On Monday night, the Jets' pass rush had a Haason Reddick-sized hole.
San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy faced little resistance in Monday night's 32-19 blowout loss to the Jets, recording just one sack and leaving Redick on a months-long strike.
Jets head coach Robert Saleh avoided questions Tuesday morning about his feelings about the holdout being extended into the season and factoring heavily into the loss, but it appears the Jets may again be without the former Eagles linebacker for their Week 2 road game against the Titans (0-1).
“Regardless of how I feel, we have the guys here and I'm excited to work with the guys here,” Saleh said on a conference call. “Again, when he walks through that door, we're going to give him a hug, give him the playbook and get to work.”
Star pass rusher Redick remains the only player away from the team prior to Week 1, so it remains to be seen if the Jets will be able to give him the playbook heading into Week 2.
The Jets traded a conditional third-round pick to the Eagles to essentially replace Redick with Bryce Huff, but right now they just have a gaping hole on defense.
Redick wants a contract extension and is willing to take a financial hit in the standoff: about $5 million in fines for not playing and about $800,000 in forfeitures for missing Monday's game.
Saleh gave no indication that a solution was on the horizon.
Redick may not have been able to save the run game from its woes, but he could have bolstered a pass rush that didn't put as much pressure on Purdy.
Safety Tony Adams recorded the lone sack, but Saleh praised the 49ers' strategy.
“I thought San Francisco did a really good job with their game plan of chipping on the edge and letting the ball go at the right time,” Saleh said. “I think Brock didn't hold onto the ball long and that prevented us from really being effective. We had some chances, but we just couldn't get to him and beat him. But they did a really good job of getting the ball out of his hands. Credit to them.”
