Details. It’s always about the details. The coach knows it. The players know it. Nothing earth-shattering. But plenty to see here.
In last Friday night’s preseason opener against Tampa Bay at MetLife Stadium, the initial defense that HC Aaron Glenn ran out turned in a strong performance in its limited time on the field. After practice on Monday ahead of this coming Friday’s game at Pittsburgh, Glenn complimented second-year CB Azareye’h Thomas.
“Yeah, I was very encouraged by the way he played in the game,” Glenn said after the day’s morning session at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center. “And listen, he’s a 6-1, 200-pound man with long arms [32⅜]. And the one thing I wanted to see him do was really disrupt the routes. And he did a really good job of that in man coverage. We had a very limited menu, and man, he went out there and executed exactly how I thought he should. Now, is he where he needs to be? Not at all. But man, that improvement speaks a ton about how he’s gone about training camp.”
After missing the final 5 games last season after sustaining a shoulder injury in the Week 14 game against Miami, the Florida State product who was selected by the Jets in the Round 3 (No. 73 overall) in the 2025 NFL Draft, Thomas had returned to the field with renewed intent and dedication. Though he played a limited number of snaps (8, 13%; plus 3, 11% on special teams) against the Bucs, he liked what he saw and how it felt.
“I feel like we played pretty solid,” Thomas said on Monday. “Feel like we, of course, had some mistakes out there, which is expected to be the way to be in the first preseason game. But overall, I feel like we did pretty good.”