Before he signed the largest contract given to a free-agent wide receiver last offseason and joined the Jets, Allen Lazard had to prove he belonged in the NFL.
He failed at first.
Lazard played 53 offensive snaps and 33 special teams snaps as an undrafted rookie with the Jaguars during the 2018 preseason, but didn’t show enough to beat the odds in the eyes of the coaches and front office.
He was cut and re-signed to the practice squad, where he idled for 15 weeks until he was claimed by the Packers.
So, Lazard, who now is better known as one of Aaron Rodgers’ favorite targets, might have a softer spot than some peers with similar resumes and contracts (four years, $44 million) for the much-debated existence of preseason games.
Without those auditions in 2018 and again in 2019 when he surprisingly made the Packers, Lazard’s football career might have ended before its prime.
“I think the preseason games do matter — to a certain extent,” Lazard said. “It’s more so for the bottom end of the roster.”
The NFL returns at last Thursday night in its most basic form: Lazard, Rodgers and most veteran starters for both teams will be on the bench when the Jets face the Browns at 8 p.m. ET in the Hall of Fame Game.
Soon enough, the annual debate will rage over whether starters should play in preseason games to get sharp or whether there is too little to gain against the risk of season-altering injury.
If the trend of sitting starters continues, a light will shine on how coaches are using popularized joint practices to get starters ready in a more controllable setting, and there will be calls to end the preseason games — without consideration given to the NFL’s television partners seeking programming.
From a football standpoint? Lazard, who hasn’t played a preseason game since 2019, recalled how his last team dropped 43 points in a Week 1 win over the Vikings after the preseason was cancelled in 2020, but fell flat in a Week 1 blowout loss to the Saints in 2021 after Packers’ starters sat the preseason.
“Hindsight is always 20/20 of what you should and shouldn’t have done,” Lazard said. “The biggest thing is understanding that we want to be playing in January and February and health is of the utmost priority. Keeping guys healthy, but also getting good work. A lot of that is predicated off practice, whether it’s joint practice or not. If we are able to practice at a high level — good on good and keep guys healthy — that should do the most.”
With that in mind, here are some Jets with something to gain and something to lose for all the diehards — an average of 1.77 million viewers tuned in for the four games on NFL Network in the first week of preseason games last year — who will be tuned into Jets-Browns:
Something to gain
RB Zonovan Knight: If Breece Hall returns from a torn ACL, he could be the Jets’ Week 1 starter. If Dalvin Cook signs — unlikely, despite the agent-created dog-and-pony show over the weekend — he could be the Jets’ Week 1 starter. If neither of those scenarios happen, don’t be so sure Michael Carter will start just because the unofficial depth chart lists it that way.
It seems to be forgotten that Knight averaged five yards per carry over his first three NFL games and supplanted Carter as the starter in Week 13 last season before he hit a wall and averaged 1.8 yards per carry over the final four games, when the entire offense went in the tank. Knight steadily has shown more burst than Carter as they share first-team reps during training camp.
S Tony Adams: It is clear that career 122-game starter Adrian Amos signed in June with the intention to replace the injured Chuck Clark (torn ACL) as a starter. But Adams is proving hard for Amos to supplant — just as he proved too hard to cut as an undrafted rookie last summer.
Adams has intercepted Rodgers in camp — no easy task — so he clearly has a nose for the ball. As defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers said, “Chuck would want us to go out and find the next-best person, and truthfully you could say the next-best person might be on the team already in Tony Adams, a guy we all have confidence in.”
WRs Malik Taylor/Irv Charles/Xavier Gipson: The unknown receiver creating the most buzz in camp is undrafted rookie Jason Brownlee, but he hurt his arm in the final practice of the week.
Gipson was singled out by Rodgers during OTAs, Charles’ 6-foot-4 body is hard to miss and might have the best chemistry of the three with projected preseason starting quarterback Zach Wilson, and Taylor slipped into the rotation with the starters when Garrett Wilson and Randall Cobb were sidelined, which suggests he is trusted by coaches even the absence of splash plays.
Something to lose
OT Mekhi Becton: Becton might be closer to “fighting for a roster spot” than “fighting for a starting job” at this point. Maybe that is why he magically changed his stance Tuesday and sounded open to playing right tackle (where the Jets will need a starter) instead of demanding to play left tackle (as a second-teamer).
The former first-round pick will get about 20-25 snaps in his first football game since Sept. 12, 2021 — two knee injuries ago. If he struggles, how many offensive tackles can the Jets keep on their 53-man roster? Duane Brown, Billy Turner, Max Mitchell … rookie fourth-round pick Carter Warren? Becton?
EDGE Bryce Huff: The opportunity for Huff to be a situational pass-rusher is closing, so it’s now or never to show he can be trusted with a bigger workload in his fourth season.
The Jets have three recent draft picks — Jermaine Johnson, Micheal Clemons and Will McDonald — who need to be on the field with the second wave of the NFL’s deepest defensive line. McDonald figures to be the pass-rush specialist.
If cut, Huff would be picked up quickly by another team, just like seven Jets were after 2022 cut day. So, he might actually be playing with something to gain … around the league.
LB Jamien Sherwood: The Jets cast a vote of confidence in Sherwood by letting former starter Kwon Alexander sign for cheap with the Steelers and not pursuing another starting-caliber veteran.
It’s Sherwood’s third NFL season, so there is no guarantee he will play against the Browns. But he could use the reps as he learns a different position in the system than the one in which he started four games as a rookie.
Domingo German goes to rehab
Yankees right-hander Domingo German voluntarily submitted to inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse, the team announced Wednesday.
German was placed on the restricted list and is expected to miss the remainder of the season.
“Hopefully the steps that are being taken today will really benefit him for the remaining part of his life,” general manager Brian Cashman said.
German served an 81-game suspension in 2019 and 2020 for violating MLB’s joint domestic violence policy, stemming from an incident in which he reportedly was intoxicated and was physically violent toward his then-girlfriend and now-wife.
German, 30, is under contract with the Yankees through 2024. He finishes 2023 with a 5-7 record and 4.56 ERA including a perfect game against the A’s on June 28.
— Jonathan Lehman
Today’s back page
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Different kinds of disasters
The sad post-trade-deadline state of New York baseball is best summed up in the jealousy each fan base has for the other’s hopelessness.
Many Mets fans crave a Yankees-like situation, when a “disastrous” season still means a winning record and competing for a wild-card playoff berth instead of selling off superstars for yet another crapshoot farm-system-based rebuild that might not begin until 2025.
Many Yankees fans long for the self-awareness, foresight and deep pockets that the Mets showed by not being fooled into thinking they are a contender and instead creatively paying off big contracts in deals to acquire better prospects.
In this city, Mets and Yankees fans are supposed to scream at each other over bragging rights. Not want to trade places.
So, which situation is worse? Here’s a vote for the Yankees.
The worst thing to be in sports is stuck in the middle.
The loudest comment the Yankees made at Tuesday’s trade deadline wasn’t one of general manager Brian Cashman’s sound bites — “stay tuned” or “we’re in it to win it” or “jeers into cheers.” It was the vote of no confidence cast by being neither buyers nor sellers at the deadline.
If owner Hal Steinbrenner and Cashman truly believed that surviving the playoffs is like winning the lottery and only a ticket is needed, they would have upgraded left field, catcher and the starting rotation.
If the brass truly believed what their eyes are telling them every night — that this listless lineup is not championship-caliber in a way that even recent Yankees teams who fell short were — they would have repeated the 2016 sell-off of Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman.
The truth is … the Yankees don’t know what they are.
Or worse … they can’t admit what everyone else knows they are: a barely .500 team.
They are on the road to becoming the Chicago White Sox of the 1950s and 60s (17 consecutive winning seasons without a championship). Or the Portland Trail Blazers of the 1980s and 90s (21 consecutive playoff appearances without a championship). Or the Chicago Blackhawks of the 1970s, 80s and early 90s (28 consecutive playoff appearances without a championship).
They are the definition of “good, not great.”
It never fails to amaze me — a 40-year-old — when I see 1980s highlights of Don Mattingly launching home runs into the empty Yankee Stadium right-field upper deck as fans run from nearby sections to track down the baseballs.
For almost my entire baseball-watching life, those seats — and all seats in the ballpark — have been filled every night because the Yankees have been a must-see show.
If the Yankees sink any further into a losing team, attendance will drop. The most valuable franchise in sports is not immune to fair-weather fandom. And that might be more than the money-making Steinbrenners can stomach.
Then again, is it easier than wishing to trade places with the Mets?
Take me out of the ballgame
RIP, baseball season. The Post’s Mike Vaccaro declared a 6:01 p.m. time of death on Aug. 1 for the Yankees and Mets in 2023.
So, how will you fill all those August nights that were supposed to be spent watching pennant-race games? Here are seven alternatives penciled into my calendar (I suggest you join me and leave a comment with other suggestions):
1. See the “Barbenheimer” double feature in a movie theater: You’ll laugh at “Barbie.” You’ll cry at “Oppenheimer.” The same emotions you’d feel watching the Yankees hit with runners in scoring position.
2. Have dinner with my kids: Grill hot dogs, air fry popcorn kernels and scoop out an ice cream cone for the savory ballpark experience — minus the taste of aggravation.
3. Go for a nighttime swim: The community pool is open until 8 p.m. Swimming laps can be a bit repetitive. So is watching the Mets bullpen blow leads.
4. Play “The Bachelorette” Bingo: The bottom of the ninth inning in a postseason game isn’t the only place to go for drama. This promises to be “the most dramatic season ever” of the long-running reality series. Give me a bingo card with that phrase in one of the boxes.
5. Read “Too Late,” No. 3 on the New York Times’ Bestseller List: The inside story of how Justin Verlander and Aaron Judge returned from injuries that crippled the first half of their teams’ seasons and … no? It’s a psychological thriller about drug-trafficking and love? Count me in.
6. Go to a Single-A Brooklyn Cyclones or Double-A Somerset Patriots game: “All You Can Eat Tuesday” and “Friday Night Drinks on Us” appear twice each on the August promotional calendar in Brooklyn. Or look to the glory days of the past with Ron Guidry’s appearance (Aug. 22) and bobblehead giveaway (Aug. 23) in Somerset.
Watch the Mets and Yankees of the future — including the Double-A prospects the Mets received in the Verlander and Max Scherzer trades, when Binghamton visits Somerset on Aug. 8-13 — without being invested in the final scores.
7. Watch “Quarterback” Season 1 on Netflix: It’s football season now! Fill the gaps between Tuesday episodes of HBO’s “Hard Knocks” with the Jets by watching the Netflix documentary following Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota. Mahomes used to shag fly balls for the Mets when his dad was pitching for the team, so his two championships kind of count here, right?
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