Early glimpses of Jets' passing attack warrant concern, but it's not time to panic

FLORHAM PARK - There's no need for red flags or alarms. This isn't DEFCON 1. The Jets haven't yet seen another team's jersey. Their first preseason game is Saturday. They have scrimmages against the Giants the next week. There's a long way between now and the opener against Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers.

But concern? Yes, concern is warranted.

The passing game is currently an issue.

The offense wasn't up to par," said head coach Aaron Glenn of Tuesday's practice.

Even those viewing life through the greenest of green lenses are grounded in this reality: The Jets are not the Greatest-Show-on-Turf. They want to be gritty. They want to be tough. They want to thrive in the ugliest of games. Essentially, each Sunday, drag their opposition to the deep end and see if they can't swim.

Their offense will reflect that. The Jets believe they've invested enough in their offensive line (Olu Fashanu, John Simpson, Joe Tippman or Josh Myers, Alijah Vera-Tucker, Armand Membou) where they can rely on them. So they will feed (and feed and feed and feed) running backs Breece Hall, Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis. A true return to a ground-and-pound philosophy.

The strategy can work - it has in the past. But only if you have some semblance of a threat through the air. That's simply not the case at the moment.

Garrett Wilson, whom the Jets awarded a $130-million extension to before camp opened, is a superstar receiver. The problems are with ... everything else. The Jets watched Davante Adams depart for Los Angeles. They pivoted to sign Josh Reynolds and Tyler Johnson. They kept Allen Lazard. Xavier Gipson and Malachi Corley are back, too. They drafted Arian Smith. It is still early (this bears repeating), but none have separated themselves as a legitimate complement to Wilson.

They struggle to get open. They don't excel in contested catches. They drop passes at an alarming rate. Rookie tight end Mason Taylor was turning heads, but he's now dealing with a high ankle sprain and expected to miss a few weeks.

This is probably the most talented receiving group I've been a part of in my eight years, top to bottom," said Lazard.

Glenn wanted no parts of a third Rodgers season, although it would have been his first. So he swapped him out for Justin Fields. The Jets named the former Bears first-round pick and short-time Steeler their unquestioned starter. Fields has done very little to justify that unrivaled vote of confidence to this point.

Fields completed 9-of-17 passes on Tuesday with a pair of interceptions. That doesn't include a 7-on-7 period where he completed just one-of-four attempts with another interception. There were two drops and three sacks - that doesn't help the quarterback.

Off days are expected in training camp. The issue is they're stacking bad ones. This wasn't a one-off. On Saturday, Fields completed just 2-of-10 passes. On Monday, he was 4-of-16. Keep the calculator in your pocket. The Jets' starting passing attack is 15-of-43 (34 percent) with the two Sunday interceptions in his last three practices.

Fields suffered a toe injury early in training camp. He's about fully back, but still wearing a size bigger shoe on that foot. That could be playing a role, but Fields didn't wow much throughout organized team activities or minicamp, either.

It's inevitable," said Fields. You're going to have these days in training camp. That's why we're out here. That's why we're out here working. The defense won the day, at the end of the day. It's about how we respond on Thursday. We have to come out hot."

There's a negative connotation when it comes to training camp stats and how little they matter. For some teams that is absolutely the case. Jets camp practices under former head coach Robert Saleh featured a ton of offense-versus-defense periods, but the vast majority were scripted or situational. The Jets would line up and rep a series of third-and-long situations. Poor passing numbers are expected there because the quarterback is taking chances he normally wouldn't.

That's not the case with Glenn. He wants to make practice as similar to a game as he can. That's why the Jets live tackle. It's also why they move the ball as much as they do. The offense sets up at a specific yard line. It's their job to go down the field and score. They face a third-and-long only if their first and second downs fail. The defense has no idea what the defense is going to run, and vice versa.

There are certainly times Fields and the Jets quarterbacks are more aggressive than they would be on Sunday, but not many.

Some of it's me, some of it is dropping the ball," said Fields. It's practice, I've been a part of games where we have a red-zone Friday, we run the play three times, we don't hit it one time, then Sunday comes and we hit it the first time we run it.

Our guys are talented enough to get the job done. When we don't have the day we want to have, it's just about how we respond."

It does not look great right now. Repeating, once again, there is time. The Jets only face themselves each day. Maybe their defense is just that good? Put them against someone else and the offense will flourish. That's why hysteria isn't justified ... yet.

But there is a trend developing in Florham Park. It's not a good one.

It's worth monitoring.

Especially if it doesn't turn around in the coming weeks.