It is. The JR Sport Brief Show on the Infinity is. Sports network. They didn't start off good Day did not start off good if you're a fan of the New York Jets. Yeah, the team that hasn't smelled the playoffs in about 15 years, learning earlier today.
that Justin Fields had to be carted off of the field, Thank God it's only a dislocated. Not what you want for a new quarterback, a new system, a new coach, a new GM, a new everything trying to wash away a little bit of the stink. From the prior regime, or maybe the quarterback. He's gone, he's in Pittsburgh now, to talk about everything going on with the New York Jets, what we can expect going forward, what took place today. Joining us right now.
is Zach Rosenblatt, who covers all things New York Jets for the Athletics. Zach, how are you, man? I'm good. How are you doing? I'm excellent.
Thank you for taking the time.
So, we all heard about Justin Fields. Having to be carted off the field, and then we ultimately learned it's only a dislocated toe. He's day to day. Is there any update? There's nothing to be worried about here, right?
He'd be fine. Yeah, I mean, by all accounts, he's gonna be back during training camp at some point. I don't know how. How soon, or when he comes back, will he be a full go kind of thing? But yeah, they avoided disaster watch.
The Jets in their history often don't do that.
So. Yeah, we know the New York Jets are we can go back to Even the guy who won the Super Bowl with the busted-up knees and Namath Testa Verdi blowing out his Achilles and. Jets have a bad history of leg injuries. Having said that, I What is the level of enthusiasm for Justin Fields and what he's been able to do so far in the months since he's been signed? I mean, internally, there's a lot of it.
You know, he's.
Someone that they targeted when the offseason came about because they liked the idea of buying a lottery ticket on a player that hadn't really proven living up to his draft standing when he was drafted by the Bears. You know, he struggled a little bit over there, and the Steelers benched him after six games, with fair or not. But they saw some talent, they saw a quarterback who could run, they saw some throwing ability that has been untapped. And since he's got him in the building, you know, he's somebody who just like goes about his business the right way. He's very...
Not to himself, but he's not like a rah-rah leader. And, you know, I think the main thing they've been looking for is progress. And throughout spring, I thought he got better. I think he made some of the same mistakes at the beginning of training camp that he was earlier in the year, but you know Ideally, you need to get him as many reps as possible. And then, when they do, they have this offense built around him and his skill set.
And they're putting him in a position to succeed. And it's going to be on him to live up to their confidence.
Well, Zach, we know being able to pass the ball to someone that he's familiar with from college is going to help. That's Garrett Wilson. He just got that four-year $130 million contract, making him one of the highest-paid wide receivers in the game. Who else is gonna step up? to be a pass catcher in this offense though.
Yeah, I mean, that's the big question, especially because, you know, right now it looks pretty easy to just double team Garrett and just try to, you know, take him away and and not really fear the other options because, you know, the second best pass catching weapon they have is probably running back Brees Hall. And I don't think you really want that. And then, you know, they drafted Mason Taylor in the second round, he's a 20-year-old rookie. And the receivers that are going to be playing around Garrett Wilson are guys like Josh Reynolds and Alan Lazard and Tyler Johnson and You know, Malachi Corley, who they dropped in the third round last year, like guys that are either unproven or just kind of underwhelming veterans who are probably better served as like number three or number four receiver in most offenses.
So, you know, they need somebody to step up and prove that, you know, they can take a little attention, or when the attention is all going towards Garrett, that this person can step up. And there's not really an obvious answer about who that is right now. It's Ak Rosenblatt is joining us. Covers the New York Jets for the Athletic. You mentioned Brees Hall, and it was reported a couple of weeks, couple of months ago, that Aaron Rodgers wasn't too happy with the running game.
We know that Brees Hall is also thinking about his next contract. How is he going to fit in in this offense? We saw? Yeah, I mean, I think he has a chance to really bounce back this year. He's coming off a year that wasn't his best last year.
I don't think he played his best. He was a little banged up down the stretch. But this is an offense that's going to run the ball a lot. Last year, Aaron Rodgers. They were the worst, worst running team in the NFL in terms of attempts.
Like they were last in terms of how many times they rushed the ball. And so Brees was often not getting the ball for long stretches. He was hard for him to get in the groove. Aaron Rodgers was checking out of runs a lot. This year, I think number running is going to be their number one priority with him, with Braylon Allen, with Justin Fields.
And, you know, he has a lot to prove. But yeah, I think he's going to get a real opportunity to bounce back. And I think this is an offense that's built for him to bounce back. I see him as a sort of Jameer Gibbs type in this offense. It's, you know, they're trying to bring the Lions offense over here.
And I see Braylon out as a David Montgomery type, the, you know, lightning and thunder type situation. And if Brees can stay healthy and prove himself, then whether it's here or somewhere else, I think he'll get paid.
So, you know, he knows what's on the table here. He knows what's at stake for himself. And I think he has a lot of motivation to prove people. Is Zach, you mentioned the New York Jets trying to run a little bit of an Alliance-esque offense. We know Aaron Glenn is coming over.
From the Detroit Lions. How are things different? With the New York Jets with him at the helm. Are there differences that have been seen so far? It's kind of early.
Yeah, it's a little early, but you know, I think the biggest thing is I think he's really preaching accountability. He's really trying to establish a different culture than they've had here. Where There's a real focus on having the right people in the building, having the right mindset. Everybody knows what's expected of them, and they're expected to meet those expectations. And, you know, I think there was a little bit of.
that lacking in the previous regime where I You know, Robert Solid kind of wanted the players to lead themselves. And that kind of backfired when things weren't going well. And so there wasn't really accountability. They didn't seem prepared.
Some Sundays, the fundamentals were lacking. And I think they're trying to reverse a lot of those things. They got a lot of people out of the building that didn't really fit what they wanted. They brought in a lot of young players. It's one of the youngest rosters in the NFL.
And so they're really trying to build this team and airing Glenn's image, bringing the people that fit his image. And so far, everybody's saying all the right things and doing all the right things. It really comes down to wins and losses at the end of the day, but early returns are really good. Zach Rosenblatt here with us from the athletic covers of the New York Jets. We know Coach Salah pretty relaxed and pretty chill in one regard.
We know he played in New York, he played in the NFL, he's familiar with the market. He's a fiery guy. Do you think we're going to see a lot of fire throughout the course of the season? The media, is it going to get on his back a little too much, irritate him? Um He doesn't seem like some.
I don't know. That's kind of the big question I have: how he's going to handle it when thing, when there's losses, when there's bad moments, when he makes a bad coaching decision, he gets a question about it. How is he going to handle that? I think he's made of the right stuff. And someone who's very direct, he says what he's thinking.
And even in terms of like the media coach relationship, like if you ask a question and you phrase it the wrong way, or it's a question that was already asked, like, he's going to call that out.
So, um, You know, I think how he handles this market is going to be a big question, but he played here, he knows what it's like. And he knows what the fans say. You know, he had a quote yesterday, actually, where he said he understands the pain that Jazz fans have. And he's hoping and he's praying and he's working and he believes that he's gonna be the one to like remove that pain. And so he, you know, I think he knows what's at stake here as somebody who has been here.
He's followed the Jets from afar. He played here for a long time. And so if anybody was built to handle it, it's probably him. Yeah.
Well, unfortunately, well, fortunately for him, he had a chance to kind of leave a lot of the pain.
So you might have felt it a little bit, but there have been some fans who felt it for a very long time. I remember watching him on the defense, and you think about the New York Jets' defense right now. Past several years under Salah, it's been one of the best. Last year, not so much. They just paid Sauce Gardner, who's coming off of a.
A down year at the cornerback position. What can we expect? Uh from this defense. I think it's going to be a much different defense. They were.
Very good under Robert Salis. Statistically, they were in the top five or ten for the last three years. I think last year they fell off, but the two years before that, they were legit one of the best defenses in the NFL. A lot of that was predicated on the the defensive line, winning up front. Coroners kind of stayed in their area.
They didn't really travel. And they were able to get creative on the back end, and they were able to do the right things. But you know, I think it's going to be completely opposite. They're going to be a team that's very aggressive, they're going to blitz a lot, they're going to try and make plays in the backfield. Sauce Gardner, he's going to move around the formation a little more, he's going to follow the top receivers, and they might even get creative and throw him in the slot every now and then, and things like that.
And so, I think it's going to be a much different defense, but I do think they get more creative because I don't think the defensive line. It doesn't have the depth that they had in the past. They have more question marks than they usually do.
So they need to be able to create pressure in creative ways. And I think that's what Steve Wilkes and Aaron Glenn are going to do. Zach, on the entire team, offense and defense, is there any player on the New York Jets that we should pay attention to that doesn't get. That's the attention. It's not a Garrett Wilson or a Sauce Gardner or Quentin Williams.
Is there anybody else that we should pay attention to? Yeah, that's a good question. I would say a guy that always flies under the radar that jumps to mind for me on defense is Nickel Corner, Michael Carter II. A couple years ago, I think he was one of, if not the best, Nico Paris in the NFL. It's a crucial position, especially in this defense.
And he had a lot of bad injuries last year. He had a back injury that kept popping up. And I think he's somebody to keep an eye on. And then on offense, you know, their left tackle, Olu Foster, was a guy they drafted in the first round last year. They really believed in him.
Kind of, he played right to half over the first time in his life last year out of necessity. And then by the end of the year, I thought he was playing really, really well. Coming into the second year, like that's a crucial spot. I believe in this offensive line, but it is a young group, and they need somebody to really step up as the guy. And I think he has the talent to be that guy.
Well, Zach, when you think about the division, we know the Buffalo Bills are going to run it. New England now has Mike Vrabel and a quarterback that they trust. The Dolphins look like they're falling apart at the seams. Where do the New York Jets fit in for all of this? What do you think their chances are of maybe getting to the postseason?
You know, I don't see them as necessarily like a playoff contender this year, though. Who knows? I mean, I think the Jets are at their best when people have low expectations for them and people aren't talking about them. And that's kind of where they're at right now, which is the, you know, the inverse of the last couple of years. But, you know, I think this is a team that, and this is a division that is pretty open behind the Bills.
The Patriots, as you mentioned, they're rebuilding the team with a new coach. I think the Dolphins are going the opposite way. I think they're on the decline and it could be a bad year for them. And so there's room to fight to finish second in the division with seven, eight, nine wins, whatever it is. And the Jets have the ability to do that.
And maybe they're mathematically in the playoff one until the end. I don't see this as a playoff team on paper right now, but I believe they're going to be at the end of the year. We're going to be talking about how. A they never got to They never got killed by anybody, and they were really competing until the end. And I think that would be progress from last year.
Oh, that'll definitely be progress from a lot of years going on 15 years of no postseason, the longest in all professional sports year. In the United States of America, in North America. Hey, Zach, thank you so much for the time. Please tell everybody where they could follow and keep up with you and your work with the Athletic. Yeah, all my stories are on the Jets page at The Athletic, and I'm on Twitter or X at Zach Blatt, C-A-C-K.
And I have a podcast called Flight Plan where we talk about the Jets.
So subscribe if you can. Hey, Zach, it should be a little bit more even than past years. Appreciate the time. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me.
