Jones Takes the Handoff Published: Fri, July 27, 11:54am EST Randy Lange By Randy Lange 07/27 ? It came off almost as if scripted. The day after Curtis Martin announced his retirement, Thomas Jones announced his arrival. In an early 11-on-11 drill in the first practice of Jets training camp, Jones showed some of what he'll bring to the table at tailback by taking a Chad Pennington handoff off left guard and striding quickly, muscularly through the hole for what would have been a 15- or 20-yard gain. The crowd of about 1,200 stood and cheered. Jones also showed his cuts and quicks on a short dumpoff that he took back up the middle. Other than T.J., the first half of the first practice proved the adage about early defense being ahead of early offense. In 7-on-7 work, LB Eric Barton tomahawked a pass breakup against Jones, CB Hank Poteat picked off Kellen Clemens, Laveranues Coles dropped a Pennington deep ball after slipping past CB David Barrett, and DE Michael Haynes met and shut down RB Danny Ware. But then the offense battled back. Brad Smith, working at WR among many spots, slowed up to catch an underthrown bomb from Clemens. And Pennington got sharper. After running an early lap right behind Marques Tuiasosopo for missed handoffs, No. 10 started finding his receivers. The best pass play of the morning was Pennington hitting TE Chris Baker with safety Kerry Rhodes getting beaten in the coverage. Then came a quick hitter to Jerricho Cotchery against a blitz and a beautifully thrown deep in-cut to Justin McCareins in front of Barrett. With first-round DB Darrelle Revis not yet signing and reporting, second-round LB David Harris was the first-year man in the spotlight, and he showed quick, strong moves, especially in closing for the tackle on a short Clemens pass to TE Joe Kowalewski. Head coach Eric Mangini is now doing his daily news conference. We'll report on that shortly.
Good to see Brad Smith getting more reps. I smell a break out year for him. Even Pennington has to do laps. I want to know why Rhodes was beaten? Was it because Baker is getting better at route running or is Rhodes going to take a step back? There's no way Rhodes should get beaten by Baker Nice start for Harris
Awesome...Kellen Clemens under throwing the deep ball and getting picked off. I guess it's just the first day of camp, so he could be a little rusty, but isn't he supposed to have a fairly decent arm? At least stronger than Chad's...
Underthrowing the deep ball may not have anything to do with his arm. He may have just mis judged Smith's speed. They will fix that as they work together more.
Looks like Chad is healthy/comfortable enough to really let them rip this year. I predict a Pro Bowl season for Chad. He is going to have a monster year.
I think he will have an average year, better than last season, about 21 TDs and 16 picks at best. Pro Bowl? I strongly strongly doubt it I'm not concerned, it's the first day of TC, he's bound to not be 100% keen on his reads and recognition. Offense usually looks so much better in the begining of TC because they already know what they are doing, whereas defense is a read and react thing. In time, they get their reads down and it's all gravy. Other than making a bad read/being out of position, he may have just tripped or something. Hell, everyone gets beat once in a while anyways.
I know, it's not a popular position to take, but I agree. If he doesn't get hurt, I could see him at the top of the league in QB Rating. In part this is b/c I think he knows the offense better and won't be rusty and worrying about his shoulder, and in part b/c I think Manning and Brady are overdue for an injury. Something unexpected ALWAYS happens...
Not much from Cimini. Camp Mangini opens Greetings from Day 1 of Camp Mangini. Things didn't get off to such a great start for the Jets. The early portion of the morning practice got real sloppy - in more ways than one. There were botched snaps, fumbled handoffs and a PDOV - a public display of vomiting. That's right, Leon Washington lost his, um, breakfast after completing a penalty lap for bobbling a handoff. It has been an unsettling day all around. For the first time since 1997, the Jets didn't have their draft picks signed for the start of camp. First-round CB Darrelle Revis (14th overall pick) remains unsigned. This negotiation could get tricky because the players drafted in front of him and behind him (Rams DE Adam Carriker and Steelers LB Lawrence Timmons) signed five-year deals. Revis, too, prefers a five-year deal, but the Jets want to make it six years, the max allowed for a player selected in that spot. Then, of course, there's the Pete Kendall situation. As expected, the disgruntled guard ripped the organization (yes, again), claiming he's being held hostage. Kendall, speaking after practice, said he doesn't want to be here. He believes the organization doesn't want him here, either. So why is he here? There are two reasons why the Jets haven't granted Kendall's request for a trade or released: * Despite his unhappiness with his contract, he's still a solid player and they don't want to unload an asset unless they can get something of value in return. * Vindictiveness. The Jets don't want to give Kendall a "Get Out of Jail Free" card because they know he'd sign immediately with divisional rival Miami. When Kendall showed up to camp, he was assigned to the rookie dorm. Was that a statement by Mangini? The coach said it was an honest mix up. "There's no conspiracy theory, there's no grassy knoll," Mangini said. Anyway, Kendall complained to the coach and GM Mike Tannenbaum and his room got changed. In practice, he was relegated to second-team duty (another message?), although Mangini insisted that Kendall is rotating with Adrien Clarke. Other nuggets from today: Former college QB Brad Smith, drafted last year to play wide receiver, is back to being a quarterback. Mangini described Smith's role this way: "He's a quarterback who plays some receiver." The coach claims the receiver experiment wasn't a bust, that he simply likes Smith's potential at quarterback. Hmmm. One thing is clear: The receiving corps looks a lot thinner now with Tim Dwight (foot) on the PUP list and Smith playing quarterback. It certainly increases Justin McCareins' value. It looks like RB Cedric Houston is gone for good. On Thursday night, he was placed on the reserve/left camp list. Mangini said the move appears permanent. The coach: "He's made a decision that he wants to move on with the rest of his life. I respect that decision." Now the Jets are thin at running back, with no experience behind Thomas Jones and puking Leon. Mangini says they'll look for help at that spot. Speaking of the coach, he's looking awfully svelte these days, having dropped some serious pounds in the offseason. Maybe his boxing buddy, Teddy Atlas, has convinced him to drop a couple of weight classes.
This to me stress's just how fragile we could be at QB. The more I read about Clemons the more I think Bust , well going in that direction anyway.
Wow that's the first I'm hearing of Smith being @ QB more than WR. The guy certainly had impressive numbers in college, but who knows with this regime. Mangini is fond of smoke and mirrors.
I'll give Clemens more than one day in camp before I pass judgment. Though, the reports from the AM session certainly weren't favorable.
I think of him more as a calculated risk. He may pan out, he might not. As long as Chad's arm is still attached, it doesn't matter anyway. We'll draft another QB long before Clemmens ever gets a shot.
That old saying , theres no smoke without fire. Its all the murmers that are going about , we don't seem to hear about how well hes coming along....yet. I'm not sold on Clemons , but haven't written him off either.
I Didn't think that would happen. That's a serious surprise. Imagine Smith is the QB for a series against the Pats. I would like the surprise.
