Jets’ HC Robert Saleh seeking ‘silver linings’ to grow from in 2024

For New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh, one thing is ruminating in his mind, and that’s winning a lot of football games in 2024. Jack Bell of newyorkjets.com shared a bevy of quotes from coach Saleh’s appearance on “The Official Jets Podcast,” as he reflected on this past season and where he sees the Jets going in 2024, saying this about his optimism toward their building blocks of the future:

“There’s a lot of positives,” Saleh said. “You can either mope and complain about what happened or you can try to find silver linings that you can build and grow off. A lot of young guys got way more reps than we anticipated and because of it we feel like we got some guys we can build off.”

Jets HC Robert Saleh is optimistic about his young talent and what can be improved in the offseason

Saleh spoke highly about players that emerged for him on both sides of the line of scrimmage, namely running back Breece Hall and offensive lineman Max Mitchell. Both talents will be focal points of an offense that will welcome quarterback Aaron Rodgers back from an Achilles injury that ended his 2023 season prematurely.

Choosing not to mope about a second consecutive 7-10 season is exactly what the Jets need to have a productive offseason, which will hopefully carry over into training camp and lead to a hot start out of the gates in 2024.

Saleh declares that the Jets will start the 2024 season at 2-0 in hopes of earning a playoff berth

Additionally, Saleh also boldly stated that the Jets have every intention of starting the 2024 NFL season undefeated at 2-0. The first two games of every season set the stage for a team’s outlook, particularly in their division.

In its 91-year history, only 39 teams in NFL history have gone on to make the playoffs after starting 0-2. The Jets started 2023 at 1-1 after notching an impressive 22-16 win over the Buffo Bills in Week 1 but falling 30-10 to the Dallas Cowboys a week later.

Jets GM Joe Douglas is unsatisfied with the 7-10 season but proud of the effort shown by his players

While the Jets were able to win seven games without Rodgers, that underwhelmed, and general manager Joe Douglas let that be known in further comments shared by Bell, saying, “Ultimately, it was not good enough.”

For a Jets defense that allowed the third-fewest passing yards (3,182 yards), fifth-lowest rushing 1st down percentage (21.5 percent), and sixth-fewest rushing yards per attempt (4.1 yds/att), they’ll need the offense to play up to their level in 2024 if they want to contend for a Super Bowl, and that is the intention with Rodgers at the helm.