Let The Battles Begin: RB2

Edition #420

Good morning. ☕

Happy 4th July to one and all 🇺🇲

We can finally say we’re playing football this month. Players report in 15 days and the Hall of Fame game (August 3rd) is now a month away.

It’s time to double down on the training camp content. One positional battle I didn’t focus on in my piece for LWOS is running back, and the battle for the #2 spot could be one of the more intriguing battles in camp.

That’s the topic for today's newsletter.

🏈 The Jets released an article on Tippmann a couple of hours after I posted yesterday’s newsletter, so I was unable to include quotes, but Tippmann had this to say: "There is definitely an adjustment period," he said. "Overall breadth of the offense, more details that's an aspect, and then speed of the game. "The d-linemen out here are insanely good, fast, twitchy guys so that's something you have to account for. You kind of have to find these little tricks in areas to help you kind of fix that."

👍 Nathaniel Hackett spot about his dad’s time with the Jets: "I had a great time here when I would come visit my father when he was at the New York Jets," he said. "The last time the division was won [2002] was when he was the offensive coordinator here, so I think to be able to do that and be part of something that my dad had started all the way back with Chad Pennington and Curtis Martin is special. We use their tape to install to the guys."

🚨 NFL analyst Shaun O'Hara was on ‘Good Morning Football’ and had this to say about Aaron Rodgers: "He's got some young guys for the Jets, too. So there's going to be a lot more work for Aaron to do to get these guys up to speed and get them ready on game day to play fast. The one thing that I will caution people is your expectations right now for the Jets and for Aaron…Do you know how many 300-yard games Aaron had last year? Zero, not one. So there is some work to be done and that's part of it is he had young receivers and he didn't they weren't all on the same page. So he's got to do that. He's got to put in the time in training camp and OTAs."

As of today, the Jets have five running backs on the roster. Free agent Dalvin Cook continues to be linked with New York and I’ve seen articles linking Leonard Fournette and Kareem Hunt too. But right now, the Jets have five.

Breece Hall is undoubtedly the number one back when healthy. So far, so good in terms of his recovery from a torn ACL, but it’s still unclear whether he’ll be ready to go in week one against Buffalo.

If the Jets don’t make a move at running back, and Breece Hall isn’t 100% to start the season, the Jet’s number two running back will receive plenty of touches to start the season.

But who will win that backup RB role?

There are four candidates and we’re going to look at each of them in turn, starting with: