Jets HC Robert Saleh addresses Carl Lawson’s season-ending injury

Defensive end Carl Lawson suffered a season-ending Achilles tear in Thursday’s joint training camp practice with Green Bay.

Saturday marked game one — preseason or regular season — following Carl Lawson‘s devastating injury during Thursday’s joint training camp practice with the Packers. The Jets defensive end, who signed a three-year, $45 million deal with the team in March, tore his Achilles. The injury will sideline him for the remainder of the 2021 season.

The Jets fielded a number of alternative options at defensive end in their exhibition victory over Green Bay. Regardless, Lawson’s absence is a significant blow.

Robert Saleh on losing Carl Lawson for the season with a torn achilles:

"You could not ask for a more perfect big-money free agent who came in and just does things the right way. Despite getting paid, he still wanted more… I just feel bad for him." pic.twitter.com/9K4RUv6QZB

— Jets Videos (@snyjets) August 21, 2021

“[Carl] puts in the work, he does everything the right way…he does everything that’s asked out of a professional athlete,” head coach Robert Saleh said following the team’s Saturday win. “You could not ask for a more perfect, big-money free agent who came in and just does things the right way. Because despite getting paid, he still wanted more. And for that to happen for him, that’s where all my attention goes. I just feel bad for him.”

Lawson was undergoing a tremendous camp and was to be one of the top assets of this Jets defensive unit.

In regard to how the Jets will replace him, they could always look to the trade or free-agent markets, the latter of which will continue to grow as preseason rosters coincidingly shrink around the league.

However, per DJ Bien-Aime of the New York Daily News, Saleh and the coaching staff will push forward with the options already present on the roster.

This includes John Franklin-Myers, Bryce Huff, Ronald Blair, Kyle Phillips, and Vinny Curry. Phillips and Curry are respectively on the Physically Unable to Perform and Non-Football Injury lists though and it’s unclear when either will be activated.

Robert Saleh says they’re going to roll with the defensive ends that they have on the roster to replace Carl Lawson.

— DJ Bien-Aime (@Djbienaime) August 21, 2021