Justin Fields had perhaps his best practice of the spring on Tuesday in the Jets' first of three minicamp practices, which included some rain and overcast skies. Temperatures in the low 80s with sunny skies are expected on Wednesday and Thursday.
Fields led the offense to an Anders Carlson game-tying field goal in each of his two drives during the move-the-ball period, but the play that caught the eye of head coach Aaron Glenn was not a completion.
"The best play through that whole series was the fact that he rolled out, you guys might have seen it, and there wasn't anybody open," Glenn said. "He just threw it away. So, no negative plays. We kept getting positive plays and he actually got us down to kick a field goal, which is good."
Fields started the first 11-play drive with a pass to WR Garrett Wilson, who was targeted four times in the first seven plays. Wilson made an impressive, toe-tapping grab along the sideline on what seemed to be a broken play and put the offense in striking distance. After two incompletions and a Fields run, Carlson connected on the field goal try.
See Justin Fields, Sauce Gardner and Co. on the field during the first practice of Mandatory Minicamp.
Fields was the only quarterback to lead his unit to a game-tying score. Tyrod Taylor had two possessions, undrafted rookie QB Brady Cook led two and Adrian Martinez led one. The team period ended with S Jaylin Simpson, who had an interception in the final OTA, picking off Cook.
"So as we start to close out our Phase 3, there are a couple of things that I make sure that I pay close attention to because I know sometimes as players, I've been there too, how your mind can start to wander away from what's important about the things that we've been doing, about the habits that we've been creating," Glenn said. "So I play close attention to the competes on how we operate. I pay close attention to the discipline part. I pay close attention to the details of everyone's assignment and making sure that we have that laser focus on what we need to do to get better and not start to think about what's going to happen after this week's over with."
After the Green & White had a few OTA sessions with 100% participation, all 91 players reported to Mandatory Minicamp on Monday.
"I don't take that lightly either," Glenn said. "I'm appreciative, but I know how they're built, so those guys come to work."
Jetcetera
S Isaiah Oliver prevented a long play-action connection from Tyrod Taylor to WR Quentin Skinner. … Adrian Martinez threw a nice touch pass down the sideline that rookie RB Donovan Edwards couldn't corral as a potential big play was negated… DT Quinnen Williams got some excellent interior pressure against Fields in team period. CB Sauce Gardner collected a nifty PD, preventing a Justin Fields completion to Allen Lazard, but the fifth-year QB came back the next play and hit Garrett Wilson over the middle. Rookie S Malachi Moore had a would-be sack of Brady Cook.
The Jets closed practice with a special teams period that included punting from Austin McNamara and rookie Kai Kroeger... Xavier Gipson and two rookies – Dymere Miller and Jamaal Pritchett – took reps at punt returner.
