‘Special talent’ – New York Jets now have no excuses

Aaron Rodgers throwing passes, and Garrett Wilson catching passes.

Starting tight end Tyler Conkin has a front row seat to the partnership that he believes can fire the New York Jets to meet their ambitions.

The New York Jets claimed their first win of 2024 on Sunday, squeezing past the Tennessee Titans in Week 2, after a heavy defeat in San Francisco kicked off their season.

Aaron Rodgers, Wilson and the rest of the roster looked much livelier than the flat performance they gave on Monday night to begin the season.

And Conklin – whose role is to block for and catch passes from Rodgers – credits the guy behind center for Sunday’s victory in Nashville.

Not to mention the star wideout and a player whose game already resembles one of the best to do it in recent memory and promises to get even better.

“You need your stars to go make plays,” Conklin said in an exclusive sitdown with talkSPORT’s Will Gavin for the End Zone YouTube channel.

“You always feel good when you got number eight back there running the show. That always is a calming feeling. 

“Then Garrett’s just a special talent. And we’ve been seeing it every single day for so long and the world hasn’t even got to see really what he can do yet.

“So to see them do that when they need to do it on third and one to go and make that play, you know, something we kind of just expect.

“I’m just kind of excited for it to just keep growing throughout the season.”

Rodgers looked more comfortable and the offense as a whole looked much sharper.

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Specifically, 20-year-old phenom Braelon Allen, who scored the game winning touchdown on a 20-yard run with 4:31 left and became the youngest player to score a touchdown from scrimmage when he caught a 12-yard pass from Rodgers earlier in the game.

Conklin said Allen reminded him of four-time Pro Bowler Derrick Henry on the go-ahead touchdown run, while making sure to give Henry his proper respect.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Derrick Henry,” Conklin said. “I know he’s a one of a kind talent who’s been doing it at such a high level for such a long time.

“But I just think back to that play and it’s blocked up perfectly and he [Allen] gets on the safety and you kind of just see how the safety doesn’t really want to tackle him. I don’t blame the safety that much, right?

“That’s a big running back running through that hole. So that’s kind of why I say that.

“You got a 240 pound man running through the hole and you’re one on one with the safety, sometimes you gotta make a business decision, I guess.”

After the first two weeks of the season, the New York Jets sit at 1-1 with a big divisional game looming on Thursday night at home against the New England Patriots.

It will be New York’s third game in just 11 days. To most players that would take a toll, but Conklin has embraced it.

“In my opinion, you can control what you can control. There’s nothing you can really do about it. Game days are a lot of fun. I love playing football games. 

“So to be able to get to another football game in three, four days it’s exciting, right? You just gotta handle your business, take care of your body and try to get feeling as good as you can in a quick amount of time. But as many game days as possible, I like it.”

Through the first two games Conklin has two receptions for only 16 yards, but his focus remains as he knows his time will come.

“My big thing right now this year is just play by play, be as present as possible and as opportunities come, go make the play and be who I am.

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“In the first two games, I just haven’t had a ton of opportunities to go make plays in the passing game.

“I think I’ve had about two targets. I think two of them might have been throwaways and two actual targets. But when my number is called upon, I’ll be ready to go and show the world who I am.

“I feel like I played really well in the run game to start the season through these first two games, so I feel good about that. But I mean, it’s two games in. The chemistry is going to build, the production is going  to come. I just want to keep winning football games.”

The Jets will have a chance to come out of this brutal 11-day-stretch with a 2-1 record and the struggling Denver Broncos coming to town next Sunday, before they head across the pond to face the Minnesota Vikings in London on October 6th.

Heading to London 3-1 isn’t out of the question if they can handle their business, but as Conklin put it, they are going to need to take it “play by play.”

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