CANTON, OH — There is nothing better than football being back. Even with the New York Jets sitting the vast majority of their projected starters, and falling in the preseason opener to the Cleveland Browns 21-16, it was hard to not feel a positive outlook on an exciting night of football.
“Had a couple of hamies (hamstrings) that were minor, held them out for precaution. I think we came out clean, we will just get a good look at it once we get back home,” Jets head coach Robert Saleh said after the loss. “You’re evaluating guys, you’re looking for how many 53-man roster players you have on this football team, on the 90-man roster. There are a lot of tough decisions to be made, so all these reps count. It’s all valuable information, it’s not the only thing we use, because there is a lot of things happening in practice.”
New York took an early lead in the contest thanks to a couple of key forced turnovers and big pass plays. Israel Abanikanda scored the team’s first touchdown of the year in the second quarter to give the Jets a double-digit lead. Once the key backups had left the game though, a ferocious comeback from Dorian Thompson-Robinson gave Cleveland a fourth-quarter lead they would not relinquish.
The Browns ran for 160 yards on the day, the majority coming in the second half, but the Jets had plenty of other important takeaways from Thursday’s preseason opener.
Beware New York’s pass rush
The Jets did not have their usual starters along the defensive line but were still able to get some solid pressure against a good Browns offensive line. Bryce Huff recorded the only sack from the “starting” group on the opening drive, but Jermaine Johnson, and Will McDonald both looked strong as well. According to Next Gen Stats, McDonald’s average get-off on his pass rush tonight was 0.91 seconds, Johnson’s was 0.79 while Huff’s was 0.68.
Cleveland ran a ton of screens on Thursday for a reason – they were petrified of Gang Green’s ferocious group. Don’t be surprised if you see a lot of teams this year looking to employ that strategy as well.
Lights go Dark
The NFL Hall-of-Fame games have always been a bit of a crapshoot of unique things taking place but Thursday might have taken the entire cake. Before the start of the fourth quarter, the lights went out, cascading the field in partial darkness which caused a significant delay to finish the final quarter.
Covid canceled the game in 2020 while playing conditions actually ended the game prematurely as well back in 2016.
The history of this game has always been full of weirdness and Thursday night was just another chapter to that.
“There was just the discussion on whether or not to cancel the game, if it was going to extend much longer,” Saleh said. “I didn’t want our guys sitting for over a half hour and then having to run back up, especially in a preseason game, but good job by the crew here that got the lights back on and we were able to play.”
Mekhi Becton and Zach Wilson take important strides
Thursday night was going to be extremely important for two of New York’s former first-round picks. Wilson needed to show his offseason “reset” was getting on the right foot while Becton needed to show he could be ok on the football field for the first time in two years.
Both looked solid in their first bit of action.
The highlight from Wilson came when he threw a beautiful 57-yard bomb to Malik Taylor for a first down that ended up resulting in a field goal. He was poised in the three drives he was in and looked to be processing a lot quicker than in the last few years.
Becton on the other hand got a series and a half in and looked good in pass protection and got a pancake block in the run game. He ended up coming out for a third down after appearing to gesture to his knee but seemed fine for the rest of the day and was in on special teams.
Good starts for two first-round picks trying to prove their worth to the Jets organization.
Jamien Sherwood and Chaz Surratt solidify linebacking depth
Linebacker has been a position where the Jets have struggled to find necessary depth. Injuries and inept play have sunk that position group at times whenever CJ Mosley or another starter has gone down.
That may not be a problem anymore though. Thrust into a new starting role to replace Kwon Alexander on the weak side, Jamien Sherwood forced a fumble late in the first quarter on a solid tackle. It was the type of play that showed why the team is so high on the former fifth-rounder.
Later in the game, linebacker Chazz Surratt picked off a poor pass from Kellen Mond that set up the Abanikanda touchdown. He read the play very well and was in the perfect position to force the second turnover of the night.
If Sherwood plays as fast and confident as he did Thursday night, the Jets’ concerns at linebacker will be quickly subsided.
Rookies flash early success
Abanikanda may have gotten the Jets first touchdown of the preseason but he wasn’t the only rookie that looked good. As mentioned, Will McDonald was flying around the football on the edge and even got a few pressures in.
The biggest surprises though came elsewhere.
Second-round pick Joe Tippmann started at center for the Jets and played very well. He got to his landmarks when he needed to and was very powerful in run blocking. A quiet day for a rookie offensive lineman is a good day. Linebacker Zaire Barnes also had a very good game. He was everywhere on the defensive side and recorded four tackles but was all over the place on defense.
It was good to see almost every rookie from the 2023 class have their own highlights in the game and shows they might be seeing the field a lot sooner than we may think.
New York will be back on the practice field this weekend. They will hold joint practices with the Carolina Panthers during the week before playing them next Saturday.
