CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jets head coach Robert Saleh admitted he started thinking about the Week 1 matchup against the 49ers as soon as the schedule was released in May.
But he’s not ready to start talking to teams about that game just yet.
Saleh said he has introduced some concepts for the 49ers game in practice but won’t really start focusing on them until the end of training camp.
“We’ll sneak it in,” Saleh said of the 49ers’ play. “We want our guys to focus on technique and fundamentals, so we’ll sneak it in during installations and walk-throughs with the group.”
“The offense might take some chances, the defense might take some chances, but it’s all just going to be on tape to see what plays we make. But when it comes to actually introducing it to the players, that won’t happen until ’53. [-man roster] is set.”
There’s been a lot of debate about how much starters should be used in the preseason, and Saleh clearly takes the position that they should be used very little to none, and he explained why this week.
“It used to be that we had three or four preseason games and we’d play one quarter, then play two quarters and then put guys in for the third quarter. That’s not the case anymore,” Saleh said.
“Now it’s a question of looking ourselves in the mirror as a coaching staff and just trying to check off a checklist of, ‘I got these guys playing for the series,’ or is that going to help us perform at our best in Week 1?”
“And then going through that evaluation process, as I said, we have an intersquad scrimmage coming up next week against the Giants. We’ve had a lot of practice, quality practice, and we’ll look at the overall work we do throughout training camp and then we’ll make a call as to whether guys need any additional practice.”
