Jets cross rusher Jermaine Johnson missed 15 video games final season resulting from an Achilles harm he suffered in Week 2.
Nevertheless, Jets coach Aaron Glenn says he will likely be prepared for his or her Week 1 matchup towards the Steelers at MetLife Stadium.
That occurs to coincide with the return of Aaron Rodgers, who was Johnson’s teammate with the Jets for 2 seasons earlier than he was launched in March.
“We were just texting last night,” Johnson stated. “However clearly, I’m excited, he’s excited.
“Yeah, it was a pleasure having Aaron round and stuff like that and I want him the very best. However, , whenever you get in between these traces, there’s no associates and I believe he is aware of that.
“I’m excited. It’s just another game, but for me, it’s going to be my first game back with a lot of emotions. When my emotions are high, I tend to play pretty well.”
As a rookie in 2022, Johnson recorded 29 tackles and a pair of.5 sacks in 14 video games after he was chosen twenty sixth total in that 12 months’s draft out of Florida State. The Jets group has a whole lot of confidence that Johnson will return to type and perhaps even exceed his 2023 stage when he recorded 55 tackles, 7.5 sacks, and made an look within the Professional Bowl.
In any other case, Glenn and Jets common supervisor Darren Mougey, who have been each employed in January, wouldn’t have picked up his fifth-year possibility on his contract in April.
“I think it was only Aiden [Hutchinson] who got that same treatment, so to me, it is like a big investment,” Johnson stated. “They’ve seen sufficient about me and heard sufficient about me that they’re keen to dive into that for not less than for an additional 12 months.
“It means a lot to me and I’m always a man of my word and a man of honor, so to me that’s them lifting their end of the couch. Now, it is time for me to lift my end of the couch.”
Johnson tore his Achilles when he was pursuing Titans quarterback Will Levis. Johnson needs to be “close” to being cleared for contact by late July, in line with Glenn, however he may start coaching camp on the bodily unable to carry out checklist.
Since struggling the harm, Johnson has been rehabbing in makes an attempt to return to the apply area along with his teammates. Through the Jets’ offseason program, Johnson has been working with a coach off to the aspect. Earlier within the offseason, Johnson was splitting time rehabbing between Los Angeles and New Jersey.
The Jets definitely missed Johnson’s manufacturing throughout their disappointing 5-12 season, wherein each coach Robert Saleh and common supervisor Joe Douglas have been fired.
“When I went down, I felt like I let the team down,” Johnson stated. “I do know accidents occur, however it’s simply how I’m considering, I’m letting the blokes down. They put a whole lot of inventory into that and I do know they did.
“I wasn’t there to hold up my end of the bargain or lift my end of the couch. Just watching that and seeing that and some of those games were close and I know I can just help. I know I’m just a plus to have on the field, I know this and it was hard for me to watch.”
With the youth motion Glenn and Mougey have spearheaded with the Jets, Johnson will likely be counted on for his manufacturing on the sector. Glenn has been a fan of Johnson, courting again to when he and the Lions’ teaching workers have been on the 2022 Senior Bowl.
“There are things that stand out going back to college that I saw in him,” Glenn stated about Johnson. “Even on the Senior Bowl once I had an opportunity to educate him then, he’s a hard-nose, bodily, violent participant that’s very athletic that has the power to win off the sting and make performs on the quarterback.
“You don’t get a lot of guys that have the athleticism that he does and be strong and powerful to be able to hold up against the run like he does. I’m excited to see that player get out there in training camp and going into the first game. So, he’s going to be a huge part of what we are doing, he knows that too, but he understands what he needs to get better at.”
Johnson will return to a Jets protection that options eight starters from final 12 months’s unit, which completed third in yards allowed (313.8). Nevertheless, the Jets’ protection struggled with out Johnson and after they fired Saleh following a Week 5 loss to the Vikings.
Of their closing 12 video games, the Jets’ protection ranked twenty eighth (26.6) in factors allowed and 18th in yards (337.9) allowed per sport. Along with making an attempt to enhance his play on the sector, Johnson can be rising as extra of a frontrunner this 12 months.
“A lot of playmakers, a lot of athletic guys, a lot of leaders,” Johnson stated about his earlier impressions of the Jets protection. “I’m a kind of guys who likes to guide by instance.
“Since I’m not on the market with them but, it’s laborious for me to be too vocal. I used to be telling the youthful guys, ‘This team is going to go how we go.’ If we play unhealthy, we’re going to play unhealthy as a staff. If we play good, we’re going to play good as a staff.
“You also want that pressure walk around like that, undrafted free agent or a first-round draft pick, I don’t care. So I mean, those guys respond to that.”
