Robert Saleh brings excitement back to Jets training camp

Jets guard Greg Van Roten remembers when he was on the other side from Robert Saleh.

“You’d see him on ESPN and stuff, jumping around, and you’d be like, ‘this guy needs to calm down a little bit,’ ” Van Roten said Tuesday.

Now, though, Van Roten has gotten to see Saleh up close as his coach with the Jets, and he has bought into what Saleh is selling.

“Being in his building and around his staff, there’s no doubt as to the culture he’s trying to instill,” Van Roten said. “You hear it all the time: ‘All gas, no brake. Cut it loose, play fast, have fun.’ He really kind of simplifies what he’s asking of you. That makes it easier as a player. He’s been a joy to be around these first few months. I’m excited for training camp. I’m really excited about the trajectory of the team going forward.”

The Jets reported to training camp Tuesday with a new excitement and more energy than the team has had in a while. Saleh has breathed life into a franchise that has gone a decade without a playoff appearance and bottomed out last season at 2-14.

Players will be on the practice field for their first training-camp session on Wednesday morning, the beginning of the buildup to the regular-season opener on Sept. 12 against the Panthers. The only dark cloud hanging over the team right now is the unsigned contract of rookie quarterback Zach Wilson. The Jets were still feverishly working on getting him signed Tuesday as the two sides squabble over contract language.

Other than Wilson’s absence, which should be a temporary setback, it is all sunshine and rainbows around the Jets these days. The team feels improved after the addition of Saleh and his coaching staff, plus a strong draft class led by Wilson and free-agent signings like Carl Lawson and Corey Davis.

“Excitement,” Saleh said when asked what he is feeling heading into his first camp as Jets coach. “This is going to be a fun group to work with. It’s young, it’s hungry, and they’ve all got a positive attitude coming out of minicamp, and they’re all excited to get another shot at going through the installs again, and they’re all excited about showing what they can and can’t do, you know? It’s going to be a really, really cool process to go through over the course of the next week. I’m really excited about all these practices, especially when we get up to [joint practices with] Green Bay and Philadelphia. Those are going to be exciting. So, it’s just going to be a challenging training camp. and I’m excited for all of it.”

As Saleh said, the Jets are a very young team. They should have several rookie starters and even more as contributors. But the team’s youth does not have the veterans lowering expectations.

“With our young core, I think we’re going to really dominate and really shock a lot of people,” linebacker C.J. Mosley said.

Though there have been plenty of changes made to the roster, there is no question what the biggest change is: Saleh has the players believing, and his energy is obvious.

“It starts from the top down — the head coach,” Lawson said when asked why he believes the Jets can turn things around. The way that he carries himself, the standard that he holds us to. That’s my main thing.”

Saleh is ready to lead the Jets through camp and emphasize his all-gas-no-brake mentality.

“The message doesn’t change,” Saleh said. “We’ve got our style of play, we’ve got our mantra, we’ve got the whole idea that we are going to go to bed better than when we woke up. We’re going to do that every single day from now until the end of time. That’s just going to be hammered home. There’s no magic elixir to playing this profession. It’s a matter of waking up, doing your job and finding something to get better at every day.”