Notes From Jets Minicamp
The Jets offseason has belonged to Aaron Glenn, the rookie head coach who set out to establish a no-nonsense approach to the work required to prepare his club for the rigors of the 2025 NFL season. Whatever impressions Jets fans had upon his hiring, he deserves a chance.
And given the healthy participation, even during the prior voluntary sessions, and the lack of distracting noises during the minicamps as compared to previous seasons, Glenn’s mission is at least on schedule.
By year end, it could prove meaningless. We all know the cliché: Jets fans are tired of hearing about the labor pains; it only wants to see the baby. Few expect Gang Green to end a 14-year playoff drought this season.
To reiterate from my last Jets post, not much can be gleaned from these workouts—even Glenn chimed in about the irrationality of rushing to judgments from reps in underwear. Thursday’s final mandatory session concluded with offensive linemen doing receiving drills for kicks and giggles. Glenn said it’s safe to say that none of them will engage in the battle for the WR2 spot.
However, there were a few tidbits from the camp reports I found interesting, which will have to hold me until the team next reconvenes as a whole whenever training camp officially opens in about a month:
1) There will be an emphasis on tackling in training camp
The league trend is to cut back on live practice reps out of fear of injury. Glenn, though, gave folks a heads-up that the days of Robert Saleh’s country club are over. “(Football) is a tackling sport," Glenn said. "In this game, you have to block, you have to tackle, and the only way you get good at that craft is to do it. I'm a firm believer in it. The players understand. They know that and they want to get better. If we want to be one of the better tackling teams and want to be one of the better blocking teams in this league, at some point, you have to do it. Now, I'm not saying you got to sit here and do it every day and you also have to have a quick whistle, but there are times when you just have to practice it and you have to do it.”
The Jets were the NFL’s third-worst tackling team last season, according to the metrics generated by NFL Next Gen Stats. They were the only squad to miss 20 tackles in a game twice. New York was also below league average in 2023, when their defense was otherwise more highly regarded.
All the scheming in the world is fruitless if a player fails to finish the execution by putting the ball carrier on the ground. I always had a sense that Saleh’s Jets didn’t emphasize tackling enough and considered it a huge part of their general unpreparedness for games. We’ll have to see how often Glenn actually swings this hammer come training camp, but it was still a positive development.
2) There will be designed QB runs
Glenn and his Offensive Coordinator Tanner Engstrand had the pleasure of witnessing one of the league’s highest octane offenses in Detroit led by quarterback Jared Goff, a prototypical pocket passer. Justin Fields ain’t Goff.
Fans hear almost every year that the Jets want to be “a running team.” Except that a plan to hand the ball off to a back to smash into a loaded box is doomed to fail.
The Ravens and Eagles were far and away the NFL’s top teams in rushing last season, with Washington a good 14% behind Philly in third. What do all three teams have in common? They were the only clubs boasting a quarterback with over 140 rushing attempts.
Through the first six weeks of the 2024 season, Fields was right behind Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, and Jayden Daniels with 55 rush attempts for Pittsburgh, a well-coached team. That the Steelers opted to bench Fields in favor of Russell Willson thereafter is beside the point. They went 4-2 with Fields because they highlighted his strengths in game plans rather than try to pigeonhole him into a West Coast-type of QB.
So, after reviewing the play logs from the 11-on-11 reps, it was again nice to see that Engstrand incorporated a selection of designed runs for Fields. For those that do not follow Jets history, this would be pretty much unprecedented for their starting QB. Guys like Zach Wilson, Sam Darnold, and Mark Sanchez could take off on scrambles every so often, but the team rarely utilized their legs as a regular part of the script.
With blocking being equal when the games count, the threat of a Fields keeper on any play will benefit the backs and finally allow the Jets to establish an NFL running game.
3) WR2 remains wide open
I joked above about the Jets’ thin wide receiver depth chart, but it’s a serious concern. As they did throughout minicamp, New York will make a concerted effort to get the ball to WR1 Garrett Wilson. But what’s going to happen when a team like New England takes him out?
The Jets coaching staff appears willing to settle on having former Lion Josh Reynolds operate opposite Wilson, mainly for his blocking. Allen Lazard, a big-bodied holdover from the debacle that was the Aaron Rodgers Era, will apparently also see some time.
That’s too much of a glaring discrepancy in production. Reynolds, 30, hasn’t caught more than 40 balls since 2020. He was limited to five games for Denver last season due to a broken finger and then a gunshot wound while on IR. The Broncos released him in December and then he finished out the year in Jacksonville with little fanfare (1 reception in four games). Many Jets fans are perplexed as to why Lazard is still here, even after he took a pretty steep pay cut.
New York’s other internal options aren’t tenable either. Xavier Gipson is not starter material, especially on the outside, while free agent acquisition Tyler Johnson was barely heard from during minicamp. Malachi Corley, a 2024 third-round pick, was hampered by an injury for much of camp, but he’s more of a slot/gadget guy anyway at this stage of his development. 2025 fourth rounder Arian Smith also sat out the mandatory sessions with an injury; he was always expected to be a long-term project given his drop issues in college.
I don’t expect General Manager Darren Mougey to bring in another Mike Williams-type veteran—the Jets just aren’t in a win-now window that would entice the better remaining unsigned free agents like Keenan Allen, Amari Cooper, and Gabe Davis. However, a trade seems like a logical option to bolster the position.
Just something to keep an eye on while One Jets Drive goes dark for the next month.