Three takeaways from the Jets' first week of training camp

Other than Justin Fields’ injury scare on the Jets’ second day of training camp, their four practices have been mostly quiet, spirited and productive — just the way Aaron Glenn wanted them to be. Here are three takeaways:

1. The referees are back

Glenn insisted on having officials in camp to try to get the Jets to cut down on penalties. They had the most in the NFL in each of the last two seasons.

“You cannot win games in this league with an undisciplined team,” Glenn said.

Former Jets coach Robert Saleh’s teams were undisciplined. Last season, the Jets rarely had referees at practice. That is one of the many things that Glenn has changed in his first camp as an NFL head coach as he continues to make sure the Jets play the way he wants and expects.

Glenn said the officiating crew will be in camp as often as possible in hopes of getting his players to limit what he considers “dumb stuff,” including false starts, jumping offside and late hits.

“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,” Glenn said. “We are going to knock these penalties out. We’re going to understand that undisciplined teams do not win games.”

2. Competition is king

The competitive fire in these practices has been different. Nothing exemplified that more than an open-field one-on-one tackling drill that had players energized. It’s something new here, but Detroit did it in Glenn’s four years as defensive coordinator.

The Jets didn’t actually tackle. That will come later in camp. The drill involves a ballcarrier trying to juke a defender, who has to tag or push the offensive player. The drill ended with Sauce Gardner stopping Garrett Wilson and the defense celebrating and jumping up and down.

“This league is about making open-field tackles,” Glenn said. “It’s a spacious league right now. So the more you can make tackles in space, the better we’re going to be as a team.”

He added: “The nature of what we need to be is a highly competitive team. Our guys look forward to that, and they know that’s the expectations anyway. If you can’t live up to that, it’s going to be hard to be a part of what we’re trying to build.”

Guard John Simpson called the practices “super-competitive.”

“We got refs. It’s a game out there,” he said. “That’s competitive as it gets. Just start starting there. I feel like that’s a big step in the right direction.”

3. Running game stands out

The Jets are committed to running the football. They have the backs, the quarterback and an underrated, still-developing offensive line to be effective.

The pads come on Monday, but the offensive line has been creating holes, leading to two red-zone touchdown runs by Breece Hall in team competition and some big gains by Hall and second-year back Braelon Allen.

The Jets, who utilized more of a wide-zone run scheme previously, were next-to-last in rushing. Detroit, where offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand coached last year, was sixth. The Lions used a variety of ways to attack defenses.

“From a whole offensive standpoint, we’re all really bought into this run scheme,” Hall said. “It makes a lot more sense to the guys up front and the reasoning why we’re doing everything, what we’re doing it for, how we’re going to set other plays up with our run game.”

Simpson is a big fan of the change in style and philosophy.

“I’m really excited. I love running the ball, man, that’s like my strong suit,” he said. “If we can run the ball, we’re going to win a lot of games.”

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.