It would have been less obvious who the Jets plan to be on offense this season if coordinator Tanner Engstrand just shared snapshots from his playbook on the MetLife Stadium video board.<\/p>\n
After giving up an early touchdown to the Giants on Saturday in their annual preseason matchup, the Jets ran the ball on each of the first 10 plays of a scoring drive, including one scramble by Justin Fields on a called pass. <\/p>\n
Of course, Fields\u2019 legs are a bigger strength than his arm, so that will be a possible offshoot of almost every dropback this season.<\/p>\n
Justin Fields runs with the ball during the Jets\u2019 31-12 preseason loss to the Giants at MetLife Stadium on Aug. 16, 2025. Corey Sipkin for the NY Post<\/p>\n
When Fields finally uncorked a pass, on third-and-2, it was to a tightly covered Garrett Wilson \u2014 who else? \u2014 and broken up for an incompletion as the Jets settled for three points on the second and last series for their offensive starters. <\/p>\n
The Jets gained 47 yards on the ground and 5 by penalty before Nick Folk banged through a 38-yard field goal.<\/p>\n
Welcome back to the Ground and Pound Era, which suffered a 31-12 loss in its infancy to the Giants.<\/p>\n
Breece Hall runs with the ball during the Jets\u2019 preseason loss to the Giants on Aug. 16. Corey Sipkin for the NY Post<\/p>\n
The offense played 19 snaps and did nothing to quash any concerns out of training camp about the under-construction passing attack. <\/p>\n
Fields connected on 1-of-5 passes for 4 yards, with his only completion coming when he used his athleticism to move the pocket on a rollout left and hit rookie tight end Mason Taylor moving toward the sideline.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis approach is awesome,\u201d general manager Darren Mougey said of Fields during an in-game interview on CBS.<\/p>\n
Justin Fields slides during the Jets\u2019 preseason loss to the Giants on Aug. 16. Bill Kostroun for the NY Post<\/p>\n
The worst of Fields\u2019 four incompletions? <\/p>\n
That would be the one-hopper on a wide receiver screen that got Wilson unnecessarily knocked to the turf.<\/p>\n
In fact, Fields and Wilson have not connected on any of four targets during two preseason games despite their excitement about joining forces again and reestablishing their Ohio State chemistry.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The search for a second receiver Fields trusts didn\u2019t gain any clarity, but Brandon Smith might have earned a bigger opportunity when he made four catches for 31 yards in the first half from backup quarterback Adrian Martinez.<\/p>\n
No wonder, then, that when the Jets faced a third-and-8 at their own 30-yard line \u2014 a passing situation under most NFL circumstances \u2014 the call was a draw to 235-pound back Braelon Allen, who powered his way to an 11-yard gain.<\/p>\n
In fact, the field goal drive started with five straight runs to the right side, including four by Breece Hall.<\/p>\n
Braelon Allen gets tackled during the Jets\u2019 preseason loss to the Giants on Aug. 16. Bill Kostroun for the NY Post<\/p>\n
Allen converted a third-and-1 after the third-and-8, and probably should\u2019ve been entrusted with the third-and-2, too.<\/p>\n
Perhaps it was a sign of Engstrand just being in tune to an opponent\u2019s weaknesses, given that the Giants haven\u2019t stopped the run over the past two seasons and it remains a big question even after a couple of significant offseason additions.<\/p>\n
More likely, it was a glimpse into the future.<\/p>\n
Braelon Allen takes a handoff during the Jets\u2019 preseason loss to the Giants on Aug. 16. Corey Sipkin for the NY Post<\/p>\n
One year ago, the Jets ranked last in the NFL in rushing attempts \u2014 and the next closest team to the bottom was the explosive (not a description that applied to Gang Green) Bengals.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s clear that\u2019s not going to be the case again with the Jets, who didn\u2019t have Isaiah Davis available due to injury.<\/p>\n
The Bears and Steelers averaged 153.1 rushing yards per game during Fields\u2019 first 44 career starts, according to ESPN.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the insider\u2019s view on Gang Green\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Jets by Brian Costello, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky believes the Jets will have no worse than a top five rushing attack while Fields also utilizes his backs on screen passes. <\/p>\n
Fields has averaged 50.2 rushing yards per game in his career, including a 1,143-yard season in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have a nice little three-headed monster,\u201d Fields said during the week. \u201cThe running back room is stacked, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question now becomes whether Fields plays Friday against the Eagles or that was his final appearance of the preseason.<\/p>\n
With just four full practices left before Week 1, a skeptic might say Fields and Engstrand need all the live reps together to balance out the offense before Sept. 7 against the Aaron Rodgers-led Steelers.<\/p>\n
Nothing during Saturday\u2019s first quarter would be enough to swap that opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It would have been less obvious who the Jets plan to be on offense this season if coordinator…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":152229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,12942,405,403,4716,5287,5226,5225,1232,5228,5227,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-152228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-justin-fields","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-new-york-giants","13":"tag-new-york-jets","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115042183128016450","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}