Should Players Play in the Pre-Season?

Edition #667

Good morning! ☕

It’s important to not read too much into training camp, especially when you see articles claiming the Jets will trade Garrett Wilson to the Texans based on the little disagreement he had with Rodgers. I’m not going to link to that article an presume it’s satire, but crazy takes are the name of the game in this quick news cycle.

One thing that is becoming concerning is Joe Tippman’s inability to snap the football, a pretty big deal for a starting centre in the NFL. Yesterday he had a few more dodgy snaps and bad snaps can get QBs injured, and the quickest way for the 2024 Jets season to unravel is for the QB to get injured.

🟢 I find Hard Knocks a little boring now and don’t tend to watch it. But last night there was a little snippet on the Jets as the Giants episode showed the G-Men declining to trade with the Jets. Joe Douglas was attempting to move up to #6 and I presume he was doing that to try and draft Rome Odunze who the Jets loved. The Giants stayed put and drafted Malik Nabers. Odunze ended up going #9 to the Bears and the Jets ended up trading out of #10 and picking Olu Fashanu at #11. Got to admit that the idea of Garrett Wilson and Rome Odunze for the next few years was very appealing.

⚪ The Jets made a small roster move yesterday, signing TE Anthony Firkser who actually started his NFL career with the Jets back in 2017 as a UDFA out of Harvard. Last year he failed to make any contributions to the Lions but over the course of his career he has 115 receptions for 1,207 yards and 6 touchdowns. He’s a serviceable blocker but I’d be surprised if he made the team considering we have Conklin, Ruckert and Yeboah, as well as Kuntz and a few other UDFA’s.

🟢 In a corresponding move the Jets waived fullback Nick Bawden who started camp on PUP and passed his physical yesterday. I wouldn’t be overly surprised if Bawden ended up back with the Jets, but with the RBs we have I’m not sure we have much use for a fullback in this system. Bawden has also struggled to stay healthy over the last couple of years.

⚪ Pre-season games are quickly approaching now and the age-old question of whether to play your starters or not is already being debated. Jets head coach Robert Saleh did say yesterday his instinct is to keep Rodgers on the sideline for all three, but he did leave it open stating: "... I want to leave it open. That third game is the one where we're deciding. He definitely won't play the first two."

🟢 The offence has been shaky recently and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett believes that it’s based on new players adapting to the system and Aaron Rodgers cadences, which is certainly a factor with all the false starts. We still haven’t had the starting five offensive lineman practice together, and that will also play a part. Speaking to the media he said "Inconsistent, I think there's been some good, some bad, some things that we have to work through. "[It's] just everything -- guys working together," he added. "Some guys that are brand new [are] getting used to some of Aaron's cadences, [Tyrod Taylor's] cadences. There are a lot of new players here, so they're just kind of still working their way into it."

⚪ But, it wasn’t all bad for the offence. The running game in particular looked good based on what I saw from the stream and Robert Saleh has come away really impressed with that: "It's been competitive," head coach Robert Saleh said. "The run game has looked really good from an offensive perspective. Overall, once you put our D-line in pads, they're pretty tough to deal with and it's showing its face, especially in critical downs and critical situations. It's been competitive, back and forth. "Last year in our team competition periods there were blowout wins and this year has been back and forth throughout camp. Excited about the direction it's going, but still have a long way to go in all three phases. Overall, it's been good."

🟢 Malik Taylor made a great deep catch off of Tyrod and he’s certainly been starting to grab the attention of the head coach, based on his experience with Rodgers I think he’s got a good shot to stick around - "He's got great speed, he's very reliable, he knows all three spots." HC Robert Saleh said about Taylor on Tuesday. "He's a guy that's starting to win his 1-on-1s and starting to put himself in position to create separation. Very pleased with where he's at."

⚪ Talking about that offence, according to reports Rodgers completed just 10-21 passes and he was constantly under duress. He also had another heated exchange with Wilson after a miscommunication. Tippmann had some bad snaps but was improved and that’s important. Corley made a great one-handed catch and it’s nice to see him getting involved as he’s been very quiet early in camp. Bernard-Converse had his first INT as a full-time NFL CB.

🟢 Brant Boyer has plenty to choose from to return kicks this year and that’s going to be one of the most interesting battles to watch during pre-season - "I think he's doing a nice job (Tarik Cohen)," special teams coordinator Brant Boyer said, who added that he has an "army" of six to eight candidates returning kicks this summer. "There are some things to clean up and and stuff, but he's a hell of a player and he's got really good vision, really good run skill. And they're working hard back there and we'll see how it all shakes out at the end."

Should players play in the pre-season?

For a long time it was pretty standard for starters to appear in the third pre-season game just to get up to speed with live game-play and shake off some rust. Unlike most other American sports, the NFL is restricted to a short and constricted season meaning you really can’t afford to come in rusty.

Recently there has been a trend for teams to sit their starters completely, meaning the first real game-action they see is the curtain raiser for the NFL season, for the Jets that would mean players getting their first real test against the defending NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers.