After two consecutive wins, the New York Jets stumbled in Week 4 with a 10–9 home loss to the Denver Broncos.
The Jets scored no touchdowns, settling for three Greg Zuerlein field goals. The weather was cold and rainy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers wasn’t as his sharpest, completing 57% (24-of-42) of his passes for 225 yards. He was also sacked five times.
However, self-inflicted mistakes were also a significant factor in the Jets’ offensive ineptitude. The offense committed five false start penalties on Sunday, two each by running back Breece Hall and left guard John Simpson. Tyron Smith jumped early for the fifth penalty.
Following the game, Jets head coach Robert Saleh said the cadence on offense was an issue. Though he didn’t name Rodgers specifically, the quarterback is the one yelling out the snap count.
“We gotta figure it out, whether or not we’re good enough or ready to handle all of the cadence,” Saleh said. “Cadence had not been an issue all camp. Felt like our operation had been operating pretty good. Obviously, today took a major step back.”
As could be expected, Rodgers didn’t exactly agree with his coach when he was asked about Saleh’s remarks and whether or not his cadence should be dialed back.
“That’s one way to do it,” Rodgers said. “The other way is to hold them accountable. I mean, we haven’t had an issue. We’ve had one false start. Morgan [Moses] had one false start, I believe, until this.”
Aaron Rodgers seems to get annoyed when asked about Robert Saleh’s comments about dialing back the cadence on offense. “That’s one way to do it. The other way is to hold them accountable.” 😳#Jets pic.twitter.com/PUbM2WvCsK
— Optimistic Jets (@OptimisticJets) September 29, 2024
“It’s been a weapon. We use it every day in practice,” he added. “We rarely have a false start. And to have five today… Yeah, it seems like an outlier. I don’t know if we need to make mass changes based on kind of an outlier game.”
The Jets had 13 total penalties on Sunday, costing them 90 yards. So false starts were not the only issue for the team in their defeat.
Yet any hint of tension between Rodgers and Saleh will raise the antenna of the media covering the Jets. That came up during Week 3’s 24–3 win over the New England Patriots when Saleh attempted to hug Rodgers, but the QB pushed him back to keep a distance.
Rodgers makes a convincing argument in pointing out that false starts haven’t been an issue in the Jets’ previous three games. Yet five penalties raises questions that Saleh was attempting to answer during his postgame press conference and might attempt to address during the coming week.
If false starts don’t arise as a problem in the Jets’ next few games, then concerns over Rodgers’ cadence will fade. However, if they continue and Rodgers expresses any frustration on the field because of it, then Saleh and the coaching staff can say they were right and tensions could increase. Either this is indeed an outlier or it’s something worth keeping an eye on for media and fans.