The Amari Cooper Way

Edition #663

Good morning! ☕

With the last teams reporting to camp yesterday, the 2024 NFL season is here. We’re now in non-stop mode until the draft raps up in April 2025, that’s both very exciting and absolutely terrifying.

Thank you to everyone who’s stuck with TJW through the summer and to all those who joined at the start, welcome to the third season of coverage. We hope it’s going to end in Aaron Rodgers lifting that Lombardi Trophy, and if he does he can ride a camel into a darkness retreat while smoking whatever he wants to smoke.

Amari Cooper signed an interesting deal with the Browns on Monday…could that show the Jets the way forward with holdout Haason Reddick? Let’s take a look.

🟢 The NFL Top 100 list is being released and the Jets have a number of players listed. Garrett Wilson came in at #72, Aaron Rodgers was #92 and Haason Reddick was number #87. I imagine we’ll see a few more players in that top 50 including Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams.

⚪ Mike Williams will officially start training camp on the PUP list. He’ll be joined on that list by fullback Nick Bawden and Jordan Travis will start on the NFI (non-football injury) list. For anyone who is interested, Travis is on the NFI because his injury was sustained in college, which is not NFL activity based.

🟢 The Jets have signed cornerback Nehemiah Shelton. He was with us last summer and also appeared on the practice squads at points in the Autumn. He went undrafted out of San Jose State in 2023 and spent some time in the UFL with the Memphis Showboats.

⚪ C.J Mosley has been talking expectations - "I feel our expectations will always stay the same," he said. "Injuries and everything we dealt with last year, you can't control those. But you can control your attitude, how you work every single day. And we've added some great additions through our draft class and some great players through free agency to our talent pool."

🟢 Quinnen Williams is as excited as usual - "I'm super-excited, man, We were excited in OTAs and now we get a chance to put it all in front of us and really fight for something, work for something toward our ultimate goal of being great and winning football games."

⚪ Garrett Wilson has been talking about the areas he’s looked to improve on: "When I first got to the league, I wasn't strong enough," said Wilson, who appeared in all 34 games in 2022-23. "I could skate by on some things because of what I do offer, but that year took a toll on me physically. I had to find a way to get bigger and stronger as a result. When it comes to physicality, I think a lot of coordinators tried to attack me, telling their guys to be physical. I am really trying to match that this year and feel like I am in a great position to do so."

🟢 Robert Saleh didn’t seem overly concerned with Reddick’s holdout and referenced his experience working in multiple systems as a reason why the missed time is not concerning. He also did say that there are 89 players in camp, and their focus is and should be on getting them ready. Which is spot on. Joe Douglas and Reddick’s agent need to work on getting the edge rusher into camp.

⚪ One little note from camp - Apparently Allen Lazard had a standout practice with Rich Cimini referencing his obvious chemistry with Rodgers. Lazard had a good diving catch and also finished team drills with a touchdown.

🟢 Jarrick Bernard-Converse has been moved to cornerback, he was with the safeties last season. Just a reminder that JBC spent significantly more time at corner during college, so this isn’t overly surprising.

⚪ Sauce Gardner was asked about the ESPN article which labelled him as too handsy, seeming to claim he was the recipient of leniency from the refs - “Everybody’s entitled to their opinion … if it was a few years back, I probably would be mad.” - He also confirmed that no receiver had ever told him he was too handsy.

🟢 AVT and Morgan Moses were dressed, but didn’t take part in team drills. Saleh confirmed that they would return soon, which is great news for that offensive line.

⚪ Aaron Rodgers met the media and said he planned the trip to Egypt based on last years mandatory minicamp dates. He then tried to move it when this years dates were announced but some of the aspects planned couldn’t be moved. He also confirmed that he was fined as expected. Now we can just close that chapter. Also he did ride a camel…so my opening gambit works.

The Jets have reportedly said that they won’t negotiate with Reddick until he gets to camp, wanting to see him in action and see his commitment first.

Reddick reportedly won’t report to camp until he gets a new deal signed, and is pretty content to take those $50k daily hits in fines.

One of the two sides is going to have to budge.

We know that the Jets are not considering a trade or release. Which means the only option is a compromise and maybe Amari Cooper has shown the way forward.