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Robert Saleh’s position on this is clear and doesn’t subscribe to the theory of the detractors.
Saleh is a big believer on the importance of NFL off-season programs, OTAs, minicamps and so forth, and clearly disagrees with those trying to cut down on them.
“We felt like we got all of it accomplished.” Saleh said about the Jets’ spring work. “We felt like it’s been a very productive spring, we’re healthy, which is the most important thing, and we’re looking forward to training camp.”
It’s interesting that he brought up the team being healthy, because that is the big concern of the union, and player reps, that the spring work leads to more injuries.
The Jets did have some guys sidelined at different times during the spring, like Foley Fatukasi (leg) and Corey Davis (shoulder), who got dinged in OTAs, but both should be fine by training camp. In fact, Davis came back to do some work at the Jets’ mandatory minicamp.
As a first-year head coach, Saleh can’t imagine how some of last year’s first-year head coaches were able to to install their programs with no on-field spring work after spring camps were cancelled do to COVID-19.
“I could only imagine, for all the first-year coaches that had to deal with no offseason, and then come in to training camp and try to install things,” Saleh said. “I just tried to put myself in the shoes of all the first year coaches from a year ago, the angst they must have felt during training camp when they’re a week into training camp and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, we’re so far away, because, after the first week of OTAs it’s like, ‘Jeez we’re so far away.’”
Saleh just doesn’t subsubribe to the theory that most players can workout on their own and get the most out of it.
“Call me biased, I think football is impossible to get better at on your own,” Saleh said. “It has to be played, you can’t find a pickup game of basketball, you can’t find a batting cage to go to, you can’t go to batting practice. It’s something where it takes all 22 people, it takes work, it takes people working with one another to get better. Unless you’re doing it in the offseason as a team, I can’t imagine what those coaches a year ago went through.”
Saleh saw solid progress from his team from the beginning of the spring to the end.
“When you look at our group, from the first practice, all the way to the last practice yesterday, the improvement has been awesome, it’s been great to see,” Saleh said.
He added: “To see the improvement, I think it’s priceless.”
So all those player reps and union executives, who railed against off-season workouts, which honestly are limited to start with, count Saleh has somebody who doesn’t agree with them.
For example, the Jets have myriad young corners who are being taught a new defense loaded with specific techniques the corners must play to to be successful.
These young corners clearly were helped by a couple of months working with CB coach Tony Oden, Saleh and DC Jeff Ulbrich.
So while the Colts, Eagles and others cancelled some scheduled spring work, Saleh was never going to do that.
June 21, 2021
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