The center position is by far the toughest position on the line to learn because so much of it's mental. Mangold will be tossed into a situation where he needs to make calls on blocking adjustments on every play once the defensive formation is seen. NFL defenses change up so quick that despite his success in college, he hasn't seen anything like he'll have to deal with in the pros. If he makes a bad call or he helps block the wrong guy leaving another unblocked, that's an excellent way to get a quarterback killed. It would have been so much better if Teague had started the year and Mangold eventually worked into the mix as the season progressed. Now Mangold starts with no real backup (don't even mention Kendall after the disasterous time he had at center last year) and Teague is lost not only as a center but as a capable backup at tackle and guard. Not a good start to the season.
I could not possibly agree more. On every point. What we don't know is how bad Teague's break is. If it's a simple one, he could be back in 8 weeks. If it's worse.... it could be as bad as the whole season. Mangold will have to learn fast.
Agreed. I'm pretty sure that Mangold is already better than Teague anyway. Also, hopefully this will help to destroy the TGG myth of Teague the pro-bowler--I remember when we signed him and Bills fans said that he sucked, some people on this website actually posted that they were only saying that because they were jealous of us for signing him. BTW, so much for offseason non-contact drills, huh?
I'd like to imagine that if he's seriously injured (as in won't be available for a large portion of the season) he'd be replaced. Plus, maybe this will motivate Katnik to earn a job.
LeCharles Bentley handled it fine, as did Jeff Faine. Most lineman play their first year anyway. You're not going to ruin a lineman by starting him right away. Go back into the stats and look at Hall of Fame lineman. They all start from day one.
Yeah, the position comparison is very different.....so is college to National Fooball. Get some time under your belt before you qoute me.
Ugh. Drives me nuts when players get injured before they even adjust their jock, but thems the breaks (no pun intended). What is the extent of Blaylock's injury?
Even though he was an accomplished college center, Bentley played guard for two years before the center job was turned over to him in New Orleans. Faine did such a great job that Cleveland traded him to New Orleans this year along with pick 43 for New Orleans pick 33. In other words, they gave him away. Learning to play tackle or guard in the NFL is ten times as easy as learning the center position and no matter how you spin it, Teague's injury makes things harder for Mangold and Mangini. Impossible? Of course not. But the learning curve has definitely just gone into warp speed.
The only good thing about this is that we do have good C depth, Katnick's not a bad backup with Trey hurt.
Jets | Injury update: T. Teague Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:56:33 -0700 ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli reports New York Jets OL Trey Teague (ankle), projected as the team's starting center, will likely miss the opening of training camp and perhaps the start of the season with a broken left ankle. The injury occurred last week, during an organized team activities (OTA) session, when a teammate fell on Teague's lower left leg. With Teague sidelined, rookie OC Nick Mangold worked with the first-unit offense the first two days of minicamp.
