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, 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."
Both Saleh and Rodgers proceeded to soften their stance toward 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."