New York Jets first-round tight end Kenyon Sadiq wasn’t spotted at practice on Monday, August 3.
That raised some alarm bells on social media, but head coach Aaron Glenn quickly quieted the noise during his media availability.
“When it comes to injuries, we’re all good. The only one I do want to talk about is (Kenyon) Sadiq [who] wasn’t out there today. He’s on a maintenance program. He went three good, hard days last week, so today was the day we wanted to rest him, so he’ll be just fine,” Glenn explained.
Sadiq is coming off sports hernia surgery. He missed the final week of OTAs and all of mandatory minicamp.
There Is a Difference
I got the chance to speak with Sadiq after training camp practice on Saturday, August 1. He was asked about how his recovery from surgery is going.
He responded that he feels good, but he just needed the reps from practice to get back into everything.
You can strike a match off Sadiq. He has a physique that was sculpted by the Gods. Sadiq is chiseled. If you could build a perfect tight end on a lab table, that player would likely look like Sadiq.
However, there is a difference between football shape and physical shape. Sadiq missed critical reps during the spring and was on the shelf. Then there was a long layoff between mandatory minicamp in June and training camp getting underway in late July.
It’ll take time for him to return to full form.
Other Notable Injury Updates
Glenn didn’t mention the three players who have been previously announced as hurt during his opening statement.
ESPN’s Rich Cimini followed up by asking whether any one of Joseph Ossai, T’Vondre Sweat, or D’Angelo Ponds would return to practice this week.
“I don’t think this week, I wouldn’t say that. But again, we want to be very careful with all three of those guys. Listen, we have a role for all three of them. They all have to make sure of, they’re in charge of that role for the most part. Listen, I’m going to be very patient with those guys. I don’t think they’ll be out too much longer, but we want to do the right thing and make sure we have those guys ready for the regular season,” Glenn responded.
This isn’t an ideal situation for the Jets to be dealing with, but it could be far worse. The Jets don’t play a regular-season game for a month plus. If the team can utilize this time in between to get these guys right for when it matters, then that makes the most sense.
In the meantime, the door of opportunity is wide open at pass rusher, interior defensive line, and in the cornerback room for someone to step up to the plate.
On Monday, August 3, the pads came on for the first time at Jets training camp. This is where the true evaluation of the team begins.
“First day in pads, also had to deal with a little weather. I thought the competitive nature was right where we wanted it to be. I think our guys are really understanding exactly how we want to practice. We have three tempos when we practice: we have a jog tempo, which is really a walkthrough. We have a, I call it a clean competitive tempo, we’re in jerseys and just shells, where I don’t want anybody on the ground, and then today was thud-competitive tempo, and I thought are guys did a really good job with that,” Glenn said.
“I really want us to thud up, I really want that. I just don’t want anybody really going to the ground. Obviously, things like that are going to happen, alright, but for the most part, I thought our guys did a really good job of understanding how to practice and being professionals,” Glenn added.
Aaron Glenn Provides Kenyon Sadiq Jets Update After Surprising Absence