The New York Jets officially began their voluntary virtual offseason program on Monday.
With the COVID-19 pandemic in full force, all 32 NFL teams are moving to a virtual-based offseason program instead of an in-person one. The Jets began theirs on Monday with Jamal Adams being the lone wolf choosing not to participate.
Jets head coach Adam Gase explained that the program will have a four-hour window for players because the roster is spread out across the country in different time zones. The team will do positional meetings via video conferences four days a week and two hours per day. They will be able to communicate, share screens and watch film together.
Gase said he will be “very hands-on” in the program, jumping in and out of different positional meetings.
“It’s a unique way of doing things, but I think it’s going to be beneficial for us,” Gase told reporters via conference call.
Luckily for the Jets, they’re already a year into Gase’s system. They know how he operates and what he expects out of them. It’s not as if they have to learn a brand new system with a new head coach like some teams will have to do this offseason. It’s more of just cleaning up on the mistakes they made last year and preventing them from happening this season.
This program is going to be most beneficial for the newcomers. They will be the ones who are going to learn the most. So while it seems like this is not the most important thing in terms of getting ready for the season, this is the first step in having all the players on the same page for 2020.
“Things will come up and we’ll have to adjust,” Gase said. “The good news is, I feel like the players are anxious to get going on something. There’s not a lot of contact with people outside of FaceTime. This is a good opportunity for guys to actually see each other on these Microsoft teams meetings that we’re having. You can see your teammates, have discussions, interact. I think guys are excited to be a part of that.”
