Nov. 21, 2006 Home > The Way We Hear It ~ ~ ~ NY Jets FS Kerry Rhodes told PFW that the Jets? defense is enjoying the fact that head coach Eric Mangini and defensive coordinator Bob Sutton are calling more blitzes. ?The defense likes that we?re being aggressive and not sitting back and waiting. We?re dictating plays. But coach Mangini has stressed if we are going to pressure, we have to do it correctly. We have to get all of our run fits, or what happened on the 50-yard run (by Corey Dillon in the Week 10 win at New England) could happen again.? Rhodes, who attracted attention earlier in the season with strip-sacks of J.P. Losman and Tom Brady, has not been heard from as much as a blitzer in recent weeks ? although he did record a sack in last week?s loss to the Bears. He told PFW that should change now that the defense is applying more pressure. ?(Other teams) are scheming for me now. It?s more of a team thing ? we have to get pressure from other people. The more successful that we are with other blitzers coming free, then I?ll be able to come free more.? > http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/The+Way+We+Hear+It/default.htm?mode=afceast
Kerry quickly Jets into the spotlight BY KRISTIE ACKERT / DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER It was an unforgettable moment for Kerry Rhodes. As the Jets safety lined up against the Colts on Oct. 1, he heard quarterback Peyton Manning yell out to his linemen: "Block Kerry." Nearly two months later, Rhodes laughs at the memory, which he considered a surprise and a sign of respect."That was big," Rhodes said. "Most players don't let you know they respect you. And then he called me out after the game and told me I was playing good this year. That was a good compliment from a great player."The compliments for Rhodes' play this year have been coming from all corners. Only in his second year, the safety is considered one of the Jets' defensive leaders and part of its foundation.Going into Sunday's game against the Texans, Rhodes has 52 tackles, two interceptions and three forced fumbles. He also is the Jets' sack leader with four - tying a team record for sacks by a defensive back set in 1986 by Bobby Humphrey. His work certainly has caught the eye of opposing quarterbacks. "You keep an eye on him, he's a big part of their defense, a big key of where the pressure is coming from," said Texans quarterback David Carr. "He's coming free sometimes and making some good tackles and some good plays, so we have to be aware of him."Rhodes showed that he could be a productive player last year as a rookie, but not even he saw himself in this big of a role. Soon after Eric Mangini, the former Patriots' defensive coordinator, was named the Jets' coach, the expectations for Rhodes' sophomore year changed."When we first sat down, he told me he expected me to be a leader," Rhodes said. "That surprised me, because it's only my second year. But he told me that just by playing the way I do that my teammates will follow my lead. "He came in and gave me more confidence right away." And what the coach gives, he can just as quickly take away. When Mangini heard Rhodes talking about the respect opposing offenses were showing him, the coach tweaked the safety's ego a bit."I joked with Kerry a little bit when he got his first couple of sacks and he was talking about the offense pointing him out and all that stuff," Mangini said. "I said, 'Well how many sacks do you have compared to (the Patriots') Rodney Harrison? Let's keep our worlds in perspective here,'" Mangini said. "But he's done a nice job." Harrison has 28-1/2 career sacks in 12 seasons. Rhodes has five for his career."Some guys just have those instincts, that feel for where the opening is, and also the feel for when to accelerate, when to attack their power with speed, when to attack their speed with power," Mangini said. "It's a little combination of ability and instincts."
Rhodes has been our MVP on defense this year. I love his versatility. He can blitz, cover and play in the box to help stuff a run. A very nice draft pick by Bradway
Another Article About Rhodes In The Times Rhodes Is the Jets’ Quarterback on Defense By JUDY BATTISTA Published: November 26, 2006 Before Kerry Rhodes’s senior season at Louisville, the new football coach called him into his office and delivered a message that did not surprise him. At least it was not as demoralizing asthe meeting he had a couple of years earlier. He had been told that he would be switching positions — from one side of the ball to the other, from avoiding sacks to inflicting them. Rhodes had the first conversation after his freshman season with the former Louisville coach, John L. Smith. And it still stings, even though Rhodes is in his second season as an N.F.L. starting safety with the Jets. Smith told Rhodes that quarterback was not for him, not with so many good quarterbacks in front of him. Asked now, when he is the Jets’ biggest playmaker on defense with four sacks, including three that forced fumbles, if he liked playing safety, Rhodes paused. “I still think I can play quarterback,” Rhodes said, revealing the confidence that characterizes his defensive play. “I never, ever thought safety, but it’s turned out O.K. When the coach first told me, I thought, ‘Was I that bad?’ At first, I really had a hard time adjusting to it, the physical part of the game, from being the guy trying not to get hit, to coming up and hitting the big running backs.” And so Bobby Petrino, newly hired at Louisville, took his defensive coordinator, Mike Cassity, and then Rhodes into his office and sent a message. He said, ‘Mike, I have a vote over you and Kerry Rhodes will not start for this football team unless he improves on being physical,’ ” Cassity said Thursday in a telephone interview. “The head coach brought him in and made up a film of him missing tackles and not being physical enough. We went back to square one.” The crash tutorial worked and Rhodes, who had toyed with transferring after his meeting with Smith, has emerged as the face of the new-look, aggressive Jets defense. He has become so proficient at being in the right place at the right time that Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, a student of defenses, pointed out Rhodes to his blockers when the teams played this season, screaming, “Block Kerry.” Rhodes weighed 185 pounds when he made the switch in college. “I’m really not ready for this,” he said he thought at the time. Now, at 210, he absorbs Manning’s compliment and jokes about how he had no idea what he was doing when he started playing safety regularly as a college junior. But Rhodes is not plagued by self-doubt. His smile is as wide as his wingspan. He was a communications major and a theater arts minor, and he has appeared in one movie and plans to film another after the season. He shared that news, but put a finger to his lips — football, he said in a stage whisper, was his first job, even if acting is something he has always wanted to do. He has his own public-relations representative, and when he launched his charitable foundation, the party was held at the Manhattan nightclub owned by Jay-Z. ll, Rhodes’s cockiness is endearing, as when he talks about what a good basketball player he is. His large diamond earrings make one think of Terrell Owens, without the swagger. It is the blueprint personality for a blitzer, who experiences the glory of the sack or the agony of watching a quarterback release a ball into single coverage. Last week, agony prevailed; the Jets were burned for a touchdown by the Bears against an all-out blitz. “As a kid, I was always one of the better players,” Rhodes said. “From the younger years, it’s built up in me, knowing I was a better player, so I never really had doubts this would work. In everything I do, I want to be a playmaker. It’s not that I’m a gambler, but I want to be the one to make the game-changing play. I’m not one to shy away from anything.” Not even the extra work that Cassity and Petrino demanded. Cassity thought that Rhodes’s basketball skills would help him time his jumps, which Rhodes demonstrated with a leaping interception against Detroit this season. But more than anything, Cassity had to reprogram Rhodes’s mind to embrace collision. When you’re not used to tackling, putting your chest and face mask on an opponent is a new challenge,” Cassity said. “That’s where Kerry really developed between his junior and senior years.” Rhodes also developed a close friendship with Cassity. He still sends him text messages. The first time he was back in Louisville after going to the N.F.L. last year, he insisted on taking Cassity and his wife to dinner. Cassity has the thank-you note that Rhodes’s parents sent him after Rhodes was drafted in the fourth round by the Jets last year. With the speed to cover wide receivers and the power to take on blockers in the blitz, Rhodes has started every game in his two seasons. His knowledge of the quarterbacks, Rhodes says, helps him because he knows what a quarterback’s first read will be. That allows Rhodes to get an early break on the ball. Last season, he tended to play deeper, and he had an interception and a sack. But Jets Coach Eric Mangini detected the athletic ability — and the confidence — that allows Rhodes to thrive in the all-or-nothing world of the blitz. “Some guys have that instinct, that feel for where the opening is, and also the feel for when to accelerate, when to attack their power with speed, when to attack their speed with power,” Mangini said. On Tuesdays, Rhodes and linebacker Jonathan Vilma watch game film together. In Mangini’s system, Rhodes has supplanted Vilma as the player opposing offenses watch most closely. After Manning singled him out, Rhodes began telling others about how he was getting noticed. Mangini heard about it and teased Rhodes. “I said, ‘Well, how many sacks do you have in comparison to Rodney Harrison?’ ” Mangini said of the Patriots safety. “Let’s keep our worlds in perspective.” Rhodes’s reaction? “Send me more,” he said, “I’ll catch him.” Rhodes leaned back into his locker, laughing. He may go to the Pro Bowl this season; his film career is getting started; and the college coaches were proved right. The quarterback is dead. Long live the quarterback killer. Then Rhodes pointed to the backup quarterback Patrick Ramsey, who sits a few seats away. “I tell Patrick I can throw better than him,” Rhodes said. Time for one more reality check. Cassity said: “Tell him I’ve seen him throw a football. He’s a better safety than he is a quarterback.”
Nice reads, didn't know Rhodes was a QB in college. It can work to his benefit in coverage if he knows how QB's think.
