The good and bad for the Jets in two joint practices against the Giants

New York Times

11 hours ago

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — If anyone is declaring a 'winner' of the two joint practices between the Jets and Giants, it would probably be the Giants. But it wasn't domination, and there were other factors at play, specifically injuries on the Jets defense — a few key players were held out on Wednesday. The Jets had moments — on both sides of the ball — that foment optimism, and some that were reasons for concern.
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Let's run through the good and the bad from the last two days…
It's hard to really evaluate the running game in these settings since neither team is fully tackling, but the Jets running game built off its impressive performance against the Steelers. The passing game (at least with Justin Fields) wasn't going very far down the field on Tuesday or Wednesday, but they were making plays out of the backfield.
Fields had a big run early in 11-on-11 drills on Wednesday a read-option play that was a legitimate big gain without any defenders in sight. Braelon Allen also ran for a 25-yard touchdown and had a few other nice runs. The Giants did get in the backfield a few times, including when edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux blew up a Breece Hall run, but I thought the offensive line mostly held its own in the run game — and that Allen was one of the most impressive guys on the field over two days. He had a nice catch on a wheel route on Tuesday too.
It's not that Fields or the passing attack was out-and-out terrible, it was just a little … boring and ineffective. Either Fields isn't throwing it down the field on his own volition, or the Jets simply aren't asking him to. Most of his passes have been short, quick hitters — and when they were more toward the sideline or in the intermediate areas of the field on Wednesday, he wasn't especially accurate.
Glenn didn't love a question about Fields' conservative approach to throwing the ball.
'He's progressing. He's progressing,' Glenn said. 'That's what he's doing, he's being a quarterback. I know everybody wants to see the long ball, but he's progressing. That's the simplest I could answer that question.'
Justin Fields
Jets
On Wednesday, I had Fields getting sacked five times — a few the result of a talented Giants defensive line winning their matchups, a few the result of him holding onto the ball a little too long — and on at least four of them (as the play continued since quarterbacks can't be touched in these practices), the passes he threw fell incomplete anyway.
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Removing those plays, Fields completed 7 of 11 passes in 11-on-11 drills. That included short completions or dump-offs to Allen and fullback Andrew Beck, and short passes on slants to Garrett Wilson, Brandon Smith (twice), Tyler Johnson and Jeremy Ruckert. He missed Wilson a couple times on inaccurate passes in the final move-the-ball period at the end of practice.
Over two days, Fields completed 14 of 23 passes during 11-on-11 drills — 60.7 percent — which is around where he's been completion-percentage-wise over the course of his career in the regular season: 61.1 percent.
Glenn said he challenged the offense after their 'up and down' day in Tuesday's practice and he felt like the group responded well on Wednesday other than the final two-minute drill in the move-the-ball period, which included three short completions, a sack, two incompletions and a false start penalty.
Rookie wide receiver Arian Smith had the play of the day for the Jets offense on Wednesday, high-pointing a deep throw from Adrian Martinez. Smith has been trending up since the start of camp and it's going to be hard for the Jets to keep him off the field, especially since he brings a speed element nobody else in the wide receiver room offers. He had a cornerback beat against the Packers in the preseason opener too, but Adrian Martinez underthrew him. The Jets don't have anyone outside of Garrett Wilson who strikes any sort of fear into an opposing secondary; Smith's ascension could help him earn a bigger role than expected.
.@ArianSmith2 got UP ⬆️ pic.twitter.com/B4X1gX8Bcl
— New York Jets (@nyjets) August 13, 2025
Another under-the-radar standout throughout camp has been Brandon Smith. The 26-year-old has decent size (6-2, 218), has made plays all summer and is now getting some of the reps with Fields vacated by Allen Lazard, who is out for a couple weeks with a shoulder injury. He stood out as a blocker in the run game on Wednesday, too. If Smith can establish a role on special teams, he has a real shot at sticking around.
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'That's one guy that I probably haven't talked about enough,' Glenn said. 'But man, I like where he's at, and he's steadily improving on a daily basis. It's good when your younger guys are showing up because now it pushes the older guys that they got to get going, because this is going to be a team of the best of the guys who are going to be here and the guys that fit us.'
The Jets defense did a good job against Russell Wilson and the Giants starters on Tuesday — other than in a red-zone drill at the end of practice. They struggled more during 11-on-11 drills most of the day on Wednesday, though that comes with a caveat: The Jets held out defensive end Jermaine Johnson (Achilles), defensive tackle Quinnen Williams (calf) and cornerback Sauce Gardner (calf soreness) from practice. The defense still had his moments — defensive tackle Jay Tufele had another sack, cornerback Brandon Stephens broke up a pass, and they stifled the Giants offense during the two-minute drill — but they definitely were missing that trio.
Quarterback Brady Cook was held out of Wednesday's practice but Glenn said he'll play against the Giants on Saturday. Though Glenn wouldn't say whether starters will play this week.
'The plan is the plan,' is all Glenn would say about that.
The Giants defensive line — powered by Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, Abdul Carter and Dexter Lawrence — definitely won most of its battles with the Jets offensive line, though I don't view that necessarily as a negative. The Giants, for all their roster faults, have an elite group of pass rushers that is going to give the best offensive lines in the NFL trouble. Burns, in particular, was having his way with both Jets offensive tackles (Armand Membou on the right side, Olu Fashanu on the left). But this was a really good test going against a varied defensive line — one that moves its players all over the place to create havoc. The Jets' O-line needs to get used to uncomfortable settings — and going against a defensive line that, top to bottom, has more talent than the one they typically go against in practice, that's what they got the past two days.
I tracked how the Jets did in one-on-one matchups between their offensive line and the Giants' defensive line. The most notable outcomes: Thibodeaux bull-rushed Membou and Carter beat him with speed; Lawrence trucked through center Josh Myers and Burns easily beat Fashanu. Center Joe Tippmann held up well, getting a dominant win against Rakeem Nunes-Roches, and backup tackle Max Mitchell actually acquitted himself nicely in a couple reps against Carter.
On Saturday, the line looked stellar across the board against the Packers, especially in the run game. This still looks like the best offensive line the Jets have had in a long time. These joint practices against the Giants should ultimately serve them well in the long run.
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