Santonio Holmes Injury: Update on Status of New York Jets' Top Wide Receiver

The New York Jets are hoping to get back No. 1 wide receiver Santonio Holmes as quickly as possible. His injury last Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers took the last quality starting receiver out of the game for the Jets. He hurt his foot on a non-contact injury.

The X-rays came up negative—which is good—while the MRI was initially inconclusive. A broken bone would have shown up on an X-ray. A ligament or tendon tear would have shown evidence on an X-ray and been conclusive on an MRI.

It was suggested that Holmes could have a small tear in his Achilles tendon—the tendon that runs along the back of the heel—but that has been ruled out. The evidence currently available points most likely to either a bad sprain or a very minor tear of a ligament in the foot. Neither of those injuries would be season-ending. However, both would probably cause Holmes to miss two to five games.

It is almost certain that Holmes will not be ready to playing this coming Monday, according to head coach Rex Ryan:

"

I’m not sure how many weeks he’ll be out, the real extent of the injury. We just know the X-rays were negative. That’s good news. Obviously, it looks doubtful for this week.

"

The only healthy receivers on the Jets roster currently are Jeremy Kerley, Chaz Schilens, Patrick Turner and Clyde Gates—not exactly an all-star cast. It might be worth giving running back Joe McKnight some reps in the slot. He showed promise in that role in 2011. Tight end Jeff Cumberland should also get some targets.

If tight end Dustin Keller and No. 2 wide receiver Stephen Hill can get healthy this week (they were both questionable last week) then Sanchez will have better targets to throw to on Monday.

Sanchez said of the portion of his receiving corps that is presently healthy, "We’ve got to play with who we’ve got." That is his polite way of saying: My receivers are terrible.

Sanchez is not great with his legs and does not have pinpoint accuracy. His best strength is finding and hitting open receivers. Without open receivers, he becomes indecisive and ineffective.

In his one game with a healthy set of starting receivers this year, Sanchez had a completion percentage over 70 percent. He has completed less than 50 percent of his passes in each of the three games with backup receivers. The gap from 70 percent to 50 percent is the gap between the best and the worst quarterbacks in the NFL.

The game against the 4-0 Houston Texans will be very tough on Monday night. With Holmes out, the Jets are running out of offensive plays they can execute.

Adam Waksman is a featured columnist for the Bleacher Report New York Jets community. Be sure to follow Adam on Twitter to receive updates right away.

Follow @AdamWaksman