New Jersey’s Florham Park.Two days after being taken off the field due to a dislocated toe, Justin Fields, the quarterback for the New York Jets, took part in 7-on-7 drills on Saturday at training camp.
In a session with wide receivers and during quarterback placement drills, Fields fired passes. One of these passes, a wonderfully positioned deep ball to Tyler Johnson, resulted in a huge gain that caused the stands to cheer.
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Fields will continue to be assessed daily and did not take part in team drills.
Coach Aaron Glenn stated, “I’m just trying to ease him in.”
Sunday is the Jets’ first day off from practice.
Glenn stated of Fields, “I thought he did a good job in 7-on-7s.” The problem is that he still has a ways to go before we can get him out there, so we’ll make sure to maintain the procedure and make sure he’s prepared.
Early in practice on Thursday, Fields dislocated a toe on his right foot, sending fans and social media into a frenzy. After being carried from the field to the facility, he underwent a number of tests before the team made the diagnosis public, allaying concerns that the injury might be even more serious.
Fields wore his helmet and watched practice from the sidelines on Friday, but he had improved enough on Saturday to participate in some of the drills.
Fields was slated to start his first season with the Jets, so Glenn didn’t anticipate the injury would force him to fall behind.
The coach assured them that he would be OK. One day he missed. He will be alright because he has attended sessions.
While Fields is out, backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor leads the offense during team drills.
Addressing the problems
Even though Fields received a lot of applause during practice, the players and supporters were energized by an addition to the routines.
An offensive player faces a defensive player one-on-one during a tackling practice that Glenn led. The defensive player tries to stop the offensive player in his tracks by wrapping him up, but the offensive player seeks to avoid him.
Although it wasn’t full tackling—pads weren’t used yet—Glenn brought it from his coaching days in Detroit and began using it in structured team practices.
“I made some minor adjustments to make it work the way I wanted it to,” he stated. I adore the drill. The players become enthused about it. You have the opportunity to instruct and practice the skills you need to improve in order to be proficient at tackling and, offensively, simply pointing at players in space.
Missed open-field tackles were a problem for the Jets defense at times during the previous campaign. When wide receiver Garrett Wilson was squared up by cornerback Sauce Gardner and forced out of bounds on Saturday, the defense let out the loudest shouts.
“Dude,” Glenn remarked, “this league is all about making open-field tackles.” We all know, I believe, that the league is currently very large. Therefore, our team will perform better the more tackles you can make in space.
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