WARE, England — Hanbury Manor is an old property, built in the late 1800s, many years later converted into a sprawling hotel and resort property. The buildings are still Victorian, as is the art. Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson walked through it on Friday, marveling at the idea that this sort of thing is just normal to people who live in the area.
“This manor is so beautiful,” Wilson said. “The art on the walls, it’s crazy.”
To get to practice, the Jets had to walk down a hill, to a football field built in the foreground of a golf course. After the week the Jets had stateside, a deflating 10-9 loss to the Denver Broncos, perhaps a trip across the pond is just what the doctor ordered for a team that, even at 2-2, feels desperate for a win.
touched down in London Town 📍 pic.twitter.com/3Wra4nvDTD
— New York Jets (@nyjets) October 4, 2024
The energy was (mostly) positive this week, and it was high on Friday even though the Jets came straight from the airport to the hotel and only had a short break before practice, jet lag be damned.
“We’ve got the whole season ahead of us,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said. “We’re 2-2. We’re in the thick of it. We’re at the nothing part of football — this is the part of the season where teams start figuring out exactly who they are and you’re either climbing up the hill or staying at the bottom. So these next four games are a big part of the season. But the guys are in great spirits and ready to get after it.”
You’re either climbing up the hill or staying at the bottom.
This year’s Jets were at the bottom of the hill on Friday — and the Jets organization has felt like they’ve been at the bottom of the hill for a long time. The climb is arduous, but this was supposed to be the team to do it, with Aaron Rodgers leading them and a roster believed to have playoff-caliber talent. A loss to the 4-0 Minnesota Vikings on Sunday will only make the climb harder.
“I think you have to understand the Jet fan in America and what they’ve gone through,” Rodgers said before practice, adeptly explaining the Jets fan experience to inquiring British media. “The last 13 years (missing the playoffs) and within the last 55 years not winning a Super Bowl. Sport fans in general get behind an underdog. We’re a team that hasn’t had the success we wanted to in a while.”
It’s been more than just losing. There’s always something else — a distraction, drama. Wednesday from Florham Park, Saleh struck a somber tone, frustrated at any suggestion that he and Rodgers have a bad relationship. Wilson went on the radio and made a comment, perceived to be negative, about the Jets offense. Allen Lazard blamed the media for “twisting people’s comments.”
All of that comes as the noise about the Jets trying to acquire star wide receiver Davante Adams — the sort of move that would make most inside and outside the building happy — gets louder, and defensive end Haason Reddick remains stationed at his home in South Jersey, continuing a holdout that started shortly after his introductory press conference in April.
The negativity won’t subside if the Jets lose.
Saleh, firmly on the hot seat in a win-now year, knows what’s at stake. A British reporter asked him about the pressure he feels coaching in New York. That drew a smile.
“Pressure? In New York?” he said. “You can be an expansion (team) and have the same amount of pressure. It doesn’t matter, you gotta win. It’s New York. The expectation is to win. When you win, you’re going to the Super Bowl and when you lose, fire everybody. That’s the world we live in, the world we embrace. Each week is a new week. Every week comes with an extremist amount of pressure but we’re made for it, we’re built for it.”
Saleh has a 20-35 career record in his fourth year as Jets coach, so a Saleh-coached team still has to prove that they’re “built for it” — though they’ve certainly come a long way from the last time this team was in London. That was in 2021, when Saleh was in his first year as head coach, Zach Wilson was still a quarterback-of-the-future hopeful and Rodgers was in the middle of another MVP season for the Green Bay Packers. The prospect that Rodgers would be wearing a Jets uniform, on the same practice field, three years later would’ve seemed outlandish at the time.
But Rodgers hasn’t cured all ails, as many as hoped, even if the team’s ceiling is certainly higher with him at quarterback, showing flashes that he’s still capable of playing like the 2021 version of himself. This week, there was plenty of chatter about his relationship with Saleh in light of a postgame moment following the loss to the Broncos. Saleh said “we’ve got to figure out whether or not we’re good enough or ready to handle all (of Rodgers’) cadence” at the line of scrimmage after five false start penalties against Denver.
When the idea of dialing back Rodgers’ patented, complicated cadence was posed to the quarterback, he was perturbed: “That’s one way to do it. The other way is to hold them accountable.” That led to WFAN radio host (and former Jets quarterback) Boomer Esiason suggesting Rodgers “doesn’t respect Saleh”.
Rodgers did his best to throw water on that theory on Friday.
“Well, I think (Saleh) felt like his answer maybe didn’t actually reflect his feelings,” Rodgers said. “Cadence has been a weapon. I think there’s some driving force outside of the facility trying to put a wedge between Robert and I but we’re really good friends. We enjoy each other. We spend time almost every day in his office talking … we’ve got a great relationship.”
Then there’s the whole Rodgers-Garrett Wilson dynamic. Wilson managed to cull together back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons to open his career despite the Jets’ well-documented issues at quarterback. The theory was that adding Rodgers at quarterback would unlock his potential and he’d elevate to the Justin Jefferson-level of receivers. Instead, Wilson has struggled to overcome defenses scheming to stop him, and he and Rodgers are still trying to get on the same page. He only has 191 yards and one touchdown through four games.
“It’s the details,” Rodgers said. “We haven’t been on the same page. The conversations we have are important. Me seeing the game through his eyes, him seeing the game through my eyes. Just going out there and executing. I don’t think it’s big changes. Things are close. One of these weeks we’ll put it all together.”
Added Wilson: “I don’t know man. We’re gonna figure it out. We’re going to get down to it and make sure we finish better than we started, that’s what matters.”
Wilson also said he and Rodgers have been fine throughout the week in practice dating back to Week 1, it just hasn’t clicked yet on Sunday.
“Hopefully this week it’ll all click,” Wilson said.
As for the prospect of the Jets adding Adams — Rodgers’ close friend and longtime former Packers teammate — and potentially cutting into Wilson’s target share — Wilson said: “It’d be cool. I always say, if they can help us win, let’s do it.”
First, the Jets need to win on Sunday. How that game goes against the Vikings could impact owner Woody Johnson’s willingness to dole out the money it would take to acquire Adams. More than that, the Jets leaving London with a 2-3 record ahead of a tough stretch of the schedule — vs. Bills, at Steelers, at Patriots, vs. Texans — could be a challenge to overcome, with or without Adams.
At one point during Saleh’s pre-practice press conference, the coach was asked to make the case for why NFL fans in London should root for the Jets.
“You know, we’ve got a fun group, a really fun group that plays hard,” Saleh said. “They love one another, they appreciate one another, they play for one another. You can feel the energy that they give off.
“Jump on the wagon now because it’s going to get full quick.”
If the Jets lose on Sunday, they’ll find out how hard it is to pull that wagon uphill.
(Top photo: Alastair Grant / AP Photo)
