Jets, Malachi Corley believe rookie will pay back team for infamous fumble because he owes them one
Jets wide receiver Malachi Corley drops the ball before reaching the end zone for a touchdown against the Houston Texans during the first quarter of an NFL game Thursday at MetLife Stadium. Credit: Noah K. Murray
There were two Jets receivers last Thursday who made the kinds of plays that will stick with them for the rest of their careers.
Garrett Wilson, of course, will probably never top the one-handed, legs-split, shin-down-before-the-knee touchdown grab he made in the back of the end zone. It’s already such an iconic moment for him that on Wednesday in the locker room they were handing out T-shirts with a photo of that grab printed on the front and toasting his selection as AFC Offensive Player of the Week.
And at the other end of that spectrum there is Malachi Corley. The rookie should have enjoyed the thrill of scoring his first NFL touchdown when he took a handoff on an end-around run in the first half of the game against the Texans, an achievement he’s been dreaming about for most of his life. Instead of the highlight reel, though, it landed on the blooper reel.
Corley inexplicably dropped the ball just before he crossed the goal line, negating the points and giving the ball back to Houston on a touchback since it was fumbled through the end zone. The player who arrived with the moniker of “YAC King” for his ability to gain yards after catches was instead a Yuck King in his first big moment in the league.
“First of all, you can’t do that,” interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich said of his message to Corley after the touchdown was overturned.
And second?
“You owe us one.”
While Corley will likely never shake that moment thanks to the memes and gifs that will live forever, and somewhere someday someone may get around to making T-shirts with that error printed on the front, the way he reacted to the play has impressed the Jets more than just about anything he’s done as a player. Rather than cower in shame or be overcome by frustration, Corley didn’t let the situation win.
“It’s not a defining moment for me,” he said on Wednesday. “After it happened I told (Ulbrich), ‘Gimme the ball, I’ll do it again.’”
The Jets never got around to that on Thursday, but it could be happening soon. With the departure of Mike Williams in a trade to the Steelers this week and with Allen Lazard on injured reserve for another few games, Corley figures to be among the young receivers the Jets are counting on to step into a bigger role in the offense. Xavier Gipson and Irvin Charles are in that group too, but neither brings the kind of physicality as a blocker or a runner with the ball in his hands that Corley does.
“I’m excited for my role,” he said. “Hopefully I see an increase in snaps. But we have a good group and we are starting to get on a roll.”
Corley said he’d zoned out and had no idea he’d dropped the ball before scoring that would-be touchdown until he looked up at the big screens at MetLife Stadium to admire his work and instead saw his gaffe. Even then, he insisted, it did little to diminish the thrill of the play.
“It was a great experience overall,” he said. “I was relishing that moment. Even after it happened it was such an elevated feeling for me it was hard to have it taken away.”
Was it embarrassing?
“Not at all,” Corley said. “You take things with a grain of salt. You see a lot more or less embarrassing things on the field so for me it was a learning experience.”
And what did he learn?
“I’ve scored 200-plus touchdowns in my career and I never dropped the ball before the end zone so there are not too many coaching points to take away from that other than to hold it another six inches,” he said.
There were things that made it easier to digest. The reaction from teammates, he said, was spot-on, from veterans such as Davante Adams and Williams telling him about others such as DeSean Jackson who have suffered from the same early celebration, to Sauce Gardner and Quincy Williams approaching him to let him know the defense would have his back.
It was also helpful that ultimately the foolish fumble turned out to be a footnote in the 21-13 result.
“I’m really grateful we won the game,” Corley said.
Corley said he hasn’t heard from Jackson, perhaps the most famous player to drop the ball in play rather than score a touchdown with it. In 2008 against the Cowboys, Jackson, then a rookie for the Eagles, nearly tallied his first career touchdown but for a premature punctuation to the play.
“To him I’m just another idiot that dropped the ball,” Corley said of Jackson.
Jackson, of course, would go on to play 15 seasons and score 66 career touchdowns on offense and special teams. So maybe this is more a harbinger than a handicap.
Ulbrich said it is “going to be part of his story as he becomes the player we all think he can become because he's going to grow and learn from it.”
Learn to hang onto the ball, as he said, for “another six inches.”
Or maybe longer than that.
Corley said when he scores his next touchdown — which will officially be his first assuming he fully completes the play — he won’t be dropping it before or immediately even after the crosses the goal line.
“I’m gonna probably hold onto the ball all the way to the sideline and give it to Coach Brick,” he said. “Let him know that I owed him that one.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.