'It's not Madden:' Robert Saleh says there's no rush to fill Jets' quarterback room
After Aaron Rodgers suffered a season-ending Achilles tear in his Monday night debut for the New York Jets, head coach Robert Saleh said that the team will look at all its options in filling the roster spot. In speaking with the media on Wednesday, he said that he is "still working through it all" and that finding another quarterback "doesn't have to be this week."
"It's not Madden in the sense that we can just plug and play anybody," he said, referring to the popular video game franchise. "There's a lot of meetings, a lot of practices, a lot of nuance, a lot of understanding why things are the way they are that go into it."
Saleh is committed to Zach Wilson as the Jets starting quarterback and the team elevated Tim Boyle from the practice squad to serve as his backup. The coach emphasized protecting the culture that the team has built, which was documented in the "Hard Knocks" series this offseason.
"It's going to take time, whoever comes in this building to figure out what we've done over the last six, seven months to create the identity within the system," Saleh elaborated. "So right now all of our attention are on Zach and Tim to get them ready to play football."
As speculation circulates that Rodgers, 39, might retire after suffering the season-ending surgery, Saleh said that he has a belief about the quarterback's future, but he is giving the four-time MVP space to process the situation.
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"I'd be shocked if this is the way he's gonna go out," he said, "but at the same time for him, he's working through a whole lot of head space, things that he needs to deal with and that will be the last thing I talk to him about."