Saleh eyes reprise of ’21 running production
As the sun peeked out from the clouds and the temperature neared 90 degrees Friday, Jets head coach Robert Saleh allowed himself a minute to think about his team playing meaningful games in the cold.
Those thoughts turned to using running backs Breece Hall, Michael Carter and Tevin Coleman — and maybe some others — to move the chains and wear down a defense.
“Especially when it gets cold in this area, you’ve got to be able to run the football,” Saleh said. “When you are trying to play playoff football and take those next steps, you’ve got to be able to pound it. You have to be able to run it in the red zone, you have to be able to run it in short-yardage situations, you have to be able to have success running the football even though it’s turned into a passing league.”
The Jets, who averaged 5.2 yards per carry over the final eight games last season, signed free agent Laken Tomlinson and drafted “allaround back” Hall in the second round to further boost their backfield production. They seek out good runblocking receivers because that is needed within their tight offensive formations.
“I thought we were pretty darn good last year in the run game, especially late,” Saleh said, “and I feel like it’s got a chance to be good again.”
➤ Watching defensive linemen Carl Lawson and John Franklin-Myers wreak havoc on the offensive line Friday, it was easy to imagine a situation in which the Jets do not need to blitz to pressure the quarterback. Saleh’s mind went back to the Giants’ victory in Super Bowl XLII in February 2008, when he was a young NFL assistant for the Texans still “trying to figure out how to tie his shoes.”
“The best way to play defense is with a four-man pass rush,” Saleh said. “The Giants versus [Tom] Brady proved it. If you can drop seven guys in coverage and have four guys feel like it’s constant pressure, that’s the most consistent way to play defense.
“Every game is independent of itself and depending on how that D-line is playing and the amount of pressure we’re getting, we’ll dictate accordingly.”