Henry McKenna

AFC East Reporter

The New York Jets are grappling with how to proceed.

It’s like that when a team loses its starting quarterback — particularly for the Jets, who spent their offseason emphasizing the tremendous importance of Aaron Rodgers. The coaches stated Rodgers’ importance in meetings. (We saw it again and again on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”) The front office indicated Rodgers’ importance with his salary and trade value. The Jets made it abundantly clear they needed Rodgers.

They lost him to an Achilles injury in Week 1. And then in Week 2, the Jets took a 30-10 drubbing by the Dallas Cowboys. There wasn’t much working for the Jets. Not their defense. Not their offense. On offense, the Jets couldn’t get the ball into the hands of their playmakers. 

At least one of them wasn’t happy about it.

“I mean, I only had four touches,” running back Breece Hall said Sunday after the game. “That’s why we struggled. But it is what it is. We just got down early today and kind of just abandoned the run. I feel like with any team, that type of stuff happens. That’s how it is. You feel like you’ve got to get back in the game and stuff like that. It just slips away. So that’s what it was.”

If there’s any consolation, it’s that Hall’s comments point mostly at himself. He wants to do more for the team. But of course, who’s getting in the way? 

Well, that’s more complicated: his coaches, his quarterback, his defense. 

Playing from behind, the play-caller (offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett) needed to call passes. The quarterback kept throwing interceptions. And the defense couldn’t stop the Cowboys.

It was a cycle that kept the ball away from Hall.

Can Jets salvage their season after Aaron Rodgers’ injury?

And there’s another layer. Last week, coach Robert Saleh said Hall was asking for more touches in Week 1. Saleh told the media that Hall’s competitiveness — his fire to make more plays for the team — was exactly why the running back was on a snap…