Robert Saleh backtracks on Aaron Rodgers’ pre-snap calls, still seems to disagree with QB about accountability

Three days after suggesting that Aaron Rodgers‘ pre-snap cadence was an issue during the New York Jets‘ penalty-stuffed loss to the Denver Broncos, head coach Robert Saleh denied as much, telling reporters Wednesday that there “never was a cadence issue,” and that it was fabricated by others.

“There is no cadence issue,” Saleh said. “There never was a cadence issue. It was created.”

His remarks came in response to a question of whether he and Rodgers had discussed “the cadence thing” since Sunday’s 10-9 loss to Denver. The Jets were penalized an NFL-high 13 times in the defeat, with eight of those infractions issued to the offense. Saleh indicated immediately following the game that Rodgers’ cadence, or verbal signals to snap the ball, had contributed to the missteps.

“We’ve got to figure it out,” Saleh said Sunday night. “Whether or not we’re good enough to handle or ready to handle all the cadence. Cadence had not been an issue all camp. [I] felt like our operation had been operating pretty good. Obviously today [we] took a major step back.”

Rodgers was then asked about Saleh’s comments in his own news conference, and pushed back on the notion his cadence might need to be reworked or dialed back to cut down on pre-snap penalties.

“That’s one way to do it,” Rodgers said. “The other way is to hold [players] accountable. We haven’t had an issue. We’ve only had one false start. [Right tackle] Morgan [Moses] had one false start, I believe, until this. [It’s] been a weapon. We use it every day in practice. We rarely have a false start. To have five today … seems like an outlier. I don’t know if we need to make mass changes based on kind of an outlier game.”

Raiders All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams backed his former quarterback on Tuesday, saying the Jets should “have certain consequences if guys can’t get right.” He applauded the culture set by Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, the best man in Saleh’s wedding. 

“That’s the winning culture that we had in Green Bay. That’s why we had so many successful years,” Adams said Tuesday on “Up and Adams” with host Kay Adams. “Obviously we didn’t win a Super Bowl, which sucked. But my last three years there, 13 games (won) three years in a row that doesn’t happen on accident. You got to be detailed and demand the most from your team.”

Saleh did appear to push back on Rodgers’ — and by extension — Adams’ perspective. That’s noteworthy considering Adams reportedly requested a trade on Tuesday and openly spoke about missing playing with Rodgers. 

“They’re men, they want to be treated like men,” Saleh said on Wednesday, via SNY. “They already know they messed up. They don’t need to be embarrassed, they need to know how to correct it. And I don’t think doing push-ups is teaching a guy how to correct it.”  

Both Saleh and Rodgers did have kind words for each other by Monday. The coach insisted “we’re always going to push the envelope with cadence,” redirecting focus to “getting in and out of the huddle, getting to the line of scrimmage” and communicating before Rodgers’ trademark hard counts. He added Tuesday that “we’ll continue to do the same things we’ve been doing” as an offense.

Rodgers, meanwhile, told “The Pat McAfee Show” that he and Saleh “have a great relationship.” Saleh also had nothing but positive words to say about his quarterback Tuesday: “Aaron and I are fantastic,” he said when asked about his relationship with Rodgers. “Love the guy.”