Jets Strength vs Buffalo Weaknesses

Edition #471

Good morning ☕

We’re now officially under a week away from the first game. Win and everyone jumps on the bandwagon, lose and we’re going to get some ridicule from around the NFL, you get that sense that people are just waiting for us to fall at the first hurdle.

Although I’m confident about getting a result against Buffalo. I think it’s important to keep it all in context, the Super Bowl won’t be won or lost in week one…but it can go a long way to setting the standard and expectations.

We’re going to continue to look towards the game this weekend, analysing some of the Jet’s strengths against some of Buffalo's weaknesses.

• A couple of injury notes to start the week’s practice sessions. Will McDonald was back at practice, he missed a session last week due to having a wisdom tooth removed.

• Coach Saleh confirmed that the Jets would be ‘prudent’ with how they use Breece Hall and Dalvin Cook considering the limited pre-season and injuries. Although he did confirm they weren’t setting a snap count, so it will be a case of seeing who’s rolling. I’d guess we see an even split with a little MC sprinkled in here and there.

• Outside of the players on IR and PUP, the Jets had a fully healthy team for practice yesterday. Breece Hall was the only absentee, but that was purely a planned rest day and he’ll be back in tomorrow.

• On Buffalo’s side, Von Miller will miss the Jets game after being put on IR. So he’ll miss the first four weeks which is a big blow to the Bills.

• You likely saw this quote yesterday, but DJ Reed is pretty confident heading into the 2023 season. He said that the Jet’s defence can be ‘historical’ and referenced the 85 Bears. The 85 Bears allowed an average of 12.4 points per game, the Jets allowed 18.6 per game last year and the best unit in the league (San Francisco) allowed 16.3 points per game. In today’s NFL, with the rules and regulations favouring offensive output, I’m not sure we’ll see a defence limit a team like the Bears did in 1985. "I'm very confident. I think we have the potential to be the best defence in the NFL. Honestly, I think we can be historical, not just the best defence in the league, but I think we can be a historical defence like the 85-86 Bears and the LOB (Legion of Boom) in 2013. I think we can be that dominant if we just put all the things together..."

• Connor McGovern had an interesting quote about the team having done a 180 since the 2020 season, saying the front office "got rid of all the bad apples.". Locker room harmony is key.

• The Jets held their annual captain's vote yesterday and no surprises. Three captains were named and it's the three players you’d expect. Aaron Rodgers on offence, CJ Mosley on defence and Justin Hardee on special teams. I wrote a little piece on the captains for GGN.

Jets cornerbacks vs. Buffalo’s wide receivers