Aaron Rodgers tried to downplay any apparent disagreement with Jets coach Robert Saleh.
Rodgers made headlines with one answer following the Jets’ 10-9 loss to the Broncos Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium when it appeared he was a bit at odds with Saleh about the team’s five offensive pre-snap penalties and what role Rodgers’ cadence played in it.
“I think the question may have been posed in a way that might not have been exactly what was said,” Rodgers said during his weekly appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday.
“Listen, I’ve used my cadence my entire career. … Everything we do in the game, we do in practice. And that’s why I said after the game that it felt like, I used the word outlier, maybe a better word is anomaly.
“It was one of those games where we just jumped offsides five times. Before that, we had one false start in three games and nobody complained about the cadence. One of those was home but two of those were on the road. We’re using various styles of cadences – we don’t just go on one every time. It’s been an advantage for us – we threw a touchdown Week 1 on an offsides [on the defense] on a silent count. In order for it to be a weapon, we gotta stay onsides.”
In explaining the team’s penalties, Saleh after the game said: “We gotta figure it out, whether or not we are good enough to handle all the, or ready to handle, all the cadence. Cadence had not been an issue all [training] camp. Felt like our operation had been operating pretty good. Obviously, today took a major step back.”
Rodgers was then asked about Saleh saying his cadence “might be something you guys have to dial back a little bit.”
“That’s one way to do it,” Rodgers notably answered. “The other way is to hold them accountable.”
Rodgers denounced criticism for the contradiction in their answers.
“I don’t know why Robert would get any or even [offensive coordinator Nathaniel] Hackett, nobody deserves any crap for that except for the players,” Rodgers said. “We gotta make sure that we are staying onsides. I don’t think it’s an issue, it hasn’t been an issue in practice, it’s again another talking point for outside the building.”
For his own part, Saleh downplayed the idea they are considering changing much with their cadence.
“No, no, you know, yesterday I was mentioning operation,” Saleh said on Monday. “We’re always going to push the envelope with cadence, always, but with regards to operation, getting in and out of the huddle, getting to the line of scrimmage, there’s a communication that’s being had. Those are all things that we can continue to look at and clean up, but from a cadence standpoint, that’s part of what makes us who we are, and we’re going to continue to always push the envelope on that.
“Cadence is all part of operation, and the finishing line on that statement [after Sunday’s game] was ‘operation,’ and our operation had been good up until yesterday. Obviously there’s things that showed up, and it’s something I think we can definitely get fixed.”
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