimble in and out of his breaks and doesn’t seem to read defenses well or find the soft spots in a zone. In Hill’s defense, he played in a run-first system at Georgia Tech and will obviously get a crash course in the finer points of being an NFL receiver over the next several months. At press time, he need only leapfrog the unestablished and oft-injured Chaz Schilens to find himself starting in Week 1.