Jets' goal for Aaron Rodgers, starters in final preseason game: Don't get hurt
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers at training camp in Florham Park, N.J., on Wednesday. Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
The Jets’ main objective for their final preseason game is very simple.
“Come out healthy,” Robert Saleh said. “That’s it.”
Actually, that’s everything.
The Jets will play Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the healthy starters in Saturday night’s game against the Giants at MetLife Stadium. This decision has been second-guessed since it became known on Sunday that the 39-year-old Rodgers — the quarterback this whole Jets season hinges upon — would be making his Jets debut in this game.
It was a mutual decision. The coaches wanted Rodgers to play. He wanted to play as well. But if anything happens to Rodgers, it will put a dark cloud at the end of a training camp that has been nothing but sunny skies for the Jets.
Saleh, who earlier in the week said “you can’t coach scared,” doesn’t know for certain how long Rodgers will play. It will be multiple series, though.
Saleh wants everyone to get used to playing with Rodgers and each other in a real game setting so the Jets can see what fixes they need to make heading into their Sept. 11 Monday night game against the Buffalo Bills.
“I don’t have a specific number,” Saleh said. “I want to get transitions, but I also know how I am on game day. Whatever I plan on game day, sometimes I just throw it out the window based on what my emotion is feeling at that moment.
“The plan is to get transitions going in terms of different series so they can come off the field, get the adjustments, take those adjustments to the field, play football, come back, make more adjustments, go back. So I’d like to see multiple drives, but we’ll see.”
The Jets have played some offensive starters this preseason but few on defense. This will be the first time Quinnen Williams, Sauce Gardner and others from that group will be on the field. It will be Rodgers’ first preseason game since 2018.
Saleh said it’s more about “everybody else” around Rodgers than it is for the former Packer.
“Hearing him for the first time, feeling him in a gamelike setting, feeling his cadence, feeling his demeanor in the huddle, feeling him at the line of scrimmage,” Saleh said. “So as much as it is for him, it’s even more so for the guys around him so they can feel the tempo that he wants in and out of the huddle and we can make the adjustments off of it.”
Rodgers has tried to prepare the Jets for that in practice and in meetings by quizzing them on certain things, but there is nothing like a game. It will continue in practice for the next two weeks while the Jets integrate players into the offense.
Running back Breece Hall, returning from ACL surgery, had limited reps in team competition. Newly acquired Dalvin Cook and left tackle Duane Brown (shoulder surgery) had none. They won’t play Saturday, but they’re expected to in Week 1.
“I think we have to get a lot done the next two weeks,” Rodgers said. “I think this is when the speed kind of amps up a little bit, urgency amps up.”
This is an important game for some Jets on the roster bubble. Teams have to get their rosters down to 53 players by Tuesday afternoon.
Some players who could be fighting for roster spots include safety Trey Dean, defensive lineman Tanzel Smart, running back Bam Knight and receivers Irvin Charles, Xavier Gipson and Jason Brownlee. There’s a spot open in the receivers’ room with the sudden retirement of Corey Davis.
The Jets’ roster has improved the last two years. They had a league-high seven players whom they cut last year get claimed. They’re expecting more of the same next week.
“We built a pretty darn good roster that people see the value in our players,” Saleh said. “So it is a lot of tough decisions for us because we know that we might have to say goodbye to somebody, but at the same time, we know we’re going to get a lot better for it.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.