With a late week one loss behind them, the Green Bay Packers have prepared this week to face the New York Jets in week two at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, Jersey on Sunday. The Jets went through a major overhaul during the offseason with Aaron Glenn going into his second year as head coach, so let’s take a look at how things changed in the Meadowlands.
The Jets overhauled their roster (~$85M in free agency spend) with the theme “buy immediate two-way improvement.”
Aaron Glenn returns for Year 2 after a 3-14 debut season, but he rebuilt almost his entire staff around him.
The through-line: New York fired essentially everyone tied to a bottom-three offense and a defense that collapsed under Wilks, betting on experienced coordinators (Reich, Musgrave) to stabilize the offense around Geno Smith while Duker retools the defense.
Bailey addresses the pass-rush need directly; Sadiq (16th-overall TE, ran a 4.39) gives Frank Reich a mismatch weapon; Ponds was already a Week 1 contributor in the slot.
New York opened the season with a comprehensive road win over the Tennessee Titans at Nissan Stadium, snapping a Week 1 losing pattern. They earned a 23-10 with the Titans under the helm of new head coach Robert Saleh, who was also the former coach of the Jets just two seasons ago.
Both first-round rookies produced immediately.
On the Jets first drive, Sadiq scored on a jet-sweep run set up by an earlier Cooper Jr. 30-yard catch-and-run.
And Breece Hall looked fully healthy, posting his third career 100-yard rushing game and adding a touchdown.
Smith was efficient and turnover-free in his first Jets start since 2016, connecting on a 40-yard shot to Adonai Mitchell. He finished week the 11th best EPA per play.
The defense held Tennessee scoreless across eight straight drives and limited the Titans to 195 total yards.
Minkah Fitzpatrick left last week’s with an apparent groin injury and Cooper also was injured, and both players will be out for the matchup with the Packers on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Jets’ offense stalled with penalties late in the first half, and the final score (23-10) was tightened only by a garbage-time TD.
Week one is generally not a good barometer of how teams will look as the season progresses and I fully expect the the Packers to control of this game early and not look back. A week 2 road game will be another good test for the Packers.