As Jets rookie camp opened on Friday, so did Robert Saleh’s first chance to work directly with players in his new role as head coach.
You could say Saleh felt like a rookie too.
“We just had our bigs out there and we were going through, and the horn blew for practice to be over, and I started to take my normal spot behind the huddle to hear the head coach speak,” Saleh laughed. “And I was like ‘Oh shoot, that’s me.’”
Fortunately for Saleh, he and the rest of the coaches are taking a relaxed approach to rookie camp, including with new quarterback Zach Wilson, who is going to have plenty of eyes on him as he begins his first work in a Gang Green helmet.
“Out of all the rookies, not just Zach, we really want these guys not only to be introduced to the coaches and the scheme, but also introduce themselves to us and what they want us to know about them,” Saleh said. “This is low pressure, come out, get introduced to the scheme, introduce themselves to us, and just get a good feel. It’s not a conditioning contest out there. It’s more just going with the flow of the weekend and getting a good feel of what it’s like to be a professional.”
While Saleh acknowledged the added pressure of being the second overall pick and the hype that comes with being a quarterback in New York, he and the rest of the Jets coaches don’t anticipate doing anything different with Wilson during camp.
“It’s no different than how you would want to bring along your Mike linebacker or your offensive lineman or whoever it is,” Saleh said. “There’s a process you have to go through…we have to be able to introduce our scheme, show them the techniques and fundamentals and get them to a point where they understand the overall scope of football. As far as Zach, I get the magnitude of the quarterback position, but the development of all these rookies are really the same.”
The start of Jets rookie camp will unsurprisingly bring about more Wilson talk than anything else, which comes with the territory of being seen as the next hopeful face of the franchise for a team that has been seeking a long-term solution at quarterback for decades. But for Saleh, that noise doesn’t need to enter camp this weekend. It is inevitable, but for now, the focus is on getting Wilson acclimated with the offense the Jets hope to see him thrive under for years to come.
“The one thing about this league, there’s pressure on everybody,” Saleh said. “I get the quarterback has the most eyes on him, but we’re all under pressure to make sure we’re all helping each other have success. To hide him, to shield, him, that’s impossible. You can’t. You’re wasting time. The biggest thing we’re trying to accomplish is make sure we’re growing as a team first. Obviously the questions about the quarterback…that goes with the position, but it’s our job as coaches to make sure everybody is lifting one another to make sure we get to where we want to be in the future.”
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