The 2024 NFL regular season will kickoff Thursday night with the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Baltimore Ravens in a rematch of the last season's AFC championship game. The Jets, however, will have to patiently wait a few more days before their season opener at San Francisco on Monday night, the second-straight season the Green & White will play in the final game of Week 1.
"I'll speak for everyone in the organization when I say I think we were all ready to play after the first week of training camp," HC Robert Saleh said. "It's football season. We've got games [Thursday night], which is exciting. You always want to get to the games and get to the meat and potatoes. Training camp is fun, but after a couple of weeks it expires, so I think I'll speak for everyone: We're all looking forward to it."
Monday night will be the first time Saleh coaches against Niners HC Kyle Shanahan as the Jets' head man. Saleh was Shanahan's defensive coordinator for four seasons (2017-20) and helped establish a defensive philosophy that San Francisco still uses a variation of. The 49ers hired Nick Sorenson as their defensive coordinator this offseason, the third DC since Saleh left in January 2021.
"From a style of play standpoint, they still get after it," Saleh said. "You still see [Nick] Bosa, I know [Javon] Hargrave, he wasn't there [when I was], but he's adopted it. Obviously, Fred [Warner], their back end, there's a lot of new faces, but the style of play, the tenacity, the overall core philosophy of the defense is still there.
"Obviously, there have been some wrinkles and there's been some changes here and there, but as far as scheme, those guys still play with their hair on fire, and they play with a style."
There's a mutual respect between Saleh and Shanahan, who have maintained contact since Saleh's departure. They understand each other's schemes, which makes Monday's game more of a chess match than a typical NFL Week 1 game.
"I've got my feelings on the matchup and things that I have talked to [defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich] about," Saleh said. "But I will leave it at that."
Over the past two seasons, the Niners have had one of the league's most prolific offenses -- as their 941 points (27.6 per game) are the third-most in the NFL. Led by QB Brock Purdy, Mr. Irrelevant in 2022, and 2023 Offensive Player of the Year RB Christian McCaffrey, they ranked third in points last season (28.8), second in yards a game (398.4) and fourth in first downs (22.4). McCaffrey found the endzone 21 times (14 rushing, 7 receiving) and led the league with 1,459 yards rushing.
"I'm sure they've [49ers] got wrinkles and we've got wrinkles," Saleh said. "They've got people they've added to the staff, we've got new people that we've added to the staff. Everybody brings wrinkles, so you're going to get a lot of unscouted looks. You do your best to try to survive those plays and from our perspective, offensively, you do your best to make sure you hit on those unscouted looks, but Week 1 is always a little bit goofy."
The Jets are nearly at full strength entering Monday's game. Pass rusher Haason Reddick has still not reported to the team's facility, but Saleh is not ruling him out for Week 1. Jets WR Mike Williams, who started to take team reps last week as he returns from a torn ACL, will be active for the matchup. Saleh said the team will manage Williams' workload like it they did with Breece Hall last season.
"He could be ready for 60 plays and we're still going to be very smart with how we use him," Saleh said of Williams. He added: "He's going to have plenty of impact in this game, but at the same time, we're going to be smart with him because our eyes are on the entire season, not just Week 1."
