Coming off two straight overtime games, the New York Jets will play twice in five days, starting with Sunday’s home game against the Houston Texans.
There may be some concern over fatigue, particularly after the Jets basically played five quarters last Sunday in a 26-20 overtime win over the Cleveland Browns. Heck, even special teams coach Mike Westhoff was worried about PK Nick Folk and P Steve Weatherford being overworked in practice, but Rex Ryan believes his staff has taken the necessary precautions to keep players fresh.
The Jets aren’t practicing in pads this week. Ryan has also limited the plays per practice. Due to the time constraints, Ryan will implement some aspects of this Sunday’s game plan into the scheme for next week's game against the Cincinnati Bengals, who come to town on Thanksgiving night.
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The Jets will practice just twice (Monday and Tuesday) before the Cincinnati game, so it only made sense that Ryan carryover some aspects from the Texans game into next week's game plan.
To keep players fresh, Ryan went through 40 walk-through plays on Wednesday and just 34 live practice plays. On Thursday, the Jets again went through 40 walk-through plays but only 30 practice plays.
The players are also given plenty of amenities off the field, such as access to a nutritionist and professional massages every Friday.
“Rex takes care of us,” said DT Trevor Pryce, a 13-year veteran. “They do things around here like I’ve never seen before.”
Said Ryan: “(If) your expectations are that your guys are going to play a physical, fast football game, then you’ve got to try to take care of them."