Earlier this week, New York Giants veteran cornerback was not seeking time with the media. It was probably for the better. After the Giants’ loss to the Green Bay Packers last Sunday, he was critical of the way he has been used by defensive coordinator James Bettcher.
Jenkins’s beef was that he was not drawing the top coverage assignments during key parts of games (he called it ‘traveling’), leaving the other team’s top receiver to be handled by another defensive back.
The Giants’ secondary has three rookies playing regularly these days and the 31-year-old Jenkins was simply questioning why Bettcher didn’t have him locked on the Packers’ Davante Adams the whole game. Adams scored twice in the 31-13 win over the Giants.
On Friday, Bettcher cleared the air on his end with a long-winded explanation of how he and Jenkins are tight and the the game plan dictates how the coverage is assigned.
“Let me just say this about Janoris Jenkins, you noticed it today at practice, he competes every day. Since I’ve been here and had an opportunity to work with him, he has competed on a daily basis for me and for his teammates,” said Bettcher. “If you were here and watched some of the walk-thru, you’ll see him grabbing young players, our young corners, and leading them around and making points to them of what he’s looking at, of what he recognizes, and him and I have a really good relationship.
“I have been places where we traveled all the time and I’ve been here where we’ve traveled at different times and in the course of different games and different situations. The philosophy on that is if it works for everyone, it’s a great thing to do. If it works to where it allows our best guy to be on their best guy, but at the same time, the other guys that are on the field playing to have their feet settled and able to play the downs in whatever those man or zone, or whatever coverages you want to run on them, then it’s great. And we weigh those things when we make the decision, what’s best for the collective group.
“Again, I love Jack, love working with him, he’s been competing his butt off and I look forward to him having a strong finish to the rest of the season.”
On Saturday, Jenkins confirmed that he had spoken with Bettcher and head coach Pat Shurmur individually this week and that went well.
“It went really good. We talked about, as a coach and player, that we’ve got to understand, and we’re just moving forward,” Jenkins said. “Me and Coach Bettch have always been on the same page. Like I said, we talked about it. Between him and Coach Shurmur, we all talked about it. We’re just moving forward.”
As for what was said and the way it came out, Jenkins said it was simply not his intention to throw Bettcher under the bus.
“I just told him that wasn’t my intention. It wasn’t like that, it wasn’t my intention for it to be put out that way. He just said he understood, and we moved on,” Jenkins said.
At the outset of the season, Jenkins was all set to be the mentor of this very young cornerback group. That’s happened to a degree but the season has been such a frustrating one, no one can actually gauge what progress is actually being made.
“Football is football. Everybody hates losing. Everybody wants to win. Me, I just like to play football and have fun, win at the same time. So that’s really it for me,” Jenkins.
So, will he be ‘traveling’ with the opponents’ top receivers going forward?
“I don’t know, I told you all that I just play within the scheme,” he said. “I’m going to go out and play football each and every week. Just do my job and do it to the best of my ability.”
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