It's just too stinkin hot out there! I even brought an umbrella, but left at 3:30. Brutal. I need to get one of those umbrella hats with a fan in it! I actually had a hard time concentrating on what I was watching. I know I practiced in that sort of heat (with no water, idiots) in high school, but geeze.... I don't know how the players do it. In some ways, I think it's easier to be playing, because you have to do it.... sweltering for fun.... well, I left early. I did get to see some red zone drills, and that was pretty good. I'll try to remember some specifics, but my brain is fried. Smith ran with the 1st team D, since Coleman was out with a reported illness.... could be a geat related thing, I would guess. He looked pretty good, but what I don't have a handle on just yet is how the safeties work in this scheme. Smith was usually lined up about a yard and a half closer to the LOS than Rhodes, but it seemed to me that Rhodes was the safety that came up first against the run (and delivered some pretty big freakin hits, too). If I were game planning against this D, you can bet I'd have a shovel pass in the game plan. Smith has a ways to go in making the read.... I think he could bite on play actions, and maybe that is why they had him wait a bit to persue the ball carrier. Rhodes seems to make those reads very fast and reliably. I didn't notice any safety blitzes or things like that. At this point in camp, I think they are trying to keep it simple. Bollinger had a pass tipped for an INT to Ryan Meyers I think it was. Definitely it was an LB, but like I said, I had trouble concentrating.... I even made like 3 mental notes who got that INT... and now I'm not sure! hmy: Now, this is a bit strange, but I have to mention it. Ramsey always seems to be away from the other QB's. Even when stretching (and you can see this on one of Petro's pics) Pennington, Clemens and Bolly are always together. Ramsey is two players away from then. This was on Friday, today, and from Petro's pics, over the weekend too. Today, they did this drill (Friday too) where 3 QB's take the snap from a coach, with 3 recievers going into a pattern. The 3 recievers run the same patterns each time, but the QB's switch spots.... the QB on the right hits an out. The QB in the middle hits a crossing pattern, The QB on the left throws a fade. But.... Ramsey was with the RB's practicing trick plays, but lined up as a slot reciever or a wide out. It just seems ...a little wierd to me. Anyone else notice this? In the red zone, it seemed that all 4 QB's made some nice throws, but all had their share of ugly ones too. Of the 4, none stood out to me today. These three RB's, Blaylock, Washington and Houston.... I'm telling you, they all are fast. The first two are pretty elusive, Houston less so, but still has more power even after losing that 15 pounds. He breaks tackles better than the other two, and seems to get that extra two yards before going down. Pouha.... yes, I'm AM going to say I told you so to everyone who bashed this kid. Unlike last year, he isn't getting pushed around. He lost 25 pounds (I didn't think he was fat to begin with) and he is playing like a NT.... defending his turf. At some point this year, he's going to put DRob on the bench. At least in the 3-4. He'sgetting plenty of time in the 3-4, and he looks good. He's occuppying blockers, and still making tackles.... exactly what you want from a 3-4 NT. I kept telling everyone, this kid could be out NT for the next 6 years. You can't judge a prospect on one year just because you think he was a jump. He's 27 now... and if I'm right, he's out starter at NT before this season ends. 28.... right in his prime. Tomorrow, Kurt, 227, 1028 and I are all hooking up to watch both practices. Maybe we can divy it up.... someone watches out for Brad Smith, Kurt gets Furgy and Mangold, etc. We'll see if that works out. Jtuds asked about knee braces.... forget it, it's meaningless. At least half the players are wearing them, especially linemen and LB's. It's also getting difficult to project starters at some of the battle positions, as Mangini REALLY seems to mix things up. Just hen you think the OLB's are Hobson and Jihnson, it starts to look like Chatham and Thomas. They are working a lot of diferent players into and out of the 1st team defense. That goes for Pouha and Robertson too. Oh, Dyson got burnt for a TD in the corner on a fade.... didn't see who caught it. Pociask doesn't seem to have very good hands, but it could have been an off day. kowalewski doesn't impress me either. Tommorrow...amonia towel, gallon of water, and naked.
Just wanted to add that I attended the practice as well. It was terribly hot. I eventually had to go to the last row where there was decent shade.
Just curious, Pouha didn't practice today so how could he have been playing so well watching from the sidelines?
That was more editorial on my part, after Mangini's comments about Pouha over the weekend. I did see Pouha on Friday, and said he was looking very good. Thanks for the one star rating dillwad. I didn't mention Nugent.... they ran fulls squad KO returns to day, some with full contact. Nugent had 2 that got to about the ten, another 3 or so between the 5 and ten, about five inside the 5, and one or two that went a yard or two into the end zone. I didn't have a stopwatch with me, but the hang times were pretty good with a mental timing. Last year he started the season this way.... KO's to around the five, but with good hang times, which resulted in good field position. when he kicked like that through the first 8 weeks, the Jets were in the top five in field position after KO's. If he can keep it up, he should be fine, but if he tails off like last year..... but it doesn't seem he's gotten any stronger over the off season to me either.
great to hear :grin: so did they "switch" him to FS? usually the SS lines up closer to the LOS than the FS
Thansk for the clarification I was just wondering....never really thought it was a big deal.... ...any notice of Steve Morley?
Well that sucks. We spent a 2nd round pick on a guy that's not going to be reliable on long tries or for a deep kickoff on a windy day. Imagine what who could have had with that pick.....he better be better and stronger or he'll be out of the good books quickly....
Id like to nominate this for post of the year. Seriously, I was cracking up. Dont know why. Could be the heat. Anyway, one thing ive been curious about. Im one of those whos been optomistic about Pouhas chances on the nose. What ive been hoping for is to see him win the nose tackle job and have Robertson move out to End opposite Ellis. Have you noticed this at all, or has Robertson been strictly over the nose in 3-4?
Actually, I apologize.... I'm the one being a dillweed. I'm sorry, that was outta line. I do tend to get pretty cranky when I get that over heated. Besides that, when I lfet the thread, i realized it hadn't been ranked at all! i'm a dillweed. please accpet my apology.
Ok, a couple things. Pouha was getting some snaps on Friday with the first team.... and I had mentioned this then.... line play is VERY hard to see at field level. I did however see on 3 different occasiions on Friday Pouha getting head slaps from team mates adn atta boys from the CS. That was after some pads popped pretty loud, so based on that, (and I spelled this all out on Friday) I figure he's doing pretty darned good. Then the reports came out he's down to 308, and Mangini said over the weekend that he was very pleased with both what Sione did over the off season, and what he's doing in camp. Frankly, other than what Mangini said about Ctch, this is the only other real compliment I've seen him dish out. I went through the whole offseason here telling people that Pouha can't be drafted as a project and then labeled a bust after year one. I SAW the improvements he was making in technique last year. Now, he appears to be ready to challenge Robertson, who is having a very quiet camp, and is still quite ...er...ah...fat. Robertson has seen NO time at DE, as far as I know. Strictly NT. No, Rhodes is still playing FS, but he looked more like a SS in run support today. Smith was cheated up to the LOS a bout 1 1/2 to 2 yards though, but it was Rhodes who was making the tackles, and coming up to do it on many occassions. Rhodes I think has a chance to be a special player on this team. We shall see. Jtuds, Nugent has enough leg to be a very good KO kicker, IF he keeps getting the ball to the 5 with the kind of hang times he had today, and through 8 weeks last year. Remember, the Jets WERE in the top five in after KO field position at week 8 last year.... it's not always about TB's. It was after that when Nugent really went downhill. What I hope is that he got stronger, not so much distance wise, but that he can do it for 16 games. But.... thois was hot weather. He'll lose 5 yards in the cold. I'd like to see him get it to the goal line consistantly, but with that long hang time.... he's not there yet.
How does Eric Barton look?? just curious after he all the injuries whether he looks the same. Is he running with the first team next to Vilma or is Brad Kassel?
Pretty much on a whim I went over to TC today. I will also confirm that it was very hot. TBJ, were you sitting under your umbrella at around the 25 yard line of the bleachers, in the 4th row or so? If so, I was about 10 feet from you at about the 30, 3rd row (I was wearing a teal tee shirt, and had my NYJ cap on sideways to block the sun off the side of my face). I stayed until about 4:00. Anyway, I don't have too much to add. I did notice how Ramsey seemed to be away from the other three QBS a lot, including in the "3 at a time" drill. I thought he looked pretty bad today - lots of incomplete passes, including in the later drills from the 35 (at the opposite end of the field from where they did the red zone stuff). I was also very unimpressed with Bollinger - he seemed to have a lot of trouble in the red zone plays even finding a receiver, ending up holding on to it far too long. Clemens looked okay, and Chad had the fewest reps today while I was there. Let's just say the defense is ahead of the offense at this point. The RBs looked good, I thought, especially Washington (real explosiveness and elusiveness), although he fumbled a kickoff return and took a lap. It was funny (for me, not for them) to see a play stopped with a whistle, and a lineman immediately get up and run a lap because he had committed a penalty. There was one play in the longer drills where a TD was scored, and the entire defensive backfield took a lap! I agree with TBJ that Nugent looked no different from the good times last year at the beginning of the season. Perhaps he'll handle the cold better this year, but there was no evidence that he has a stronger leg than he did before. Couldn't tell too much about Graham, as most of the punting drills seemed to be positional, rather than distance. I did like that when he first came out, and was warming up by running up and down the field, he carried a ball and bounced it as he ran, just like he was still playing footy. I'll close by pointing out the most important aspect of my visit. This is the first TC I've been to since the summer of 1968. It was at that TC that I got the autograph that has been my avatar since joining TGG. As we all know, about 5 months later the Jets won the Super Bowl. Coincidence? I wonder ...
