Jets, The Most-Penalized Team Last Year, to Have Officials at Training Camp

The New York Jets hope seeing more black-and-white stripes in training camp will result in fewer yellow flags during the season.

Coach Aaron Glenn said Friday the team will often have officials at practice through the summer after the Jets, under the previous regime of coach Robert Saleh, led the NFL in penalties the last two seasons.

New York rarely used officials during training camp practices last summer. Many NFL teams hire officials for at least some of their camp practices, giving players the opportunity to get used to how plays are called in a non-game environment.

“I want the officials here as much as possible, and they know that,” Glenn said. “It’s no secret that we were the most-penalized team in the league last year, so that’s one of the things that I want to nip in the bud early — making sure that the discipline part of what we do, that we fix that now.

“You cannot win games in this league with an undisciplined team, so all the penalties that we had last year, we’re knocking those things out.”

Last season, the Jets were penalized 137 times, five more than Tennessee and Baltimore, and finished 5-12 — with Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas both fired in the middle of the season. In 2023, New York was called for 124 penalties, nine more than Cleveland and Dallas, and went 7-10.

“The officials are going to be here, and we’re going to knock that out all right,” Glenn said. “I will tell you this: We are going to knock these penalties out. We’re going to understand that undisciplined teams do not win games.”

Philadelphia, last year’s Super Bowl champion, ranked 11th in the NFL with 103 penalties. Kansas City, the AFC champion, was fourth with 94. The Los Angeles Rams, who won the NFC West, had the fewest penalties in the league with 91.

Glenn said there are two types of calls on players during games: pre-snap penalties — “the dumb penalties” — and competitive penalties, including pass interference.

“The competitive penalties — listen, you go back and forth with those, right?” Glenn said. “Like [pass interference], guys are fighting. Those are competitive penalties. Holds, those are competitive. Now, false starts, jumping offside, hitting after plays, the dumb stuff, we’ve got to knock those out. And we control those. And those are the things I want to make sure we get rid of.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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