Before the Jets' final practice of training camp Thursday, head coach Robert Saleh said that QB Aaron Rodgers and the starters would not play against the Giants in the preseason finale Saturday night at MetLife Stadium.
"Different reasons last year as compared to this year," said Saleh, who played his starters for a series the third preseason game last year. "I'm not going to get into those, but I feel like we've gotten so much good work done with three quality opponents over the course of three weeks. Last year we didn't scrimmage with the Giants. This year, we've had three different scrimmages and I feel like the amount of work we got in was very productive."
The Green & White rested 31 players last week at Carolina (Tyrod Taylor dressed as an emergency QB) and 28 in the preseason opener against Washington. QB Aaron Rodgers, as a result, will officially make his Jets 2024 debut Monday night Sept. 9 at San Francisco in Week 1 as he returns from his left Achilles tendon tear.
Saleh said Rodgers and the first-team offense have taken roughly 800 snaps throughout training camp and his decision was not made to prevent injuries.
"I'm not thinking about it from an injury standpoint because you can get hurt at practice," he said. "You can get hurt brushing your teeth for crying out loud. This has everything to do with whether or not we're preparing ourselves properly and not just looking at checking the old coaches box of 'Ah, I feel good about it. We got to go play.' Does it really help us in Week 1?
"We've played them [the starters] in the past. This whole offseason we've taken a different approach with how we're preparing our guys for Week 1 and hopefully it pans out."
QB Adrian Martinez, who has thrown for 171 yards, no touchdowns and an interception through two preseason games, will start Saturday and play the first half while Andrew Peasley (106 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT) will close out the game.
