Robert Saleh’s Team Seeks to Build on Carolina Shutout vs. former Green & White HC Todd Bowles’ Bucs Randy Lange
Jets followers have traveled in spectacular numbers to the workforce’s open coaching camp practices in Florham Park, NJ, in addition to to their two preseason video games, in Canton, OH, in opposition to the Browns and in Charlotte, NC, vs. the Panthers.
On Saturday evening, Jets Nation will get its first alternative to see the a lot mentioned and dissected Green & White of their first home-stadium sport setting when the Jets tackle the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at MetLife Stadium (kickoff shortly after 7:30 p.m. ET).
And if any followers have any considerations about not seeing Aaron Rodgers in sport motion in any respect this summer time, they in all probability do not should go any additional to get a actuality chew than the MetLife guests sideline, the place Todd Bowles will likely be main his Buccaneers into battle. Bowles, who in fact was the Jets head coach from 2015-19 earlier than becoming a member of Bruce Arians’ Tampa workers in ’20 simply in time to catch the Tom Brady prepare to Super Bowl LV victory, was requested this week in regards to the similarity of these Brady Bucs to this 12 months’s Jets.
“I don’t think it’s similar because we don’t have Tom and they have Aaron. They’ve got to deal with that,” Bowles mentioned. “We’re just trying to get better. We’re not making it a comparison thing. We’re trying to get some work in. We don’t even look at it that way.”
In a way, that is the best way the Jets and HC Robert Saleh are taking a look at their state of affairs. Rodgers, Saleh mentioned Thursday, is not going to play once more on Saturday, with Zach Wilson making his third straight summer time preseason QB begin, backed once more by Tim Boyle. Saleh even mentioned he and his workers have not determined but if Rodgers will in truth go well with up and play a number of collection within the preseason finale on the Giants.
At least if Rodgers’ first sport look in his completely different shade of inexperienced is the Sept. 11 season opener in opposition to the Bills, that can match up with the Brady/Bucs 2020 blueprint, since neither Brady nor another participant within the league performed any preseason video games that 12 months as a consequence of COVID.
But Saleh’s sport imaginative and prescient for his Jets, who held one joint follow with the Bucs on the Atlantic Health Training Center on Wednesday, will likely be much like the Jets’ personnel deployment on the Panthers.
“It’ll be very similar to last game,” he mentioned. “A couple of more defensive guys will play, but it’ll be the same plan for the offense.”
The protection at Carolina went virtually totally with the second and third models, and the outcomes had been acceptable because the Jets registered 5 sacks, allowed 165 yards and posted their first highway preseason shutout since 1990 at Kansas City.
The offense additionally did OK, as a handful of ones plus twos and threes produced 141 dashing yards and drives to 3 brief TD passes, all to the backup tight ends.
Zach Wilson will likely be within the hotseat once more, and he is been as much as the problem the primary two video games, producing one landing, 4 area objectives and no turnovers in his 9 drives. His passer scores in these video games had been 104.2 and 102.7, and with yet one more 100 score, he’ll be the primary Jets QB since 2000 with 100-plus scores in three preseason begins. That factoid is not meant to impress or snow anybody, but it surely’s a small indication that Wilson’ has been enhancing underneath Rodgers’ tutelage, and as Saleh noticed, “Zach’s growth has been phenomenal. He’s playing without fear.”
Another fearless warrior within the concentration is going to once more be Mekhi Becton, who performed backup LT and even some RT in the course of the week. Saleh continues his upbeat evaluation of the previous first-round decide who hasn’t performed in nearly two full seasons: “He’s going for it. It’s the most confident I’ve felt in a while with him.”
The Jets offensive line will likely be underneath the gun till they don’t seem to be, with the frontliners scuffling in opposition to the Buccaneers’ veteran cross rush of their joint follow. Meanwhile, the protection will work a few of its starters from final 12 months’s top-five NFL unit into the combination and can get a very good take a look at from QBs Baker Mayfield (8-for-9 for 63 yards and a TD vs. the Steelers), Kyle Trask and John Wolford throwing for Mike Evans, Chris Godwin & Co., for so long as Bowles retains his starters on the turf he known as his dwelling area for 4 seasons.
Game Notes
The Jets lead the regular-season collection with Tampa Bay, 7-1, whereas trailing the summer time collection, 4-3. … Saturday would be the eighth preseason sport between the groups, with not one of the earlier seven having been a Jets dwelling sport. Six had been Bucs dwelling video games and in 2003 the groups journeyed to Tokyo for the American Bowl sport received by the Bucs, 30-14.
The Jets’ final summer time win over Tampa got here in 1997, 15-9 in OT, and it was an enormous sport in a number of methods. WR Wayne Chrebet had 10 receptions for 140 yards and a 21-yard TD reception from Glenn Foley within the sport, with the ten catches probably the most by any Jets receiver in a preseason sport since no less than 1968. The win within the preseason finale additionally raised the Jets’ report to 4-0 in HC Bill Parcells’ first season on the helm.