SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Most of the attention before the Jets’ opener Monday against the 49ers was understandably focused on Aaron Rodgers and his return after missing all but four snaps last season.
But he’s not the only Jets starter returning after a missed season.
Chuck Clark will start at safety after missing the entire 2023 season with a torn ACL.
“I’m extremely excited,” Clark said last week. “At the end of the day, it’s football to me, the game I’ve always played. I’ll be balanced. I’ll be excited, for sure, yeah, but I can’t let this game overwhelm me and put me out of position or anything. I’ll be locked in, for sure.”
Clark arrived at the Jets in March 2023 in a trade with the Ravens.
The Jets were excited about what Clark could bring to their defense, but he tore his ACL in the final OTA of the spring and missed the entire year.
For the first time in Clark’s life, he was a spectator.
Clark remained in New Jersey and attended the meetings but did not play in the games.
“It was different,” Clark said. “It was the first time I felt that way. It was a new building for me at the time. I tried to get through that and then I had to deal with the injury. It was different, to say the least.”
Over the past week, Clark has experienced game preparation for the first time in more than a year.
He said he knew he would have a moment before the game where he would think about his return.
“I think this week I’ll get back to playing. OK, it’s a quick Friday, it’s travel day, everything I’ve been missing,” Clark said. “It’ll be a great feeling to get all that back. If they do a fly-by before the game, this and that. I’m looking forward to it.”
Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett spoke last week about Aaron Rodgers’ involvement in the game-planning process.
“It’s very elaborate, we always come together with a plan as coaches and then we present it to him like we do every week, or any quarterback, and then we clarify everything with him,” Hackett said. “He watches a lot of video, he has a lot of ideas, just like we do, so we just want to make sure he’s comfortable with all the things that we’re going to run out there, so as we develop the plan, we continue to feed it to him, we have a lot of discussions, we make sure we have everything we want, and we go from there, so it’s pretty fluid. It’s just another set of eyes because of his experience.”
