Jets' Robert Saleh remains confident: 'I don’t know why people are trying to put an obituary onto our team name'
As Jets players, coaches and staff members awoke Tuesday morning, the adrenaline of Monday night’s 22-16 overtime win over the Bills had to have been quickly overshadowed by the reality of Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending injury.
While it was feared on Monday night that Rodgers had suffered a left Achilles injury, that worst-possible scenario was confirmed Tuesday, as an MRI confirmed that the future Hall-of-Famer suffered a ruptured Achilles, ending his 2023 season after just four snaps.
The Rodgers injury certainly dampened what was an exhilarating win, but head coach Robert Saleh explained on Tuesday that the team is not ready to simply roll over without their star quarterback.
“I don’t know why people are trying to put an obituary onto our team name,” Saleh said. “Aaron is an unbelievable piece to this whole thing and we love him, but I think there’s 52 other guys in the locker room plus the 16 practice squad guys that believe that we can do a hell of a lot of good things here. We’ve got a championship-caliber defense, we’ve got great skill guys on the offensive side of the ball, our O-line is going to going to gel and get better, but we’re excited about our group.
“We’ve worked hard over the last couple of years, players coaches, scout, GM, building a pretty cool organization, so there’s still a lot of faith in the locker room in the things that we can still accomplish this year. While the outside world can go ahead and write whatever story they want to write, there’s still the true story being written in this building.”
When Rodgers went down Monday night, former second overall pick Zach Wilson took over. While his numbers were fairly pedestrian (14-of-21 for 140 yards, one touchdown, one interception), Wilson did enough to help lead Gang Green to a key division win.
On Tuesday afternoon, Saleh reiterated what he said immediately after the game: Wilson is the team’s starting quarterback moving forward. The Jets are actively looking for a third-string QB to add behind backup Tim Boyle, but Wilson will be at the top of the depth chart.
“We are going to look through some things, but I do want to make it very clear: Zach’s our quarterback," he said. "We’ve got a lot of faith in Zach. We’re really excited about his opportunity, but we’re rolling with Zach and excited for him, and like I said, this opportunity that he’s going to get.”
That opportunity for Wilson starts immediately, as the Jets have a short week before traveling to Dallas to face a Cowboys team that started the season with a dominating 40-win over the Giants.
So what is Saleh’s message to the team with Rodgers out and Wilson in?
“We’re on to Dallas,” he said with a smile.
