[00:00:00] Speaker A: The rookie Allen in the backfield. Give it to him. Allen cuts it to the outside. He's gone. Touchdown, Jets.
Jets trying to hold on. Tennessee trying to rally Lemis a dart. It's bubbled and dropped. The New York jets get their first one of the season. Three, two, one.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Here we go.
Welcome to just jets, the podcast powered by RCG Digital Media. I'm your host, Ras Guevara, alongside my jubilant, happy, excited co host, Rich McLeod. He's the creator of the Judge jets newsletter, where this podcast gets its name from, along with our executive producer, Mark Levine. Behind the scenes, the jets get their first win of the season, beating the Titans 20 417.
Rich, let's just jump right into the instant reactions, my man. How are you feeling?
[00:00:50] Speaker A: I feel good. You know, it was not the cleanest game. Uh, it was a bit sloppy. The jets were clearly rusty, I think rusty or a little rusty on offense. The defense took a little while to get going. We'll get into the specifics in a bit in our segments, but overall, and obviously the tough news about Jermaine Johnson, we'll get into that as well. But really feel for that guy. Uh, it's really tough for him, but it's really tough to win games in the NFL, and you'd rather eke out an ugly win, then play really well and not win at all.
Definitely saw, like, a little bit of improvement as the game went on. Again, lots of things to clean up, but really excited that the jets got their first win of the year, and it's a hell of a lot better than being Owen. Two.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: I mean, look, last week we were kind of sort of criticized about be overreacting to a week. One loss to a very good Super bowl contending team. This week, I'm going to overreact a little bit as well.
I'm gonna light a victory cigar after we're done recording, because a win is a win, man. A win in the NFL, like you just said, is incredibly difficult. It is incredibly difficult to do, and it should be celebrated. As soon as the game was over, I felt the sense of emptiness about the win. Right. I felt like, ah, we should have done better. We should have. Wait. You know, we had way more talent than the Titans and that I personally felt, even in my. In our game preview, that we were way more talented than the Tennessee Titans, and that was clearly not the case. The Titans are much improved. They spent over $300 million to improve that roster, and it shows. They gave us everything we could handle and slightly better quarterback playing. We might be staring on the barrel of an zero two start of the season and a much more panicked jets kingdom.
But look, everything we criticized about the jets last week, they did in this game. We talked about the coaching adjustments, which they did. We talked about getting more creative on offense, which they did. And we'll talk a little bit about this in the body of the show. But, but, I mean, you can't blame them. They, they even broke out a wildcat formation. I mean, like, like, I mean, they did everything they were supposed to do. And injuries are football. And losing JJ and losing Mosley and coming into the game, losing Reed, like, I mean, it was.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: It's harder with an injury.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Carter. Carter went out. So it's. It's tough. It's tough. And, and a win needs to be celebrated, particularly because it marks the beginning of a new era for Aaron Rodgers. And with that, why don't we just jump right into our first quarter topic, Aaron Rodgers.
So tell me, rich, what were some of the things that you were looking for from Aaron Rodgers coming into this game?
[00:03:40] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, he showed some signs in week one against the Niners. It's kind of a tough game to evaluate the offense because they had the ball so little.
You know, they had that one really good drive, a few three and outs, and then just like, really never had the ball for a really long time until the third quarter. And the game was kind of out of hand at that point.
Showed some good things. So. Showed some rust. So wanted to see a progression of that. Right. Like a little bit less rust, a little bit more cohesiveness and consistency on the offense. And I'll say in that regard, I actually do not feel like we saw that much progress.
It was kind of that same start and stop nature that we saw a little bit against the Niners where, you know, the jets would either have, like, a drive where they went three and out, or they maybe get one first down, then lose a bunch of yards, or they would march down the field and score points.
There were some throws that I think Aaron missed and which. The thing I thought that was much more odd in this game was that it seemed like he was not just a bit off physically at times. Like, he also made some incredible throws. The one to breeze hall for the touchdown was amazing. He threw that back shoulder to Garrett on the right sideline on the game winning drive. That was really awesome. But a few throws that he missed, you know, I know we kind of got into it in our group threat, but that deep pass he threw to Alan Lazard, I know you don't want him throwing Alan Lazard, but he had a step. I think if he puts more air under that ball, that's a big gain. Maybe they, you know, win the game a little bit sooner than they actually did if he makes that throw. But I think the more curious thing was the fact that mentally it almost seemed like he was rusty as well. There are four different times that, whether it was Rogers fault or the entire offense or even the coaching staff, the play clock ran down to zero. They had to use three timeouts in those instances. The other time they took the delay of game, one of them was with 02:01 remaining in the half. So like 1 second before the two minute warning clock stoppage, they had to take a time out to avoid losing those yards.
And then twice in the second half, they had to use their timeouts much earlier than they wanted to because of that. That was a little bit odd.
This is something that we saw a lot of under Nathaniel Hackett last year when Zach Wilson was the quarterback of like, hey, why are they snapping the ball with 1 second left in? The defenders can kind of pin their ears back because they know that the ball is going to be snapped at this point.
Was not expecting to see that with Rogers under center. Kind of curious, you know, what might be the reason? Because of that. Obviously he's a veteran, so maybe there's a little bit more into just like it just being about him. But that was something that I thought was interesting. What did, what were your kind of takeaways?
[00:06:27] Speaker B: I mean, look, this is not a finished football team, right? They're an evolving, living thing that every week to week they should improve.
But it was curious. I did notice that Aaron was incredibly rusty, particularly on those touch passes, particularly on the screen passes coming out like he was a step slow and he was just a little awry with the passes. Every single time the fastball is still there. Right. The, the pat he attempted, I think only five passes over ten yards, and they were darts. Like the pass, that is the first thing that comes back. But the touch, usually after a long, prolonged layoff, is the first thing that you need to work on to kind of shake the rest off actively. But again, just like you, I was just looking for an improvement last week. The novelty of seeing him under center was kind of overtook all of our, you know, like, collective consciousness because we were so excited to get the season started. There was so much pomp and circumstance, there was so much hoopla at the beginning of the season, that we tended to overreact when it didn't go our way.
Shocker.
But this week, I was particularly curious to see how he fared at the line of scrimmage. I was, when I was breaking over the game type during the week, I saw that a lot of the miscommunication and a lot of the issues stemmed from the consistent motions that he would do at the line of scrimmage. It's almost as if he is so used to being in control and kind of guiding people everywhere, but this, this is a, you know, brand new offensive line. Players are still getting used to one another. In particular, I felt like the Titans were struggling with all the constant motions that he would always call for.
They were struggling picking up their blocking assignments. Some of those adjustments were he limited the moat, the motions. He limited the. The changing of that doesn't mean he stopped his reads and stopped his, you know, calling the game sort of speak under center, but there was a lot less motion and it felt more cohesive. The run blocking was a lot better in the second half, but it all started with, with Aaron Rodgers. I mean, I also thought that it was incredibly curious that the, I think offense was a lot more quick pass oriented. Right, right. There was like, I don't know if it's a, it's a trust with the offensive line thing. I don't know if it's. He's just afraid of getting hurt again. But, like, he was getting the ball out so fast.
Rodgers completed out of the, his 18 completions, 13 of them were under 2.5 seconds, and they were relatively successful in those 13 quick passes. He was, you know, 25 yards and both two touchdowns were out of it. Obviously, in the NFL, you don't want to hold the ball too long. And that's, you know, we saw that a lot with Zach Wilson last year, but, but it was, it was getting the ball out. Quick decisions going through his read progressions. Those things are slowly, like coming back and you see the potential. You see the potential of what we can be.
But again, it's certainly, there's a lot of rust that he needs to shake off and. But it's exciting, man. Look, at the end of the day, again, I said, I said it at the beginning. A win in the NFL is incredibly tough. And coming into the season, I said that Aaron Rodgers was good enough to give us three or four additional wins than we had last year.
You look at the other side. Tennessee Titans played really well today. They certainly outplayed us for large chunks of the game, and if they have slightly better quarterback play, they probably beat us. Well, thank God for May.
[00:09:58] Speaker A: How familiar.
And one thing I do want to say, too, is, you know, while it was rusty and sloppy at times, the other moments were so tantalizing. And I think the biggest thing on display, the thing that you can latch on to and be hopeful about the most, is the last drive of the game for the offense. Right. That's why you have Aaron Rodgers. That's the difference between him and Zach Wilson. Him and even, like a league average quarterback is. It's a tie game at 1717. Has been a little sloppy, been a little start and stop, but with the game on the line, he comes through. That was his best drive of the game by far.
Very consistent. Like I said, he hit some of those passes. That big conversion, 19 yards to Mike Williams. His first catch is a New York jet. Didn't see him a ton today, but still, huge play. That's why you get him. Saint did a similar throw to Garrett on the other side of the field later in the drive.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: And really was just like, kind of commanding the offense, and that all led to the. The go ahead touchdown. And, like, that's why he's here. It doesn't always have to be pretty. And how many times did you see Tom Brady grit out like an ugly game where you're like, how the hell did they win that game? They had no business of winning it, but doesn't matter as long as you win it. At the end of the day, it's definitely things to clean up. Clearly, from what we've heard from him already after the game, like, thinks he wants to clean up, but I'm really glad he's on our side. And that drive is, like, the example of why he makes a difference.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: I mean, and just a calming influence, right? Like, he'd never look flustered whether he made a mistake or not. There were a couple of instances where he under threw Garrett, and Garrett was visibly frustrated. There was a couple on a short, third and short. He hits him a yard short of the. Of the sticks. And Garrett, if he catches it cleanly, he keeps going for a larger chunk of yards. And the camera, the broadcast caught him, like, kind of like, you know, like being demonstrative towards. Towards Aaron. And I'm like, oh, look at this. Look at this. He's trying to, like, you know, like, hold them accountable. Like, yo, that was a bad throw. Throw me a better pass, and we will be more successful. But Aaron never showed frustration. Aaron never was his usual curmudgeon y self that we've come accustomed to, and it's been in the Green Bay years, like, he was, had no issues. Kind of like getting in people's faces and screaming at people. And even on the broadcast, they mentioned Alan Lazard.
They asked him, what is the biggest difference between Aaron Rogers then and Aaron Rogers now? He said, aaron Rogers is a lot nicer. Like, he's a lot nicer to like, and you kind of sort of want that, but, like, you also want him to, you know, expect more from others and kind of bring people along, call people out when they make mistakes, just the same way Gary Wilson is calling him out when a pass goes awry. And again, listen, you want that accountability. You want that. And it speaks to kind of like, their level of comfort with one another where Garrett can, you know, do the diva wide receiver thing of like, hey, give me the ball.
But again, listen, Aaron Rogers under center, I didn't feel like the game was overdevelop. I didn't feel like, oh, crap, we're done. You know what I'm saying? Like, and I. And I felt like, okay, we have a shot. I felt more secure about the defense than I did about him going to for that go ahead score, which is, which is shocker, considering last year was the other way around, right?
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Completely other way around, yeah. And like you said, there was definitely the Odjida in this game. You know, this kind of wound up being what I predicted, although I think I thought they were going to win by two scores. My original prediction in the newsletter, for those who haven't read, was that it was going to be closer than comfortable early on, and they would pull away when they blocked the punt. I thought that that was what was going to happen. And, you know, Rucker doesn't run the route correctly. They have to settle for the field goal. Sauce gets burned by Calvin Ridley, all of a sudden you have a new game. Also, that's when Johnson got hurt, so definitely, like, a lot of nerves. But you're right. When you have an Aaron Rodgers, and I think this is something jets fans, we have to get used to having, like, confidence that even though these bad things happen, your quarterback can actually bail you out. It's usually been the opposite. Like you said, it was, everything else was humming and it was like, can we overcome the bad quarterback? And then if any of the other areas faltered, then you had no chance whatsoever. And this really is like a complete opposite thing of, like, you know, the defense wasn't great, but they got the stops when they needed to at the very, very end. They did have, like, better moments, although you know, giving up that touchdown in the second half was tough to Ridley was a bit of a crazy pass, I'll say, and a catch, but still, like, having that lapse was pretty tough. But yeah, it's, it's just interesting how those things can change. And I. We're not used to being like, okay, offense, like, you know, you could do that. Like, usually it was like begging. Could we get in field goal range? Could we just have like one drive? And before we kind of transition to the offense as a whole in our next segment, I do want to point out two weeks in a row and last week a little bit different because some of it was in garbage time, but the jets scored three offensive touchdowns two weeks in a row. They did that twice all of last season. So they have already matched last season's output. I think that alone shows you the difference of, like, even though the jets offense has not played, like, super well yet, they're clearly rusty getting their chemistry together. Rogers shaking off, missing a year and, you know, the team basically didn't play together in the preseason, all of that. They are better than whatever the hell we watched last year. And you have to assume that that's only going to get better. So that's, that's pretty exciting.
[00:16:06] Speaker B: I mean, our floor is certainly higher. Our floor, our expectations are certainly higher. Everything. And again, listen, Rogers is the catalyst, right? Rogers is certainly the catalyst, but the coaching staff made some critical adjustments, too, on the offensive side of the ball that were critical for this win and will be critical for the rest of the season. And with that, why don't we just jump right into our second quarter topic?
Rich, I think we keep seeing these little flashes, these little flashes of the potential for this offense. Like you said, we're still shaking off the rust.
We're still not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination, but it's like the glimmer of, like, hope. The end light on the end of the tunnel is definitely creeping in. What were some of, like, the things that kind of made you more excited about from the offensive standpoint or from the coaching adjustment side of the ball?
[00:17:03] Speaker A: I think the biggest point of excitement and I, you know, early on in the game, it felt kind of like same old shit, for lack of a better word. And as the game went on, it felt like, okay, they're starting to change things up a little bit. The biggest thing for me today, especially on the offensive side of the ball, was not only the inclusion of Braylon Allen, the offense he barely got in in the first week, that was a big point of criticism. My jets fans, we yelled on the podcast about it quite a bit. I think I cussed out Robert Sala after that quote that he said after the game. Uh, they clearly injected him into the game plan. But even beyond that, seeing a couple of those two running back sets I thought was really key.
You know, while Mike Williams is still getting up to speed and Corley's getting into things, uh, you know, just transitioning into his career, you know, the jets don't have like a ton of weapons at the moment, at least. Like, they're not humming the way that they're going to be later in the season. You hope so. Having both of those playmakers as from running back on the field at the same time, I think is a huge, huge key.
And I think the, the best offensive play call the entire game, while I do appreciate the Wildcat, was the two running back set that they got in their first touchdown, where Rogers fakes a screen to the right to breeze hall, turns back around, flips it ahead like little shuffle pass to Allen, catches runs for the first touchdown of his career. First touchdown. The game, that to me was like, oh, I haven't seen that from this offense in two years. You know, that was kind of like, felt like a little Mike Lafleur back from a couple of years ago that we might see from time to time, especially when Mike White was the quarterback, but not something we really seen from Hackett. So that was exciting. Would love to see more of that. And getting both of those guys into the game, I mean, they were both the best. The two best offensive players of the game, other than the quarterback, were Allen and Breeze hall, certainly.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: And again, listen, it speaks to what we were talking about after the week one loss. It's the predictability of the offense, right? When you line up in a particular set and you give a certain look to an offense, to a defense, they can pretty much figure out if you keep running the same patterns over and over again, they're going to figure out what you're trying to do. Certainly if you have, you know, breeze hall in the backfield, you know, the options are limited. But when you bring in a two running back set, it's not very predictable. There's different variations that you can run out of. And I'm very, very excited to see what both of them in the backfield.
Like you said, braylon Allen, we were clamoring for him because we did see him. And one of the big benefits of holding out all of the starters during the preseason was we, us getting to see Braylen Allen, extended carries the majority of the preseason, we were like, watching this kid, and we're like, oh, my God, this kid is a bruising running back. He is the NFL's youngest player. He is 20 years old. What the hell are you doing at 20 years old, rich.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: A summer camp counselor.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: 20 year old is, you know, scoring two touchdowns and helping the New York jets to a victory is exciting, man. Is exciting. And, and all the criticism that we levied on the coaching staff last week, they kind of remedied this week. They were more creative as a whole. They were creative. The wildcat, which we talked about, the two running back sets, they were so creative with the way Garrett Wilson, they were moving him around, and we did catch a glimpse of what this receiving core is going to look like once it benefits from a semi successful running game. Like, because if you have a semi successful running game, you can't. You can't. The linebackers can't play up. You know, they can't. They can't just run downhill and kind of just. They have to respect the passing game as well. So we saw a little bit of the potential between Mike Williams and Garrett Wilson, because once Mike was in the game, they had him at the exposition, and they were moving Garrett Wilson around. They put him in the slot, they had him in motion. Like, things that we were talking about last week, they started doing. It's almost like they heard our podcast, and they were like, hey, roz and rich, you know, might be on to something. Let's, uh, let's try a little bit of that stuff that they're doing. And. And once they simplified, um, I felt like once they simplified the blocking assignments, again, adjustments last week, coming out of the second half, um, they looked like a completely dead team. They looked like no energy. They were just kind of, you know, running through the motions. This week, come out of the second half, both sides of the ball were, were fired up, were jacked up, and they were playing really well and a lot better. I mean, that's. That's coaching adjustments, right? I mean, it's. It's. It's exciting. It's exciting to, again, not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination, but it's exciting to. To think about what this offense could be when it's. When it's humming. I mean, look, we're not going to sugarcoat it. The Titans. The Titans really helped us out this week, right? Like, 17 points of Titans mistakes. But, you know, the Eccles interception, the roughing the passer that Jeffrey Simmons had on third down, the special teams performances. Irv Charles with the black pun.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: One of the worst fumbles you'll ever see from a quarterback ever. I mean, that levy was a huge swing in the. I know the jets went three and out, but that was three points that the Titans didn't score that were gift wrapped to them. One of the worst decisions I've ever seen, basically, was the fumble version of the pick six that he threw against the Bears in week one.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: I mean, he's.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: And he's. You could. The craziest thing was you could see his coach Callahan, as he's coming off the field. You can see him. What the fuck were you thinking? You could see him yelling at him and read his lips on the telecast. It was pretty crazy.
Yeah, definitely a lot to work on still. Like, we've. We've made a lot of progress. I think the second half, isolated, was really encouraging. Other than, like, you just had the one drive from the defense and, like, I'm not gonna kill them for one bad drive in the second half. I think a lot of that anger was connected to how they played in week one. And in the first half, like, the defense did not play well in the first half despite only giving up ten points and forcing two turnovers.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: The biggest, I think, coaching decision that I yelled about in the first half, other than all the penalties they had early, they did clean that up. As the game went along as well. It really felt like they came into the game unprepared, but they came out of halftime, like, completely different. So let's hope that that continues. But the biggest moment of the game that I screamed at about a decision that they made, the second and 20, Brian Schottenheimer's draw call where they got like, no yards.
I lost my mind for a hot second about that. I was like. I was like, no, Tim Boyle's not the quarterback anymore. Zach Wilson's court, like, don't run a give up call on second and 20 with Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback, like, things wind up being fine, but, oh, my God, I really lose it for a second.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: I'm going to slightly disagree with you there. I'm going to slightly disagree with you there because the same thing you just said, you have Aaron Rodgers, right? And you are coming from seeing awful quarterback play from the other side. You know that you're going to get more shots at this. You're going to get more shots of more bites at the apple. You're going to get more opportunities. Why?
Granted, maybe if it's third and 20. That play call makes a little bit more sense. But again, like, you, you, there's a lot of game. There's a lot of game left. There's a lot of game left to be played, and you just don't want to make a critical mistake there. Maybe they were sensing some of those Aaron Rogers passes going awry and they were like, all right, you know what? Let's just, let's just rein. Because in that same series, he had, you know, that dump off that he overthrew to breeze. So, like, I don't know what they saw. I don't know what the decision was there. It could have been audible by Aaron Rogers at the line of scrimmage based on something he saw. So I'm not going to kill them, particularly for that play. Like, I am, I am, I am off.
[00:25:32] Speaker A: I don't think second and 20 with Aaron Rodgers is like a throw in the towel moment because he also threw the ball in the next. Like, if you're going to be conservative, at least like, throw a screen or a slant or something, like, you know, you don't have to throw down the field. But, like, let's at least try again. I don't want to focus too heavily on that. Like, we're being more positive after the win.
[00:25:54] Speaker B: I'm 100%.
[00:25:56] Speaker A: But if there was one thing to nitpick on, just to, like, properly address everything that happened in this game, it both halves. That was definitely one of the ones where I was just like, what are we doing?
[00:26:06] Speaker B: Listen, listen. I have one as well, and I know I might be in the minority, but that played to Lazard, and I have issues with that play. I, we talked about this in the group chat and we talked about in the past, like, that play is, to me, it bothered me for two reasons. Number one, he's Alan Lazard, all right? Number two, he called for the ball.
He raised his hand. Yes, you have a step, but you are known to have issues catching the ball. You are known, like, you are relying on your relationship with Aaron Rodgers. You've played with him very, very long time. So if you raise your hand, he's going to see that and he's like, oh, gotta, gotta give my boy a shot. Right? Like, you have to know the safety was coming over the top. Even if he catches the ball, like, the chance of an impact is there for you. It was a difficult, high degree of difficulty. If it's a better throw, yes, completely agree.
And once, once the season goes along, those balls are not going to go to Lazard. You're going to substitute Williams or Gary Wilson for those plays. So I am okay with it. I am more angry at Lazard for raising his hand. And again, I'm in the minority. I'm in the minority. You know, you have.
[00:27:21] Speaker A: I don't want us to spit our wheels on this one, but I will just say before we move on, look, if he drops it, he drops it. That's a whole nother conversation. We're never going to know because Rogers should have put more air under the ball. But to me it was like, and our producer Mark mentioned this in the game as this was happening, it was a very similar, like, up the seam throw with two guys that he was getting separation from that Rogers threw on the off side play the week prior.
[00:27:52] Speaker B: The difference is, sure, it's a free.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Sure it's a free play, but like, you know, Rogers made that throw. I think a very similar thing happens. Maybe he doesn't get in the end zone this time. Yeah, but, yeah, I, look, I don't want him throwing a lazard, and he threw to Lazard a lot less today. Lazard only had two catches, so we started moving away from it, from him. And I think that'll continue as, like you said, as Mike Williams gets involved more often.
I had no problem with the decision because he was open. It was more for me, the execution.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. And again, that'll come. That'll come. The touch will come back, the personnel will be better. Lazard will be cut.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: It's not getting cut.
[00:28:40] Speaker B: Once we trade for Devontae Adams, we might have to make room on the roster for him. So, yeah, look, I'm excited, and look, there's certainly no harm in taking a shot there. We were fairly conservative, and yes, do I, the conservative nature in me wants a longer drive. You had a check down for a first down, but I screw it, you give it a shot, right? There's no harm in taking a stab downfield. And if it was anybody else, I wouldn't have any issues.
But my hatred for Lazard is clouding my judgment a little bit.
But anyway, look, as much, as much promise as the offense showed and as much kind of like the good vibes are here after a victory, you know, the injury concerns were what dominated discussion for the defense. Why don't we discuss the state, the dreaded state of our defensive line as we head into our third quarter?
There's no way around it.
We are going to need help. We're going to need reinforcements.
Will McDonald had a whale of a game, but losing JJ, the way we did. And shortly after the game, Robert Salah all but confirmed that it's an Achilles injury. You know, it's a critical blow to the jets defensive front that's already thin with this whole Hasan Reddick situation.
First off, let's just, you know, address the elephant in the room. How do you think the injury and the performance today impacts the Hassan Reddick situation?
[00:30:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, we teased it in our instant reactions. It's, it's a brutal injury. It's a brutal injury for the jets. It's a brutal injury for Jermaine. It's just like a person in his third season is really starting to become like a star pass rusher.
You know, the jets are going to have to make a decision on its fifth year option next spring. I, I still assume that they'll pick it up, but, like, you know, that achilles are no joke. That can really affect your. A lot of guys come back from him. Some of them don't come back the same.
So, yeah, my heart's out to him. I'm really, really bummed for him and obviously bummed for us as fans and for the team there. You know, even with Reddick, I think, like, you kind of needed Jermaine Johnson at that point. It would have been a little bit more of a surplus. But still now, you know, I mean, we said this after last week, we thought the performance by the defensive line was going to force them to do something that really was no traction, at least as far as we're aware publicly on that front.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: Again, it's hard to imagine that they're not going to continue to have discussions, especially now. You know, they, they play again on Thursday. Nothing's going to happen by then.
Even if it, they extended him today, I don't think he would be able to play that fast. That wouldn't really be fair to expect.
But they're going to have to figure something out. And, and part of this is on the jets reluctance. I think part of this is Reddick and his camp have dug their heels in more than almost anybody we've seen in modern football, other than maybe Le'Veon Bell.
And while Levian Bell did get paid, so I guess you could say he won, it also potentially cost him his career sitting out a whole year. And, and I believe he was even younger than, than Reddick is now.
So, you know, it's a, it's a really tough spot. I would have to think again, like, Reddick is getting more and more leverage as the weeks go on. Now that, you know, everything that's happened has, has taken place.
And are the jets going to kind of, like, bow the knee here? Are they going to kind of, like, give it up because they need him to? I, again, we talked about this a little bit last week.
While I blame Reddick for, like, kind of, like, digging in a little bit too hard, I think at this point. What is the point in the jets for being stubborn like Joe Douglas? You will be fired if your team does not make the playoffs this year. Hassan Reddick will help you make the playoffs and potentially further than that, especially now.
You really need him.
And, you know, I think there's still, like, a happy medium here where Reddit can get what he wants. But the jets don't have to, like, screw up their cap situation about, like, the extensions they're able to give to their young guys. You know, you have sauce and Garrett and Bryce and Jermaine, all these guys that you're going to want to extend.
You know, I think there's something you could probably figure out. It's going to be difficult, for sure. I think that's probably the biggest thing is not wanting to screw up the future financial situation.
But, like, you need this guy and you traded for him and now you're down a man.
[00:33:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:32] Speaker A: And it's a tough spot. And I don't know how, I don't know what the other answer is. You know, like, it kind of seems like you have to do it.
[00:33:41] Speaker B: I mean, look, it's the, the toughest part was that JJ was having a great game. Right. He's coming, coming off a Pro bowl year last year, like, he was having a really, really, really, really great game. Like, we were finally getting a sense of, yes, the finishing wasn't there. Yes, the quarterback was getting away from us and the missed tackles kind of popped their head up a little bit, but the pressure was getting there. Like, we were getting there. And McDonnell and Jermaine were doing their job, effectively pressuring, getting to the quarterback. I mean, look, the jets pass for us generated 60% pressures on all Dropbox, the highest by a defense since, you know, last year, week 13. So it's, we were doing our job, and that's the thing that bothers us the most. Like, had this game ended without the Germain's injury, we probably would have been like, the leverage would have in the negotiations probably shifts back a little bit to the jets because you coming, you're coming off a win and you're coming off of a semi decent performance by, by the, by the pass rush. I mean, I, it's it's, it sucks, it sucks, it sucks. Lose such a huge part. A player, like you said, who was blossoming and who, who last week had a terrible game, but he was going up against, you know, one of the best left tackles in the game. So you kind of expect that a little bit. And this week, you know, going up a, no offense to the Titans, a lesser offensive line, like he was having much more success. You know, they, he was one of four players with, you know, four or more or at least one pressure. So we had the, they had eleven players generate at least one pressure, including four more with Jermaine Johnson and Will McDonald.
And again, it sucks for him, it sucks for the team. And you notice, and I think you called it out immediately after it happened. Like, you were like, oh, my God, they're all coming to him. And the reaction said more about his injury than anything that any broadcaster could have said because Solomon Thomas coming and kissing him, like on the helmet, it was brutal stuff, man. Sad, sad stuff that you do not want to see. But, um, but, you know, it's, it allowed for other players to kind of step up. And Will MacDonald was, I was incredibly critical of him last week because he, in brain watching the film, he just looked so erratic and everywhere. And clearly he worked on, on his point of attack. Clearly he worked on his work in his technique because he was having a, he had a hell of a game. He ended the game, I think, three sacks. Um, tell me a little bit of what you expect from him in, in, you know, now that JJ's down and the, the Reddit holdout continues.
[00:36:16] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, I think coming into this year, the Will McDonald development, I think was kind of like almost like a plus, similar to what the Jermaine Johnson development was last season of like, okay, we have a really good pass rush. Jermaine Johnson's this young guy in a second season. He's coming up now. Anything you get out of that is like extra. I think going into this year, thinking you had Jermaine and Reddick on each side, I think you're like, whatever we get out of Will McDonald, as long as he starts slowly progressing. Yeah, I think it's just kind of like an added bonus. But now the development of Will MacDonald has become like center stage.
It's a big, big key now. It's, you know, without Redick, it's going to be hard because as he, you know, if he continues to have performances like he did today, teams are going to start doubling him and then what happens, you know, if you bring in Reddick back, and then you have Quinn and Redick and a developing will McDonald. That's a whole different story. You can't double everybody.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: But until that happens, you know, it's. It's an interesting thing, but, yeah, McDonald, I thought today not only was the three sacks really awesome, but I thought something that was really interesting. And again, they can't really do this without jermaine now and without Reddick. Uh, but he showed some versatility as well. Like, Mark had mentioned it in our group chat. They were using McDonald as a QB spy a few times, uh, with levis, like, having happy feet, like, pretty good runner. Like, I say, his running was better than his passing, although he passed pretty well today.
And McDonald's first sack was really just like, he stayed home. And then the second coverage. Yeah, more like a coverage sack. Second two sacks, you know, that was a little bit more like straight up, like, defensive end type stuff.
[00:38:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:08] Speaker A: So that was pretty exciting. But, yeah, it's going to be really interesting. You know, I'm curious what it's going to look like on a short week with, with the Patriots. This is not the Belichick Patriots. So, you know, who knows if, like, they can still do that thing where they, like, eliminate your biggest edge? Like, jury's still out there, but I'm curious to see if he, if he grows on this. You know, he's had two high variance games. Right? Like, you came into this week saying, like, he was one of their worst players on defense in week one. He was probably their best player on defense today, at least from, like, the flash standpoint. I'm sure, like, pff, stuff will come out and say, like, Quinn Williams and Quincy Williams are probably two of their best players. Cause they always are. But McDonald made a huge impact, and, and you definitely didn't see that coming.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: And look, it's impossible not to. Not to think of what might have been right. You. You see what's going on with the host Reddick situation and, you know, being critical of Douglas, you have to look at. All right, well, what are their alternatives? Bryce Huff did not have a great game. He. I know the Eagles are, you know, playing tomorrow, but last week he had one. One tackle, and it was one tackle last week. So it's not like he is getting off to a fast start with Philadelphia, and it makes you think, like, all right, well, you know, if we can kind of take the blueprint that we. The development blueprint that we had with Huff with some of these other younger guys, certainly the Jermaine Johnson injury kind of kills you, but it is incredibly, incredibly, it's very, very good to see, you know, will McDonald have a game and a bounce back game, too. It's just, it says a lot about a player when you have a bad game and you come back and you, you know, you, you essentially rebound and show off what you, you are capable of because again, with this defensive line is, is banged up. Injuries are starting to pile up all across the league. CJ Mosley got hurt. Again, we talked about all the injuries that the jets sustain in this.
Injuries are going to happen and def is going to be tested. And again, whether we get Reddit and Reddick might not even be enough. We bring him in house, that might still not be enough.
So it's, it's, it's tough, man. It's tough.
It's tough to, to kind of, kind of plan for that. But, you know, it's, particularly in a short week, that's when you're worried about the injuries. Right. The jets must have pissed somebody off because on Thursday they'll play their third game in eleven days, man. Like, it's insane.
[00:40:44] Speaker A: That's crazy.
[00:40:45] Speaker B: And with that, why don't we head to the fourth quarter and preview their matchup against the lovely New England Patriots?
Short week injuries piling up.
I haven't really checked, been able to check out the game the way I normally would. I know that the Patriots lost, but based on like, you know, like a superficial kind of view of it, they look competent. You know, they're not getting blown out. It's a first year head coach. They look competent. What are, what are your expectations for Thursday Night football game?
[00:41:24] Speaker A: I think it's probably going to be closer than we want.
Like you said, the Patriots have looked competent, not great. You know, they've, they scored 20 points today. They scored 16 points in week one. Like, they're not lighting it up. They also played both of their first two games at home.
They've always historically played better at home than away. And again, there's no Belichick involved here. One thing that was interesting, I thought, was, you know, how good their defense was before they got injured last year and then how good their defense was in week one. You know, didn't play terrible today, but they're kind of, you know, been known as like this team that takes the ball away all the time. The Joe Bonango's of the world, like, are very jealous of the Patriot defenses. Patriots didn't force any turnovers today against Gino Smith in their own building. I know Gino's, like, been a lot better the last few years. Was a Pro Bowler two years ago, so not trying to say like, oh, like some scrub went in there, but, you know, Gino is pretty comfortable. He threw for well over 300 yards. DK Metcalf had a big game today, well over 100 yards and touchdown and, yeah, Seahawks, like you said, outlast the Patriots, wound up winning on a game winning field goal in overtime.
First of all, love that the Patriots had to play most of an overtime going into their short week, going under their first road game. But, yeah, I think. I think it'll probably be a little bit tougher than we expect. You know, if the, if the jets win comfortably, I'll be thrilled. I think we all still kind of have the Patriot PTSD still. It's going to take some time to wear off. There's a lot of, like, triggering feelings for jet fans as a whole because we're just not used to a lot of this stuff and we still kind of expect things to go wrong in any moment, especially against that team and that uniform, despite, it's like, now it's a different coach that different quarterbacks. It's, everything's different.
Slightly different logo, but, yeah, I think we're just gonna have to see it to believe it. Last year, at the end of the year was kind of like a nice start of, you know, kicking Belichick out the door, but we'll see. You know, they've, they've played a lot better than people think, but it's just been two weeks in their own building.
We'll see if that continues. Brissette's competent, but their defense or their offensive line is not particularly good.
Can a depleted jets defensive line win that matchup? I think that'll be a big key on Thursday.
[00:43:56] Speaker B: I'm excited. I'll tell you what I'm excited about. It's, it's, you know, it's Aaron Rodgers Mulligan. It's, you know, like, when he went down, it was at home and, and, and, like, the excitement and the, like, reach this, this level that we hadn't seen in forever. Him coming out with the flag was supposed to be like the start of a new chapter, you know, a new chapter and a positive chapter for the jets. And on Thursday, we get to see it again. We get to see it again at night. MetLife is going to be pumping, you know, certainly after this win, the vibes are a lot more positive for the fan base. So I'm super excited for Aaron to get his moment again. Basically getting a do over with us and to get started home and against a hated rival. Like you said, it's the laundry will always be the laundry and the PTSD will always be there.
And for some reason they always play well against us, whether they're good, whether they're bad, they always manage to play a good game against us. And the jets are somehow seven point favorite.
That stuff kind of, I'm like, I bet that'll go.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: I wonder if that'll get close over the next couple days.
[00:45:01] Speaker B: It has to. It's like prognosticators. I don't know what you guys are thinking.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: Like, like, it makes me a little nervous. It's like, it's like a little. It was the same thing if, like, if for those familiar with, like, the betting lines, the Lions went in today with a seven and a half point favorites.
[00:45:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:19] Speaker A: And I was just like, I don't really know about that. And those were two good teams like this. A little bit different. I think, like, nobody thinks of patriots are good still, but like, yeah, you get a little nervous.
We're not good with expectations. I know that has been established.
[00:45:36] Speaker B: Yeah. And we still don't know how to feel about it. Like, we still, like, weary about it, you know?
[00:45:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And, you know, from, again, talent perspective. Yeah. Jets are a lot better. Especially, like the offense, the offensive side of the ball. It's not even close. I think defensively they're actually probably pretty close, although I love that they don't have Judah anymore as a defensive end. But, yeah, I think, you know, jets should definitely win. It would be a major disappointment if they didn't, like you said, we get another shot at the Aaron Rodgers home opener.
I think jet fans are kind of owed that, especially the ones who, like, go to the game so often, going to, who were there last year, who are going to be there again this year. You know, let's, you know, Roger's not, obviously not going to run out there with the flag, but like, let's get.
[00:46:26] Speaker B: Hey, you never know. He might want to do over. You never know.
[00:46:29] Speaker A: I think he said in an interview somewhere, like, that's not going to happen again. It'll probably be much more subdued.
[00:46:37] Speaker B: A smaller flag. He's going to come out with a smaller flag, a little baby flag.
[00:46:46] Speaker A: But, yeah, I think, you know, for Rogers, this is a big deal. For the fan base, this is a huge deal. I personally don't think it's like, super fair that their home opener comes in week three and on a Thursday night like that kind of sucks for the people going, but I think it's going to be raucous. And, you know, like you said, the biggest key is if the jets go into that game, zero two, you get that, like, nervous feeling in the air. I don't think you're going to have that now. I think people are feeling pretty good and, yeah, I think, you know, you should go into this game expecting the jets to win, but, like, it might be a little bit harder fought than the talent might indicate. And if, you know, if the jets do better than that, then, then awesome.
[00:47:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Look, look, man, like, today was a tough game. Today was a tough game against a subpar opponent and, but we got the job done and I am expecting us to get the job done again on Thursday. I am incredibly excited. I, like, I'm way more excited than I should be for a Thursday night game, home opener. Like, I'm like, I'm very, very much looking forward to it. I'm very, very much looking for the crowd to get a good show, you know, like the home crowd to get a good show to get a good look at, you know, maybe a little bit more. Mike Williams.
[00:47:57] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:47:57] Speaker B: Just the overall team just kind of gelling a little bit better. And again, short week is tough, but, but still, I'm excited. I'm looking forward to it. Patriots, of course, are our division rivals and then, you know, our division is up for grabs. Nothing has changed since our pre game preseason prognostication. Nothing has changed. The division is up for grabs and certainly last week's developments regarding the Dolphins will, will impact their season a lot.
[00:48:25] Speaker A: That has changed quite a lot.
[00:48:27] Speaker B: Oh, man, that's scary. Man, it's scary. As a father of a kid who plays football, you feel for him. You feel for him and you feel for the entire Dolphins organization who has been an incredibly tumultuous two weeks for them with the Tyreek Hill thing, week one and then with the Tua injury.
It's just sad, scary. Like, one thing that really, really upset me was a lot of these commentators and broadcasters, particularly JJ Watt, are kind of like talking down to players who wear the Guardian cap. Like, look, I know, I know the, the research behind the Guardian cap is not, you know, 100%. There's a couple of studies that have indicated that the, it reduces concussions by 50%, but it's still reliant on the players themselves, self reporting concussions. So it's not, you know, like a completely, you know, impartial study. However, the Guardian caps have become ubiquitous at every single level. You see them at seven on seven tournaments. Kids wear them without the helmets. You see them at Pop Warner Peewee football, and now seeing them in the NFL, I thought it would have a great impact to everybody else to kind of adopt it. And when you have players like JJ Watt, broadcasters, former players like JJ Watt, kind of like poo pooing, the Guardian kept like, oh, I wouldn't wear that. But, yeah, whoever wants to wear it can wear it. Like, it kind of, like, permeates this thing, that it makes you less, less of a man or not as tough if you. Because you're not wearing that. But the two, a thing is a perfect example. Why wouldn't you, even if it's a 2% improvement or a 2% chance, less of a chance to get a concussion, why wouldn't you do that? Why wouldn't you, you know, wear something that could potentially, you know, if, if a car had two seatbelts, I mean, I'm just gonna wear one, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's silly. It's silly to consider that the aesthetics to be, to be the reason why a lot of these players wouldn't, wouldn't kind of wear the guardian cap. But again, best wishes to Tua, you know, of course. And we see what that means for Miami going forward.
It's hard to transition out of that to, like, kind of the division race, but it does impact a division race. It does impact the, the ceiling for the Miami Dolphins. It impacts, you know, us and how tight of a battle it's going to be.
The bills improved to 20, so they're, they're the, you know, leading the pack early on, but, but, you know, going into week three, our matchup against the Patriots becomes, becomes incredibly important.
So the, the bills lead the AFC east with a, you know, two and a record. Perfect two and a record, I might add. But they still don't feel, they don't feel as bills, teams of the past. Right. Like, I'm not alone in that sentiment. They don't feel as, I don't want to say dominant, because they, they still look good with Josh Allen under center. Like, I don't know, they just, they're, I feel like their ceiling has kind of come down a little bit with some of the players that they have. What are your thoughts on the bills?
[00:51:38] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, I didn't expect them to be two and, oh, but, you know, you look at the games they play and look, they thoroughly dominated the Dolphins before Tua got hurt, so I don't want to be like, oh, you know, they two got hurt and then they beat it like they were up quite large when Tua got hit by Demar Hamline, of all people.
[00:51:58] Speaker B: Right.
[00:52:00] Speaker A: So they, they definitely dominated that game.
They didn't play great against the Arizona Cardinals. And, you know, we'll, we'll see how good or bad the Cardinals actually are. They're up pretty big on the Rams as we're currently recording this on Sunday night.
[00:52:15] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:52:15] Speaker A: So maybe, maybe the Cardinals are better than we think. But going into the year, you know, winning like a slugfest at home in your opener against the Cardinals, you'd be like, oh, like, that seemed like a little closer than you thought it might be again, you know, no style points in the NFL. They did score a bunch of points, so we'll see. But, yeah, I think when you just look at their receiving situation, you know, Diggs is gone, Gabe Davis is gone.
You know, I know they drafted that kid in the first round this year.
[00:52:46] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:52:46] Speaker A: So we'll see how, how he develops.
But they're really kind of like a running and tight end type team. Dalton Kincaid is really started to become the lead tight end there with Dawson Knox kind of fading into that secondary role.
And Josh Allen's really, really good. So Bills are not, clearly not going to be bad. I don't think any of us thought they were going to be bad, but I think we expected them to take a step back. I still think that that's in play. Despite the two and o start. I'm waiting for them to have maybe a bit of a bigger challenge, uh, than they've gotten so far.
Uh, but, you know, they, they've, they look good right now, and their running game has been really good with James Cook, and I think that was something that they were actually missing in their, like, flashier season. So maybe the ground and pound thing actually works out better for them. We'll see. Uh, they also are missing some playmakers on defense. They let guys like Jordan poyer go. Matt Milano is not around.
[00:53:45] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:53:45] Speaker A: Um, so what kind of, you know, it's kind of like a wait and see thing, but, you know, they're, they're two and, oh, their offense has scored a lot of points in two games. So, so far, so good for them.
[00:53:56] Speaker B: Yeah. And they're certainly going to be favorite in their mass next matchup against, uh, they're going to be hosting the Jacksonville Jaguars on next Monday. So, um, again, uh, you know, it's, it's, you know, tough. That's it. The season's underway, the division oases are underway. So it's going to be a fun and exciting couple of weeks coming up for, for, um, football fans of the, certainly us for the New York jets. Uh, rich, thank you again, man. Thank you for, uh, for joining me and having this amazing discussion. Uh, certainly, it's much better than last week. A win. A win impacts our moods drastically. For some reason, we should not, we should not allow a professional football team to dictate how we feel.
[00:54:35] Speaker A: What, why? And yet, and yet, here we are.
[00:54:38] Speaker B: And yet, here we are. Well, rich, thank you very much. I want everybody to make sure that they check out the judge Jess newsletter. She's going to be coming out tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for that and exciting, exciting victory. I'm going to go smoke my cigar as soon as we stop recording.
[00:54:55] Speaker A: One baby, one in one.
[00:54:56] Speaker B: We'll see you guys next week.
[00:55:01] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to just jets the podcast. Be sure to write, rate and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. And check out the Justjets
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