Not since the Beatles were changing world-wide hairstyles has a deceptive cadence been a hotter topic in London. But after the New York Jets lost by one point last week, Aaron Rodgers and his deceptive cadence have dominated the newscycle as the team prepares for its trip to the U.K.
That’s because Rodgers’ pre-snap verbal inflections in the loss to Denver weren’t deceptive to the Broncos; they were deceptive to the Jets. Officials flagged New York’s offense eight times in the loss, including five false-start penalties. And after the game, head coach Robert Saleh said the Jets needed to determine how to make his quarterback’s cadence deceptive to the opponent.
“We’ve got to figure it out,” Saleh said after the loss Sunday, “whether or not we’re good enough to handle all of the … 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.”
Following Saleh to the postgame podium on Sunday, a disappointed Rodgers when asked whether dialing back the cadence would help the situation, offered this:
“That’s one way of doing it. The other is hold them accountable.”
Fast forward to Wednesday at the Jets’ Florham Park headquarters, where Saleh seemed to have already moved on in preparations for the Vikings (4-0) on Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (9:30 a.m. ET, NFL Network).
“We’ll continue doing the same things we’ve been doing,” Saleh said Wednesday. “We show it, we talk about it, we address it when it happens on the practice field. Like I said, it hadn’t been an issue with regard to pre-snap. Our pre-snap operation and cadence hadn’t been an issue. Obviously, it wasn’t good on Sunday but I’m not worried about it.
“There is no cadence issue. There never was a cadence issue. It was created. Aaron and I are fantastic. Love the guy.”
Saleh and Rodgers might need to lean into their relationship in London, where the Brian Flores-engineered Vikings defense isn’t very loving. The Vikings are angry, too, after allowing season-highs in total yards (465), passing yards (379) and points (29) last week at Green Bay.
What’s relevant this week for the Jets is that Minnesota is really the one NFL defense that most requires a deceptive cadence for offensive success, especially to gather pre-snap intelligence.
“If you think that you’re just going to go there and figure it out at the line, good luck,” said ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky on Wednesday’s NFL Live, describing a pre-snap look the Vikings showed against the Packers. “Everyone’s standing up … there’s two guys that have their hand in the dirt and everyone else is roaming. So, you don’t think you’re going to use cadence as a weapon? It goes from, ‘I don’t know’ to what we call a Tampa 2 defense. It’s only three guys rushing but eight guys in coverage. You play way sped up as a quarterback, and instead of finding an open window, you just get the ball down and it’s third and long.”
Minnesota even put 11 defenders on the line of scrimmage to confuse Jordan Love last week. Orlovsky said New York’s offensive linemen and backs getting on the same page with Rodgers’ verbal signals is pivotal.
“The best chance the Jets have to win is Rodgers and his cadence this weekend.”