Carolina 12 -15 New York

Edition #680

Good morning! ☕

I’d much rather win games than lose them, but that game Saturday night was for the roster projection diehards.

Entertainment was at a minimum with the Jets sitting all of their starters for a second game in a row and Carolina doing likewise. I would like to see some of the guys in next week against the Giants but we’ll wait and see what happens.

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• Backup QB Tyrod Taylor was surprisingly kept on the sideline last night, Saleh said it was purely because he wanted to get a look at Peasley and Martinez. I’m not sure he enjoyed what he saw. We know what we have in Tyrod, so I don’t mind that at all.

• Saleh would not say whether Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the starters would get a series or two next weekend. My instinct is that Rodgers will sit but the Jets may play some of their starters just to get their feet wet ahead of San Francisco.

• Here’s a long quote from Aaron Rodgers on how he’s feeling post Carolina week in comparison to last year. Remember the Jets also held a joint practice with the Panthers last season too:

"We try not to compare too many things, but you look at the way we practiced against Carolina last year," Rodgers said during an in-game interview with the CBS-TV broadcast team of Ian Eagle and Anthony Becht. "We didn't do great against their front compared to what happened a couple days ago in practice. Coming out of the practice field, felt really good about things.

"Obviously the line looks a little different, adding some veteran guys to it. I like the momentum we have up front, the way those guys are blocking. I love Joe [Tippmann] at center. He's been a really solid second-year player for us, but adding Tyron Smith and Morgan Moses really solidifies the edges. More than that, it brings those veteran presences into the room to help [OL coach] Keith [Carter]. The best rooms, the best teams are player led and you need those veteran voices to help those guys out because we have so many young guys who played last year."

The Jets put Malik Taylor on IR yesterday ending his season, a huge shame as he was having a good camp. He’ll miss the 2024 season. The Jets replaced him on the roster with 25-year-old defensive end Jaylen Twyman who most recently played with the San Antonio Brahmas in the UFL. He had brief stints with the Vikings and Dolphins.

Haason Reddick is now up to $1.4 million in daily fines, add everything else and he must be around $2 million now. Must be nice to willingly turn your back on $2 million for playing a game with many people struggling to put food on the table.

For long stretches that was a very tough game to watch with highlights at a bare minimum. I’ve got a lot of time for Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero and while I think the Panthers offence is going to prevent them from winning a lot of games this year, their defence under Evero should keep them competitive.

Let’s just start with a couple of players who really helped their cause last night.

Brandon Codrington

The UDFA who signed for the Jets out of North Carolina Central made a statement last night returning a kick-off 63 yards and a punt 31 yards. Codrington is a defensive back who came into camp as the longest of the long shots to make the roster, but if he can prove to be a consistent threat as a returner, anything can happen. “[He] definitely seized his opportunities,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said. “I think he was, for both teams, the most productive. He set up a couple of scoring drives. That’s what he’s here for. That’s why we brought him in, his punt return and kick return ability. I thought he did a really nice job tonight.

Will McDonald

Haason Reddick has dominated the headlines this week with his trade request, and if this situation continues to deteriorate then all eyes are going to be on Will McDonald to fill that gap. McDonald answered those calls last night with one of the only highlights of the game. We’ve heard a lot about this spin move in camp and last night we got to see it in full devastating effect. He didn’t play a lot, but when you can do this ay any point, you don’t need to play a lot to make an impact.

Austin Seibert

Seibert is playing for his spot on another roster. Unless an injury hits Greg the Leg he won’t be kicking for the Jets this year, but he was excellent against the Commanders last week and he was 4-4 last night as well. If he continues to kick well he should find a starting job somewhere in the NFL. Teams don’t carry two kickers, so there’s only 32 roster spots up for grabs, that’s touch.

Izzy Abanikanda

Saleh singled out the 2nd year running back in his post-game press conference and for good reason. He may have only had 6 carries for 29 yards, but he looks a lot more decisive and he exploded out of the backfield. I’d like to see him get some more run with the even the backups, at the moment he’s getting his snaps with the 3rd strings and as such he’s not getting a lot to work with. It was a step in the right direction.

Zaire Barnes

I thought Barnes showcased his sideline-to-sideline speed on Saturday and he stood out all night with his reading and flow to the ball. I think he ended up with 7 tackles in the end and the Panthers really didn’t have much luck against our 2nd and 3rd string defence until late into the 4th. Barnes is fighting for his roster spot and that’s a really good step forward.

Now we’ve looked at some of the positives, we have to flip the script and look at the negatives.

Penalties

It was a really sloppy game from both teams with 17 penalties called for a total of 154 yards. That’s really poor discipline and while the Panthers were responsible for 10 of those penalties, the Jets were called for 7. The offensive line was responsible for four of them and rookie Olu Fashanu got flagged again this week for a hold. Those aren’t our starters but it’s an organisational thing. The one I didn’t like was the unnecessary roughness penalty which I believe was called on Chaz Surratt. Play hard, but play smart, swinging someone to the ground like that is going to get called every time.

Backup QBs

Like Saleh I was really excited to see both Andrew Peasley and Adrian Martinez, but I think we saw last night why both were UDFAs. Credit the Panthers for some good coverage and while I haven’t seen the All-22 to see just how good it was, it seemed as though both QBs wanted to see their receivers open instead of leading them or throwing with timing. That just doesn’t work in the NFL. Peasley was off target in the short game and missed Zack Kuntz wide open in the end-zone with a ball that forced Kuntz out of bounds. Martinez looked extremely indecisive and sailed a very dangerous pass over the middle that was intercepted. Peasley was 7/11 with no real wow throws and Martinez was 7/17 with an interception. Neither improved their case to stick with the Jets this off-season.

Backup Receivers

Again, without the All-22, it’s hard to really look at this. But from the angles we could see, there was so little explosion or separation all night. When receivers did get open (Brownlee did a couple of times) the QBs missed them. But the receivers didn’t come down with any contested catches that I can see, there were a couple that hit hands and needed to stick. Nobody stood out, and that’s an issue for a lot of players battling for places on this roster. Unfortunately I believe Irvin Charles left in the 2nd quarter and we’ll need to see the extent of that injury.

The Jets allowed 5 pressures in total, Olu Fashanu allowed 2 of them, Austin Deculus one, Chris Glaser one and Kohl Levao one as well.

Jets receivers were credited with three drops. Isaiah Winstead, Jason Brownlee and Braelon Allen. I remember that Allen one and I think it’s a touch harsh, if it’s the one I’m thinking of then Peasley threw it very low.

Braiden McGregor was the only player who generated more than one pressure, he had 3 on the day. Leonard Taylor III and Eric Watts both had one each.

Tre Swilling was the only player to register a PBU on the day. I thought Shemar Bartholomew had one as well, but he wasn’t credited with one.

Zaire Barnes was the highest graded run defender for the Jets at 81.9 (along with Surratt) but Barnes had 5 solo tackles in the run game and 2 defensive stops.

🔴⚪ San Francisco won their week two pre-season game 16-10 against the New Orleans Saints and the only thing that matters to San Fran is that Brock Purdy left the game healthy despite taking a couple of early hits behind patchwork offensive line.

Jauan Jennings and Dee Winters both missed the game last night with minor injuries but Shanahan doesn't expect either to miss much time.

For the second game in a row assistant coach Klay Kubiak was given play-calling responsibilities.