The Jets have kicked off the Robert Saleh era with two straight preseason wins, but their head coach is not fully satisfied with the product he is seeing on a daily basis.
Not even close.
With its preseason finale against the Eagles just two days away, New York is closing in on the beginning of the regular season. Saleh and his team will board a plane and travel to Carolina to take on the Panthers in just 18 days. Will they be ready to go when that time comes? The way Saleh sees it, there is still plenty of work to be done to get to that point.
“I’ll speak for the entire team, offense, defense, special teams. Nothing is where we want it to be,” Saleh said Tuesday after wrapping up the first of two joint practices with Philadelphia. “I know that’s what’s going to catch the headline, but that’s part of training camp. We’re building. We’re trying to get ourselves better. We’re working every single day and the reality is we’ll never be where we want to be. We’re always going to try and improve.”
Saleh’s sentiment might seem like typical preseason coach speak, but it aligns with what he has been preaching since taking over as Jets head coach in January. Saleh’s “all gas, no brake” mentality is centered on players giving their all every day and leaving the practice field better than they were before they laced up their cleats that day.
When the Jets take the field at MetLife Stadium, their focus will be on working out the kinks before kicking off the regular season. It goes without saying that Saleh would likely prefer to end the preseason with a perfect 3-0 record, but as long as his team gets better against the Eagles, they will be a step closer to where he and everyone else at One Jets Drive want to be.
“It’s a hard, blanket statement in terms of not being where we want to be. You can ask me on a 16-0 team and I’ll tell you we’re still not where we want to be. We’re trying to improve things, we want things to get better. We want to find a way to challenge ourselves and go to bed better than when we woke up.”
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