Thanks. i havent set the time aside to go this summer, although i was supposed to go last Saturday a.m., but my buddy punked out with a "dentist appt." As i mentioned the other day, the prospect of yet another series of tc reports discussing CP vs. Clemens isn't very appealing to me. It gets kinda redundant. Though i enjoy going, it takes a lot of time up and also energy to do the reports. I also am not too keen on watching the little Napoleon and his tiresome HC act either, while baking in the sun or standing against the fence. So, I figured some other guys would pick up the baton and carry it with their tc reports. But I may go next week, if my calendar clears up.
Here's the PM update: Clemens has, suffice to say, disappointed so far in TC. I had a feeling this was coming and was why I was a little unhappy the Jets didn't draft Brohm this year. Oh well... http://weblogs.newsday.com/sports/football/jets/blog/2008/07/day_6_the_afternoon_practice.html Looks like its Chad's job to lose. Funny tidbit, don't read into it too much
I took some notes from practice this AM. Here they are: The New York media has been reporting that Chad has pulled ahead of Kellen Clemens mostly because he hasn't thrown any interceptions to Kellen's 4 picks. Well that trend continued in Tuesday's practice. Chad looked crisp and on time on all his throws whereas Kellen at times was shaky and unsure of himself. Neither of them really attempted any long passes, it was mostly screens and red zone plays today. This was the second practice that I attended and besides a couple of fade routes, I haven't seen the offense spend any time on the down field passing game. That was a given with Chad in there, but I was hoping they would open it up more with Kellen. Maybe they don't trust him just yet. Perhaps they are still learning to crawl before they walk, but as of right now this looks like a ball control offense with a short passing game to move the chains. Chad Pennington - Chad was literally in the zone throwing a bunch of TD passes while practicing their redzone offense. He threw TDs to Jerricho, Laveranues, Thomas Jones and almost one to Bubba Franks. More on the TDs later. Chad was having fun out there being the leader even when he missed. After one failed attempt, the whistle blew for the offense to break up and go to their position drills, but Chad ran over to his intended receiver Leon Washington and discussed what went wrong before giving him a playful smack on the helmet and sending him on his way. Kellen Clemens - On one of his first plays in 7-on-7s, Kellen threw a short pass over the middle to WR Chansi Stuckey that was intercepted by one of the LBs. He did throw a TD to Brad Smith on the next play but walked back to his coaches shaking his head "no" in frustration from the previous play. He also got bailed out on what looked like another pick by WR Marcus Henry who successfully fought DB Drew Coleman for the ball and TD. Thomas Jones - TJ had 3 totals TDs that I saw. He was 2 for 3 at the goalline. The one time he didn't get in DT Kris Jenkins made a great play sifting through a bunch of trash and meeting him in the backfield on an offtackle run. D'Brickashaw Ferguson earned a day off for his successful offseason training program and chose to take the morning off. Had he been there instead of LT Jacob Bender, he might have been able to seal off Jenkins from making the play to his side. TJ's other TD was from a swing pass from Chad which he took and outraced a defender to the pylon. The other thing I noted with TJ was they practiced one play 6 times with him. They spent more time installing it than any other play. It was a playaction fake handoff to TJ which the QB then faked the handoff to a reversing Coles and then the QB threw it back to TJ who was set up in a screen with a couple blockers. Chad got to run it 3 times and then so did Kellen, both against no defenders. When they went to 11-on-11s, the first play they ran vs. the defense was (you guessed it) the fake handoff fake reverse screen to TJ which he took for 20 yards. This play takes a while to develop but from what I saw they were using a max protect scheme. The only guy going out in a pattern was Cotchery while the 2 TEs blocked. Leon Washington - Quiet day overall for him. He did get targetted on wheel route in the endzone from Chad but it was overthrown. He did get to run a HB toss option but it was broken up by CB Dwight Lowery I think. Jesse Chatman - Was out there but I only noticed him when he slipped on a counter play. Musa Smith - unremarkable Jehuu Caulcrick - 2nd or 3rd string FB? Laveranues Coles - Collected 2 TDs on the day, both from Chad. One was a 15 yard out route that he beat S Kerry Rhodes on. Lavs playfully shoved the ball in Rhodes gut after he made the catch. The other was a 5 yarder. He made a nice play plucking a ball with his left hand on a crossing route. Also on the aforementioned TJ screen pass, they mixed it up a couple times and actually gave the reverse to Lavs. He also ma Jerricho Cotchery - Had to climb the ladder to grab one of Chad's TDs in the back of the endzone. It was a tough catch since it was in tight coverage and he did a nice job of getting both feet in before he fell out backwards out of bounds. Bubba Franks - Bubba almost had a one handed TD in the back of the endzone from Chad but fell into the pads protecting the truck lift for the elevated cameras. Dustin Keller - More of the same from last practice. Lots of motions back-and-forth. Was in the goalline package. He motioned from right to left for the goalline play TJ got stuffed on and may have missed his block on LB Calvin Pace who strung TJ out. However, on another play he motioned from right to middle then back to right and TJ took it up the gut on his side for a score. He lined up as a WR once or twice that I saw as well. There's some mystery to his height as he's been listed anywhere from 6'2" to 6'4". I got a good look at him and I'd say he's right in between at 6'3". A couple notes on this defense. Roland (Rwood37) and I discussed them earlier this year when we came up with our ranking for the Fantasy Index Experts' Poll. We ranked them higher than anyone at #11. This unit has a bunch of playmakers in it. Taking stock there is S Kerry Rhodes who if he played in the NFC would have been to a couple Pro Bowls by now but he can't get past Troy Polamalu, Ed Reed, and Bob Sanders in the AFC. DB Darrelle Revis is showing signs of becoming a shutdown corner. DT Kris Jenkins should anchor their 3-4 and be a force against the run if he stays motivated. IDP tackling machine LB David Harris mans the middle. On returns they have Leon Washington and Justin Miller who made a Pro Bowl as a special teamer. All this and we haven't even mentioned Vernon Gholston who many think could be the next Merriman. Plus they get to play Miami and Buffalo twice, as well as Oakland, St. Louis, Kansas City, San Fran and Arizona. Scoop them late and play them all season except against the Pats. One final note. LB Brad Kassel came over to sign some autographs for the kids. He had a a pretty big gash on his nose that was just bleeding all over the place. Some girl tried being nice and offered him a band-aid which he refused and then said "Band-aids are for pu$$ies!". He went right back to signing autographs without even skipping a beat. God I love football!! If you like this, check out my site DynastyRogues.com
Could be the greatest Training Camp story ever told. Isn't he our special teams captain? God love him.
