Jets must try to keep up with Chiefs
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Garrett Wilson agreed with Willie Gay’s assessment last week that the New York Jets’ struggling offense appears to be a run-first bunch without Aaron Rodgers leading the way.
Yep, the Jets wide receiver said, the Kansas City Chiefs linebacker has them pegged.
“That’s exactly what we want to do,” Wilson said Friday. “We want to run the ball. We want to tote the rock. So, yeah, man, expect to see a lot of that.”
Wilson’s mischievous grin as he walked away from the media scrum might have suggested otherwise, though.
Either way — by ground or air — the Jets acknowledge they’ll need to at least keep up with Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ explosive offense Sunday night if they expect to have any chance of winning.
“We know what problems are going to arise this weekend,” Wilson said. “And it’s going to be our job to respond. We feel like we’ll be able to, for sure.”
That’s a bit of a bold statement, considering the Jets rank last or close to it in several offensive categories and have scored just 10 points in each of their last two games against Dallas and New England.
Gay raised some eyebrows when he was asked about Zach Wilson and the Jets’ offense. He smiled and appeared to hold back a laugh before saying it appears New York is in sort of a “panic mode” without Rodgers. Gay referred to the Jets’ run game, intimating New York isn’t looking to throw the ball much while its current quarterback struggles mightily.
“It’s not about them,” coach Robert Saleh said. “It’s about us and what we have to do. It doesn’t bother me.”
There has been plenty of chatter swirling outside the Jets’ facility, with frustrated fans and critical media dissecting the poor play of the offense, the lack of production and development by Zach Wilson and highlighting perceived mistakes made by Saleh and his staff and general manager Joe Douglas.
Even Joe Namath went on a rant during a radio interview last week calling for Zach Wilson to be benched permanently and for the Jets to make wholesale changes to its coaching staff and front office.
The players have insisted the noise outside the building is blocked out. But Saleh understands the reality is some of it seeps in.
“There’s an old saying that you keep sweeping the poop under the rug and eventually the smell is going to come through,” Saleh said. “So, you address it, you talk about it, and it’s not something you want to labor on. It’s like, ‘Hey, this is what it is,’ and then you go back to, now what? Yeah, we acknowledge whatever’s going on in our lives — we acknowledge good things, we acknowledge bad things, we acknowledge everything.
“But the point is, OK, you’ve got that, you’ve acknowledged it, now what are you going to do about it?”