New York Jets coach Robert Saleh let the cat, or the cats, out of the bag on Wednesday—telling reporters that his team will be visiting the Carolina Panthers for joint practices this summer.
His counterpart for those sessions, Dave Canales, was asked about his relationship with Saleh on Wednesday.
“Robert Saleh and I were quality control coaches together with the Seahawks,” he said after today’s session of team organized activities. “We were together for Super Bowl XLVIII, and then he left shortly after that. So we have about a 13-year or 14-year relationship. We were able to practice with them last year in Tampa, and so we just kinda talked about doing that again.”
The Jets were also able to practice with the Panthers last year—in a brief trip to Spartanburg that culminated in a preseason matchup at Bank of America Stadium. That exhibition, which was the first of the summer, ended in a 27-0 win for New York.
Canales then went into detail about how the practices can benefit his squad.
“It’s a great advantage for us because we play so much five-man front type of defense,” he added. “So he’s more the traditional 4-3 defense. We need that work. They ask their defensive ends, their tackles to play aggressively up the line of scrimmage. And so, that’s a lot different than the way we play our two-gap systems, where guys are kind of keeping their shoulders square and staying in gaps. So we need the different part of that rush.”
See you soon, Gang Green.
