Here it is, making good on promises baby.

Hard Knocks has been one of my favorite shows for years now regardless of who the team is. I think it’s the perfect kick off to football season and I have fond memories of being in training camp myself gathering with my friends on Tuesday nights ordering dominos and watching as a nice relaxing “night out” with practice the next day. The Jets have been here before back in the Rex years and it was great then, and guess what, it’s great now. And just in case you’re apart of the “Hard Knocks fell off” crowd, I watched the Jet’s YouTube training camp show as an appetizer right before Hard Knocks started and I don’t want to say it sucked but it didn’t hold a candle to HBO’s best show.

Episode 2 kicked off with some nice team bonding. The Jets had a magician type guy come in and entertain the team in between meetings and practices and while I really wanted to roast him, his tricks were actually incredibly impressive. I just think it’s kind of crazy how they practice 45 minutes away from some of the greatest comedy clubs in the world and decided to go that route. We’ve seen in years past Frank Caliendo and other stand ups come in and do the same to entertain the team during camp, I’m not saying they could’ve done better cause like I said he was very impressive, but they could’ve done better.

As expected, the reactions to the tricks were absolutely hilarious. For whatever reason, football players always go crazy when they get their minds blown with this type of stuff. I’ve seen it with amateur magicians doing it to college players, and we’ve seen it before with other teams using the same guy (shoutout hick for that tidbit last night). My personal favorite though had to be the star of the show getting his mind blown. Live look at Rodgers after opening his hands revealing the gold fish.

Alright, let’s talk about the important stuff now.

We start out a few days before heading down to Carolina for joint practices and a Pre Season game. I wouldn’t necessarily say tensions are high, but everyone including Salah is able to tell that the team has come to the “we have to hit someone else” point that all football teams get to in camps. Whether I’m watching it on TV or watching it at my actual practices (I’ll always be watching since ya boy Jerry hates confrontation) training camp fights always make me uncomfortable. I can’t sit here and say I don’t understand them, you’re constantly hitting and battling while testosterone is just pumping through the air, but I really don’t like them. All it takes is one bad punch or fall or something and things can get fucked, we saw it back in the Geno days when that no name broke his jaw with a right hook (it was pre-meditated and somewhat warranted but still same principal). I just always feel like the impending punishment is worse than getting the anger out, granted these guys are grown ass men and aren’t gonna have to run gassers, but I’m scarred for life.

These fights though just show how hungry and aggressive this team is and I absolutely love to see that. Down to Carolina we go and joint practices start where Gang Green looked absolutely fantastic and horrendous at the same time.

Starting off with the good, this defense is going to steal your lunch money and then make you say sorry to them. Man, these guys are going to be something. Between QW upfront along side of new comer Will Mcdonald, all QBs on the Jet’s schedule should start getting their ice baths ready now. We saw this first hand during the practices as well as the preseason game. We absolutely dominated the Panther’s OL and really put the hurting on Bryce Young. Now it’s not saying everything in the world because it is the Carolina Panthers and I expect there to be some growing pains with them for at least a season or two as they work things out, but still it was sheer dominance. And that’s just up front, you couple that with CJ Mosely calling the shots in the middle and the Sauce Boss tracking down every single ball thrown his way, the Jets defense might be a sleeper fantasy pick up for some big time points.

Remember yesterday when I said our OL is apparently shit? Yeah, its no longer apparently, it is definitely. We all saw this first hand this episode and the first team was pushed around by Panther’s defensive front. So much so that ARod was starting to get very very frustrated and I was starting to think maybe this version of Rodgers that we’ve been seeing is just an act and he’s just a big time A hole. He’s not and I definitely don’t think it’s a character, anyone would get frustrated with that type of performance. Luckily, it was just during the joint practice and not the actual Pre Season game. Salah called out the offense pretty badly, “Last year we proved that we’re a team with a really good defense and a crappy offense” the truth hurts. I think that we have the talent just about everywhere else, we’re stacked at all skills positions, have one of the best QBs to ever play, and a defense that’ll punch you in the mouth, we just have one glaring issue and its the offensive line. We just need the line to be serviceable enough to give Rodgers 3-5 seconds in the pocket to fire it off, that’s all. And now that everything else is built up and ready to go for what seems to be a decent future, we can start building that and complete the puzzle.

They might want to consider renaming this season to Hard Knocks: Training Camp with Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets because yet again he was the star of the show. I’m not complaining but any means of the word, smoke em if you got em. He’s wicked charismatic and just seems like a great dude and teammate despite how the media was trying to portray him a few years ago for asking some simple questions. But besides his good guy on and off the field persona, I told myself something last night I think reigns true. This Aaron Rodgers signing will be the best thing the Jets have ever done. Not only based on his performance alone, but because of what I think he has been doing and has the ability to continue to do to Zach Wilson.

We can’t sit here and say that we’re going to get 5+ years out of Rodgers and expect a resurgence of his prime, it’s unrealistic. But I do think that while he’s here for the 2-3 years he plays, he is going to rub off on Wilson immensely. We’re starting to see brief flashes of that during these Pre Season games, a few beautiful passes against the Browns at the HOF and a wonderfully put together first half in Carolina, he’s starting to look like a QB. Now of course, we can say that he’s looking this good against guys who will be bagging groceries in a week, but he’s playing the early drives which is usually against a pseudo first team if not second team filled of actual NFL talent and not guys trying to earn a spot on the bench. Everyone always said when we drafted him that Wilson has the chance to be great, personally I never saw it and renounced it but I always go against the grain because I’m #Different. Rodgers is really going to help him catapult to the next level. Aaron Rodgers is the best thing to happen to Zach Wilson.

One last thing I just want to say before I wrap. Going into the season Saleh made it clear that this season wouldn’t be like ones before it showing intimate moments with the cuts. It wasn’t great to hear because that’s part of what makes this show so good, but its understandable and honestly pretty admirable. I had feared that it would take away from the show but it’s really not impacting it all that much. The one thing we aren’t getting as much though which kind of stinks is personal story lines. This week we saw brief glimpses into QW and Will Mcdonald, but they’re pretty locked into the 53 man roster. It was always fun watching the story of the journey man or the walk on hoping that they’d make it but this year it’s all about the team and I like it but I think I only like it as much as I do because it’s my team. We’ll see if this stays the norm, hopefully it doesn’t but again I’d understand if it did.

Parting words not important enough for a paragraph

• We love to see Rookie Initiation and I’m glad they have to do it again because that was some weak sauce
• It’s crazy they let Mcdonald wear #99, but I found out last night that Gastineau’s number isn’t retired which is even more crazy. I guess when you’re in the ring of honor it doesn’t necessarily retire your number
• Aaron Rodgers praising Liev Schrieber as much as he did in the first episode was deliberate so Liev would be nice to him and keep him the star of the show. It’s an inside job, I’m on to you Rodgers
• Did I mention this defense is fucking scary? No? Well, this defense is scary, be warned.

We’re going into Saturday facing the Bucs with great confidence. Not that it matters because its just Pre Season, but if that same team shows up that played the Panthers it should be a great game. We’ll see you next week for another rendition of All Gas No Breaks, Jet Up baby let’s go.