Agreed. And just because Kendall says that he is recieving "moral support" from others doesn't necessarily make it so. I doubt any coach would ever talk bad about an organization to a player. If you were a coach under Mangini would you take a player's side in a contract squabble? Highly doubtful.
I was also at this morning's practice. First, to answer someone's question above about the 5:45 practice... it's possible you may get there and find that the practice takes place in the dome. It began raining pretty heavily on LI at about 2:00PM or so. We left Mineola (my mother-in-law's) at about 2:20 and didn't get back to Jersey 'till now... heavy rain and a lot of traffic on the Belt. Kendall isn't in the doghouse, he's in the shithouse, and I'm talking subterranian shithouse. I don't think he took one single snap with the first team. It was almost comical. Out comes Clemens with the 2nd team and out comes #66 seconds later. He stands off by himself much of the time. Adrien Clarke is beginning to fill in fairly well, but I'm no lineman expert, so I'll leave that to others. But to my untrained eye, Clarke is looking like he's learning the position and fitting in. The left side, to me, looks "comfortable" and smooth enough withour Kendall, be then again, we're not facing blistering DEFs either. Pennington: I'm somewhat disappointed. I wanted to go to camp and report back here that Penny had more zip on his ball this year. He did not this morning. I'm not saying they were floating, because I don't think he had any passes deep enough to even warrant scrutiny, but I am saying that even on his patented dink and dunk short stuff, they seemed to me no quicker or with any more authority than he had last year at this time. I'm beginning to think this is just the way Penny passes, period. This is his pass, come hell or highwater or injury recovery or no injury recovery. I get the impression that perhaps he's become so used to this soft passing technique (because of the injuries or just because this was always his way anyway), and it appears to me right now that this is the way it's going to be. We either live with it or we don't. But as far as going to camp and wanting to see more heat on the balls from him, you're going to have to stretch your imagination a bit to see it. Coles is a working fool. He really looked good on a super accurate pass from Chad in which he could have taken it out of bounds. Instead he jukes to the inside and gets several more yards, just as in a regular game. He was working very hard this morning... a ture professional. It's almost as if he's saying to the rooks... "look guys, I'm out here busting my ass and you're going to get no slack, so start working as hard as I am." It was great to see Chad over on the sidelines (right near us by the fence) talking away to Coles and McCareins. You could tell the three of them were dep in discussion about positions, etc. on the patterns, and Penny was waving his arms and they were laughing as they communicated. This is a TEAM on which there are very few separatists. All seems to be in complete harmoney and everyone is communicating well, if the exchange I saw was any evidence of same. Chad has not lost one single step in terms of leadership... he's got it all there. Kellen Clemens got a lot of work too. His passes are crisper than Penny's as would be expected. He's definitely our solid #2, because he's getting a lot of reps. Tui was in there some and the 4th string guy (cna't remember his name) but it doesn't matter... I don't think he'll be here anyway. But Brad Smith got quite a few snaps and was changing shirts more frequently than the disc jockey was changing tunes. He'd go from his #16 regular jersey to his red #16 every other minute and take snaps. I even saw him take a snap without having time to change into the red shirt. Speaking of Smith, I'm in a quandry to figure out why you'd have this guy taking so many snaps, then fielding KO returns, of all things, all while playing WR too. I'm like, "You're grooming him for a B/U QB and then going to risk getting him hammered on a KO return? I think the answer is, we're taking a good, hard look at this QB thingy. We know he can do returns and he's a decent WR, so we're just looking at all options at this point. But some time before the season starts, a decision has to be made as to whether this guy should be fielding KOs or not, IMO. In lineman drills later, this was being done over by the fence right in front of me. Interestingly, Mangini came over and was just standing there with his pad. Every now and then, he'd jot down some notes. VERY serious look on his face and not saying much today at all... just taking notes every now and then. With all three cameras rolling from their elevated towers, I would think there will be a lot to discuss in the afternoon meeting or possible in days off. Mangini will be able to match up the film with his notes and point out weaknesses and areas of concern. This guy really is a genius. Not saying that just because of the notes... just the way he goes about the entire practices. Herm used to walk around and never take one note... not one. Makes you kinda wonder how much he'd recall or bring up just from memory in his meetings then. The music early on was absolutely horrendous. Extra loud and it was rap. Talk about having a hard time with cadence... but Penny did alright. At one point, Justin Miller was over near the fence, so I yelled out, "Good luck this year, Bro," then another guy yelled out, "Hey Justin, did you pick out this music or what?" Miller turned around and told the fans at the fence, "Hell no, I told coach i hate this music!" And everybody in the crowd cracked up. I'm sure I'll think of more, but I've probably got too much in this one post anyway for now. I agree with mostly all of the other evaluations above. Stuckey and some other new guys (DBs) really stood out to me and had a great morning. Oh, and the Thomas Jones/Leon Washington tandem is absolute freaking dynamite. Jones looked absolutely awesome and Leon, well, give him 5 yards room and the kid is up to full speed and juking like hell. The both of them are so refreshing to see finally. Fellas, we now have a running game and I am NOT shitting you.
No no... according to him he has tons of support... Kendall's an ass... and the problem with most asses is they are usually delusional as well
Weather doesn't slow down Jets By Rich Cimini You didn't see it, but the Jets did practice this evening - outdoors. Because of the afternoon storm, they repaired to the fields behind Weeb Ewbank Hall, where they held a closed practice for 2 hours, 45 minutes in murky conditions. LG Pete Kendall, who needs no introduction by now, didn't practice. He remained on the sideline, riding a stationary bike. It appears that he hurt his right leg in the morning practice, which required some medical attention. He didn't seem to think it was too serious, so we can probably assume this isn't a major injury. It's just another development, albeit minor, in the seemingly never-ending soap opera between Kendall and the Jets. The damp weather must agree with QB Chad Pennington because he threw the ball exceptionally well this evening, unleashing a couple of impressive deep balls. He hit Justin McCareins on a post route (sorry, but I didn't catch the number on the DB that got torched) and he followed up with a real nice pass to Laveranues Coles. The pass was incomplete, although I?m not sure if Coles dropped it or if CB Andre Dyson got a hand on it to break it up. I suspect it was the latter. Anyway, Chad was on his game. The disparity between him and the rest of the quarterbacks in camp is remarkable. One more guy I'd like to mention: DE Bobby Hamilton. The old man - he's 36 - blew up a running play, continuing his strong camp. Every practice, he seems to be making a head-turning tackle. Eric Mangini loves the guy, and it's easy to see why. Hamilton, who's so old that he played with Brett Favre at Southern Miss, plays with the enthusiasm of a college kid. You can never have too many guys like that on your team.
Pennington Reigns in P.M. Published: Sun, July 29, 10:29pm EST By Randy Lange 07/29 ? The Jets took their afternoon training camp practice today behind their complex, but they didn't take it indoors. They worked the entire time under gray skies and occasional sprinkles on the grass and turf fields. For the most part it was a quiet, soggy, learning- and situational-type practice. But Chad Pennington didn't let the day dampen his enthusiasm. He threw three deep balls on the money in the second half of the workout. The first eye-opening play came when Pennington loaded up in 7-on-7 drills and hit Justin McCareins with a 45-yard completion. CB David Barrett seemed to have the coverage until the end, when McCareins went up for the pass and Barrett swung and missed on the PD try. Then Pennington found Jerricho Cotchery past Kerry Rhodes on a corner bomb near the doors to the practice bubble. Later in 11-on-11 work, the QB let a 50-yarder fly that was in the process of dropping into Laveranues Coles' hands past Andre Dyson ? until Coles, possibly distracted by Dyson's outstretched hand, dropped the air mail delivery. Pennington also looked sharp in fade drills, hitting Coles in one corner past Rashad Washington, then in the other past Rhodes. Eric Smith continued his run of nice pass defense. Kellen Clemens aired a ball out for McCareins that Smith broke up and, except for being jostled to the ground by No. 81, nearly made an circus interception on. DE Bobby Hamilton had another nice hit behind the line, his second in three practices. The workout was the quietest of the Jets' five training camp sessions for one big reason: The monster speakers that blare out Mozart and Mos Def with equal abandon were turned off for most of the two-hours-plus practice. The Jets and their fans could have a similar disruption to their 2 p.m. practice scheduled for Monday, since scattered afternoon thunderstorms are predicted. Check newyorkjets.com for updates on the practice.
