Breece Hall and Dalvin Cook to both play Week 1 vs. Bills, Robert Saleh says Jets will be ‘smart’ with RB reps

The New York Jets will have their two-headed monster at running back ready to roll for their Week 1 opener against the Bills on Monday night. Head coach Robert Saleh told reporters Monday that both backs will play in the regular season opener and, while neither will be held to a snap count, he did note that the team will be smart with how they deploy them out of the gate. 

“I don’t know if I want to call it a snap count, but we are gonna be smart with them,” Saleh said, via NFL.com. “We’ll continue to evaluate and build up what we think Monday needs to be, but it’s not that we’re putting a snap count on it. It’s just they’re two really good football players; Michael Carter’s a really good football player, and just trying to find a way to feature all of them, along with the receivers and tight ends that we have. So there’s gonna be enough to go around.”

Hall is coming off a torn ACL he suffered in Week 7 of last year. Prior to the injury, the 2022 second-round pick was establishing himself as one of the most prolific young backs in the league. Throughout the summer, he had seemingly been making positive strides in his recovery and has practiced with the team since being activated off of the PUP list on Aug. 15.  

As for Cook, he underwent offseason shoulder surgery, but that was reportedly to correct prior ailments. The back has since stated that he feels better than he has in previous seasons, despite being limited during practice since joining the Jets. In 17 games played for the Vikings during the 2022 regular season, Cook logged his fourth consecutive season with over a thousand yards from scrimmage and was named to the Pro Bowl for the fourth straight year. 

Having a veteran like that in the fold does allow for the Jets to be particularly “smart” with Hall and can afford to potentially give Cook more touches until the second-year pro is back up to full speed, easing him back into the rotation.

Regardless of who garners more touches on a weekly basis, the Jets now have an extremely talented backfield that Aaron Rodgers should be able to lean on as he enters his first season with New York.