Adrian Martinez

Edition #676

Good morning!

The Jets were back at practice on Monday and we have a couple of important notes from that session.

Unfortunately we have to start with the news that Haason Reddick has officially requested a trade from the Jets.This entire trade has been a disaster so far. 21 days of holding out and now a trade request.

We’ve spoken so much about Reddick now and honestly I’m already tired of him and he hasn’t played a single snap. Whether he went back on his word or there was a mis-communication, this whole situation is a huge distraction for a team hoping to avoid distractions. The Jets released the following statement and we’ll leave it there.

We then got a separate report from Jordan Shultz that was almost certainly planted by Reddick’s agent. The report stated

Sources: The #Jets were informed before acquiring Haason Reddick that his contract needed to be addressed. They made an offer prior to the trade with Philly, which Reddick turned down. The team still went ahead with the trade without a deal in place. Reddick attended his press conference with the understanding that contract talks would continue, but I’m told no official proposal has been made since he joined the team in late March. That’s where things stand, and it’s why Reddick has not been with the team at minicamp or training camp — and why today’s trade request was made.

Anyway…

Saturday’s game offered plenty of positives, some of which we went through in yesterday’s newsletter, but one of the welcome surprises was Adrian Martinez.

It’s important to not overreact to one game in the pre-season, but I don’t think I’m the only Jets fan who is intrigued to see more of the 24-year-old. I’m also pretty intrigued to see more Peasley, but we already spoke about him this off-season.

• Robert Saleh confirmed that rookie offensive tackle Olu Fashanu would be working out at RT for the next couple of weeks. The Jets always envisioned him getting work on both sides and up to Monday’s session he has exclusively worked on the left side.

• Saleh also confirmed that TE Jeremy Ruckert would miss a few days. The Jets have signed TE Neal Johnson and LB Anthony Hines, and released LB Jimmy Ciarlo and CB Myles Jones. Part of that Johnson signing is likely related to Ruckert missing some time.

• Morgan Moses has been talking about Braelon Allen - “You see people trying to tackle him and they realize, ‘This shit hurts.’”

• Tyron Smith was held out for maintenance purposes. He’s missed a lot of days now and Saleh said part of it was protecting him from himself because when he plays, he plays 100mph. Obviously he’s a pro and he’s going to know what he’s doing and obviously the Jets are taking a page out of Dallas’s book after they largely kept him healthy last year. But I am slightly concerned by the sheer quantity of time that he’s missing.

• The guys who played significant reps on Saturday were only lightly involved today, Saleh said that they will start ramping them back up tomorrow ahead of the joint practice with Carolina and the game at the weekend. We may see more of the starters this weekend, but the majority of the game will be played by the backups and we need to be smart with their workload as well. You’ve always got good depth until you don’t.

• Mike Williams was in wide receiver drills yesterday which is great to see. It’ll be a while until we see him in team drills and Saleh tempered expectations in his news conference, but progress is progress. This is progress.

• Aaron Rodgers had a couple of touchdowns in red-zone drills and there was this beauty of a catch by Tyler Conklin as well

After a very brief flirtation with the UFL, I have to admit that I have watched next to none of it, so I missed seeing Adrian Martinez for the Birmingham Stallions.

When you’re named the league MVP, selected to the 2024 All-UFL team and chosen as the 2024 UFL Championship MVP, you must have something about you. Especially when you already have a jersey in the Pro Football Hall of Fame…

The Jets signed Martinez around a month after his Birmingham Stallion heroics and then he decided to put on a little bit of a show against the Commanders.

He did this…