Jets Training Camp Day 3 Recap: Defense Dominates, Fields Held Out

The lead again today (even though he took no reps) is Justin Fields. Surprisingly, he was fully dressed and looked ready to participate, but it seemed like the medical staff kept him out. Fields went through the exercise period of practice and showed no limp as he stretched and sprinted. Here are the Jets training camp notes for Friday.

Jets Training Camp General Notes

First fan attended practice of the year, and the crowd/excitement was noticeably muted. No playoffs in 14 years, and no Aaron Rodgers “juice” seemed to have an effect at least for the first day
Players still in jerseys & shorts, practice ran 1:35
Tyrod Taylor was #1, Adrian Martinez was #2 and Brady Cook was #3
Solid secondary coverage led to the defense winning the day in my opinion

Special Teams Notes

The kickers were sidelined today, so the punters took center stage:
- Austin McNamara took 12 reps, and all of them were solid/good. He showed good directional punting ability, pinning returners to the sidelines
- Kai Kroger took 10 reps, 8 of them were solid/good while 2 were shanks

NY Jets Defense Notes

Throughout the various 11 on 11 and 7 on 7 periods, the secondary showed excellent coverage. Was this a product of Fields not participating or excellent DB play, we’ll see. But one thing is noticeable: there haven’t been very many Garrett Wilson sightings over the past two days:
- Multiple times, the QBs had to hold the ball and ultimately flush themselves out of the pocket because there was nowhere to go with the ball
- At other times, there was solid double coverage on receivers to knock away passes. A couple of standouts were Quincy Williams & Tony Adams, and two safeties Malachi Moore & Jaylin Simpson
A couple of other standout defensive plays were:
- Quinnen Williams is timing the snap count perfectly and blowing up a screen before it could start
- Will McDonald and Williams are applying outside/inside pressure to force a rushed Taylor pass
- Rashad Weaver and Phidarian Mathis are applying outside/inside pressure to knock down a Martinez pass
More secondary blitzing was displayed, this time Qwantez Stiggers bringing the pressure
Practice ended with a situational period; the offense was down 10-7 with 1:30 on the clock. Andre Cisco “won” the game for the defense by picking off Taylor in the end zone

NY Jets Offense Notes

I have to keep this vague, but Tanner Engstrand (OC) is definitely building an offense around the movement skills of Justin Fields. It will be interesting to see how/if it works
More shotgun sets were incorporated into practice today
A couple of nice “gash” runs:
- Braelon Allen for 20+ yds over the left side behind Olu Fashanu caving in the left side
- Breece Hall for 20+ yds over the right side behind Alijah Vera-Tucker and Armand Membou
Mason Taylor pulled in a TD from Taylor during a 7 on 7 red zone period. Beating Brandon Stephens tight coverage
Malachi Corley also pulled in a TD from Cook during a 7 on 7 red zone period. Coverage was tight, didn’t see the CB’s number
I’m not sure what the staff thinks about Brady Cook but I’ll give him credit, he doesn’t shy away from throwing the ball into tight coverage