Gang Green Nation
The Jets open their 2025 preseason Saturday in Green Bay with a game against the Packers. Prior to today, it had been unclear whether New York’s first team offense and defense would get any snaps. Head coach Aaron Glenn offered some insight.
The Jets seldom played their starters in preseason games under former head coach Robert Saleh. That was not a philosophy exclusive to Saleh. In recent years, there has been a league-wide trend for starters to play sparingly if at all during the exhibition season.
The biggest reason for that is obvious. Teams are afraid of suffering injuries in meaningless exhibition games. We have seen a rise of team vs. team joint practices where one team’s starters work against another’s in place of preseason game reps.
Of course there is a risk of players getting hurt in games. Still I can’t help but wonder whether teams have taken it too far. As the number of starters playing in preseason has gone down, we have seen a rise of sloppy play in Week 1.
I doubt Jets starters will play deep into Saturday’s game. In fact, I would be surprised if there was anybody important getting snaps in the second quarter. Still, I tend to think this is a good move.
