NY Jets head coach Robert Saleh was at a loss for words when searching for ways to explain his team's disappointing 10-9 loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 4. One of Saleh's explanations seems to directly implicate his quarterback, Aaron Rodgers.
The Jets were penalized a whopping 13 times on Sunday, a troubling trend under Saleh's leadership. Of those 13 penalties, five were false starts. When asked if Rodgers' notoriously complex pre-snap cadence was the root of the team's penalty issues, Saleh didn't seem to disagree.
"We've got to figure it out, whether or not we're good enough or ready to handle all the cadence. Cadence had not been an issue all camp. Felt like our operation had been operating pretty good. Obviously, today it took a major step back."
- Robert Saleh
Saleh didn't directly state that Rodgers' cadence was an issue, but he didn't deny it either. This was, as one might imagine, not received particularly well by Rodgers when speaking to reporters after the game.
Rodgers disagreed that his cadence — long seen as a weapon in his arsenal — was an issue, pointing fingers at the lack of accountability the Jets have shown. It wasn't a direct shot at Saleh, but the four-time MVP appeared annoyed at the implication that his cadence could be the problem.
Robert Saleh is already backing down to Aaron Rodgers
Perhaps Saleh received the message because he offered a very different response when speaking to reporters on Monday. Saleh insisted that the Jets wouldn't be changing anything with their cadence and that their issues came down to execution.
"We're always going to push the envelope with cadence. Always. But with regards to operation, getting in and out of the huddle, getting to the line of scrimmage, the communication that's being had, those are all things that we can continue to look at and clean up. But from a cadence standpoint, that's part of what makes us who we are, and we're going to continue to always push the envelope on that."
- Robert Saleh
Rodgers has made a career out of getting defenses to jump offsides, creating free plays for his offense through the use of a hard count. We've already seen that work on a number of occasions this season.
For whatever reason, the Jets' offense struggled mightily with Rodgers' cadence on Sunday. The Jets entered Sunday's game with just one false start penalty all season. They registered five in Week 4 alone.
Rodgers referred to the offense's pre-snap issues on Sunday as an "outlier," and statistically to this point, he's right. Saleh's comments read more like a head coach trying to give the politically correct answer as opposed to a promise of actual change, as evidenced by the complete 180 he pulled less than 24 hours later.
That doesn't seem to have sit right with Rodgers, who is pleading for accountability. The Jets are the fourth-most penalized team in the NFL since Saleh took over in 2021. They had nine more penalties than any other team in the league last season.
Rodgers is right. The issue with the Jets isn't the cadence of a future Hall of Fame quarterback — it's an overall lack of accountability. That begins and ends with the head coach. That falls on Robert Saleh.
It seems pretty clear who's calling the shots around here.
