The final play of Monday’s Jets practice was fitting.
Amid an encouraging summer in which the Jets offense has largely given reason for optimism, the unit delivered likely its worst showing of training camp so far.
They failed to find the end zone a single time during team drills, hardly able to even move the ball.
It finally ended with safety Tony Adams intercepting quarterback Aaron Rodgers to end the day.
“There’s a top-five defense on the other side,” head coach Robert Saleh said with a laugh after practice.
Yes, the Jets defense is undoubtedly the team’s strength and is heralded as one of the league’s best.
But the defense didn’t win Monday’s battle so much as the offense lost it.
Rodgers was constantly out of sync with his receivers, throwing in one direction as they ran in another.
Often, it wasn’t even clear whom he was targeting.
He completed just 11 of 27 passes, good for a brutal 40.7 completion percentage.
The offensive line struggled to keep his pocket clean, and edge rusher Will McDonald had two would-be sacks.
New starting right tackle Morgan Moses committed a false start, and the Jets weren’t exactly picking up chunk plays on the ground.
At one point, Rodgers threw five straight incomplete passes.
Saleh said they were practicing a four-minute, end-of-game situation and were “trying some new things” during that stretch.
“Took the guys a little bit to get going,” Saleh said. “But I still thought it was a good, competitive practice. Guys were communicating, they were executing the way we need them to, but their legs were a little heavy, you can say that.”
Saleh said he has not yet decided if the starters will play against the Giants on Saturday during the third preseason game.
The two teams will share a joint practice on Wednesday at the Jets’ facility before Saturday’s game.
Saleh had high praise for new defensive tackle Javon Kinlaw, whom he described as “unblockable” during the 15-12 preseason win over the Panthers on Saturday.
Kinlaw did not register any tackles, sacks or QB pressures, however.
Kinlaw, who is expected to start, suggested there’s good reason to expect him to break out.
The No. 14 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft by the 49ers, Kinlaw missed 23 of 34 games in 2021 and 2022 due to a torn ACL and subsequent setback in rehab.
He signed a one-year, $7.25 million deal with the Jets this offseason.
“This year has been my first time feeling like, ‘OK, I can really be who I think I can be, who I know I can be,’ ” Kinlaw said on Monday. “Point blank — when I was coming out [of college], I knew it was gonna take me some time. … The health caught up to the work ethic. The work ethic has always been crazy, the health finally caught up.
“I’ve been able to do some crazy things out there. Just going back and watching some of the film that I’m putting down right now, it’s like ‘damn, I can really do this thing.’”
