Darryl Roberts is days away from returning to the field.

Jets head coach Adam Gase announced that his starting cornerback is likely to practice this week, after missing the last three games due to a calf injury. Whether he plays Sunday against the Bengals is still up in the air, but it sure sounds like he’s trending toward a healthy weekend.

“Once Darryl gets back, that’s going to be a positive thing for us," Gase said, "because that’s another guy that we have in that secondary that’s played, that’s done a lot of good things for us and it can definitely help us.”

Sure, the depth should help bolster the Jets’ extraordinarily thing secondary. But there is absolutely no way Gase – or, more accurately, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams – should let Roberts touch the field in Cincinnati or in any other game this season.

Not with how Arthur Maulet and Blessuan Austin have been playing in his stead.

Yes, ProFootballFocus.com’s numbers have their limits. But the analytics site’s grades sure match the eye test in this instance; Austin is the Jets’ second-highest graded defensive player this season (small sample size or not) with an 87.5 mark, while Maulet checks in 10th at 72.9.

Both of those grades are leagues better than Roberts fared earlier this season. He’s played his way to a lowly 52.5, good for 24th on the defense. Yuck.

Simply put: Austin and Maulet have been terrific the past three weeks. They deserve to stay in place.

“Their energy level is off the charts,” Gase said. "Those guys, you could tell they’re excited to be out there. Whatever they have, they give it. They’re flying around. They’re involved in the run game. They’re tackling. They’re trying to stay as tight as possible when they’re in some kind of zone. They’re trying to do a good job of rerouting and then dropping into their zone and being in the right spot and being able to work with those other guys.”

Compare that to Roberts, who gets burned on a weekly basis because he’s seemingly incapable of turning his head around while the ball is in the air.

Former general manager Mike Maccagnan gambled on Roberts – who shined as a fill-in corner last season – by signing him to a two-year deal as a starter this offseason. That move clearly has not worked. And the Jets can get out of it, with no dead money and $6 million in cap savings, this spring. Surely new GM Joe Douglas will have the sense to do just that.

In the meantime, the Jets have absolutely nothing to gain by letting Roberts play. Clearly, he’s not been up to the task. So far, Maulet and Austin have. Those two players may have a future with this club. It’s worth testing them out for five more games, instead of trotting Roberts out there simply because he’s the “starter” with the commensurate salary.

For his part, Gase danced around the looming decision when asked if Roberts will be given his starting job once healthy.

“I look at it like this: Let’s get him back out at practice and let him have a good week,” Gase said. “That’s one of those problems where we’ll worry about it when we get there.”

Hopefully, that’s Gase’s way of politely saying, “Sorry, Darryl.”

After all, he wasn’t shy about guaranteeing outside linebacker Brandon Copeland his starting job when he returned from suspension earlier this year. He wasn’t afraid to guarantee Luke Falk the starting quarterback job over David Fales when Sam Darnold and Trevor Siemian both went down in the opening weeks.

The starting jobs should belong to Austin and Maulet moving forward, no questions asked.

“Those two guys have brought great juice," Gase said.

Darn right they have. Roberts, meanwhile, has brought nothing but frustration.

Keep playing the kids. It’d be silly not to.

Matt Stypulkoski may be reached at mstypulkoski@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @M_Stypulkoski. Find NJ.com Jets on Facebook.