The infamous rookie wall is about to hit the Jets hard over the team’s final four games.
Most first-year NFL players have never played meaningful football games this late in the year. Typically, the college football season has wrapped up or will wrap up in a week or two. That leads to a lot of body and mental fatigue during the final month of the NFL season, one which Robert Saleh would like to mitigate for the young Jets.
“It is rookie wall time. And that’s real,” Saleh said Friday. “These next four weeks are going to be a grind for all of them and the goal is to finish the best we can and from there you take what you learn and have an offseason.”
New York is among the most rookie-centric teams in the league this year. The Jets are the only team with six different rookies who have played at least 300 offensive or defensive snaps, according to ESPN’s Rich Cimini. Their starting quarterback, running back, wide receiver, offensive guard, outside cornerback and slot cornerback are all rookies.
Running back Michael Carter, who leads the Jets in touches and scrimmage yards, explained that the wall is even taller when you consider rookies essentially train and play non-stop for two years. They start at spring practice during their final college season, play through that season, train for the draft, attend offseason workouts, go to training camp, and then play three preseason games before their first NFL season.
“Yeah. This year’s been super long,” Carter said Friday. “It’s like nonstop.”
But Carter won’t let the weight of a long year bring him down.
“Don’t get it twisted, I’m locked in,” he added. “But the season’s almost over, so I just want to put my best foot forward.”
