Section 227's TC Report ~ Tuesday, August 5

Greetings!

Today was another beautiful day at Hofstra and this year’s second trip to TC. It was also the last time I’ll ever make that trip from central NJ for a TC. I wore my new “40 Years On Long Island” T-shirt today to commemorate that. I kind of feel bad for the Long Islanders, but also look forward to seeing what the new facility in NJ looks like a year from now.

Today was a rather uneventful and relaxing practice. I hooked up with Kurt The Jets Fan and his lovely fiancée, Sarah, and spent several hours enjoying conversation with them at the fence. There were scores of school buses in the parking lot and tons of youngsters from YMCA camps, so there was quite a crowd. Marty Lyons spent some time talking to Rich Cimini in front of us.

I thought Ben Graham’s (7) punting today (both days) was pretty good. I agree with JetCane's report, that some of them were line drives, but overall he displayed his usual penchant for hang time on most of them. I am not at all concerned about our kicking game. Nugent (1) is belting out accurate kicks and I see no unsteadiness in Graham’s punts. Both are more than consistent enough to get the job done this year, IMO.

Leon Washington (29) was back on the field taking KRs as was Chansi Stuckey (83) and Jerrico Cotchery (89). In early passing drills (no defensive line), Kellen Clemens (11) completed a nice strike to David Ball (18) over Hank Poteat’s (31) head. Wallace Wright (15) couldn’t hold onto a pass because Darelle Revis (24) was on him like crazy glue and knocked it away. Revis is going to be a HOFer, no question. This kid is totally for real. Musa Smith (32) left the field and began limping on his left ankle and laid down to get it taped. I later saw him walking it off and it looked like he just tweaked a slight sprain perhaps. He was walking okay toward the end of practice.

I can best describe the early practice today as “relaxing.” I know Mangini decided to cut back this year, but I am somewhat concerned about conditioning… long haul conditioning… the kind of conditioning you need to go 4 quarters and stay strong. I had the same impression last week. The intensity did pick up later, however, but I still have a lingering concern about stamina-conditioning being served in this year’s camp… you know, the kind of stamina it takes with the clock running out and your tongue is hanging out and you’ve got to “finish” the game and still be strong. This is not a Herm Edwards Marshmallow Camp, mind you, which could always be measured by the number of players walking around for hours with hands on hips, but you get the picture. I guess I am used to Mangini’s two previous camps. It seemed lika lot more sweat went into those, particularly because there were more two-a-days and they lasted a half hour longer. Anyway… enough of my general impressions…

11-on-11’s and things heated up. A little more work now for the guys who are actually in the 11-on-11’s, but everyone else is on one knee, watching. These were short yardage drills… each QB taking the ball at the 25, then the 18, then the 10-yard line, then even the 5, simulating red zone attempts to score. Chad is in his short-pass element here, or should be. Penny (10) tried to get to Stuckey (83), but nothing doing because he was so well covered. Chad (10) did eventually complete to Cotchery (89) with both Poteat (31) and Rhodes (25) all over him, a very impressive catch in a lot of traffic in the end zone. From the 18, Clemens (11) checked down to Washington (29) and completed from the 5 to Stuckey (83) who was covered unsuccessfully by Drew Coleman (30). From the 3-yard line, Clemens (11) also hooked up a nifty little TC to Cotchery (89), again in a lot of traffic. Just a fast little bullet.

From the 18-yard line, Brett Ratliff (5) nailed a completion to David Ball (18), beating out Ahmad Carroll (42). Ratliff immediately followed that with an incompletion to Wallace Wright (15) after staring him down and taking too much time (he would have been sacked). The coverage is TERRIFIC. Kurt and I agreed that our DEF in general is looking substantial. After the Ratliff (5) incompleteion, both Alan Fanaca (66) and Dustin Keller (81) were jointly guilty of false starts on the same play and both took immediate laps.

In the same short passing drills, Chad Pennington (10) hooked up with Chris Baker (86) on a decent completion and then followed that up with a terrible short pass to his knees that was impossible to catch because he was being rushed. On the play following, Chad (10) had to check down to Leon Washington (29). Kurt then evoked the nickname “Checkdown Chad,” which I thought was pretty funny and so aptly describes the Chad that we’ve all come to know so well.

On a short Clemens (11) pass to intended receiver Wallace Wright (15), Vernon Gholston (56) almost made a nifty grab for the bobbling ball in the flat. Some of Clemens’ short passes still have so much heat on them that a receiver had better be ready to catch and hold on. Pennington (10) then had a pass to Bubba Franks (88) batted down by, again, Darelle Revis (24), who always seems to be around the ball at all times. Franks is not impressing anyone in camp, IMO. Hugely physical guy who blocks fairly well though. Keller is the real deal and continues to impress, at least in his pass-catching abilities.

From the 20-yard line, Clemens completes to Wright (15) and follows it up with a nice throw to Jason Pociask (82). Pociask dropped a pass later on that should have been caught. Clemens then attempts another one to David Ball (18) and it’s defended by Poteat (31). He then goes to Wright (15) again for a terrific corner jump-ball catch by Wright. Pennington (10) tries for Coles (87), but Hank Poteat ((31) and Eric Smith (33) are all over him.

Toward the end of practice, Eric Ainge (9) completed a very nifty pass to TE A.J Schable (48) in the left corner of the end zone. What made this pass so interesting was his ability to roll out of the pocket to his left and, while on the run to his left, complete the very difficult strike to Schable. The ball still had good accuracy and some decent velocity on it even though he was shuffling and not planting his foot. I think Ainge was a good find for us. I'm impressed with his progress and exhibition of abilities so far. I think this kid will develope well and will eventually challenge for the starting postion.

This completes my 2008 TC reports, and while I bid a sad farewell to Hofstra University, I don’t at all bid a sad farewell to the traffic on the Belt Parkway. It’s been a great experience to watch these camps where the Jets “had their roots,” but at the same time I really look forward to what’s in store for the Jets at future camps in NJ. Looking forward to seeing many of you there next year!

 

Thanks for the compliments, fellas.

Jetcane, grab yourself the other handout next to the newspaper... it's got the latest additions. It's an alphabetical list, though, whereas the newspaper is by numbers. Both are useful when used together, because you can cross-reference a guy either by name or number that way.

The biggest mystery to me yesterday was #23. Darnell Bing (23) is listed on both sheets as a Safety and Kurt told me he's gone. Yet, a #23 was running with the rock on several running plays, so the new #23 has to be a RB, but there is no mention of him on either sheet because this is probably somebody they just brought in. And he ran the ball pretty well, too, well enough for me to take notice, yet I couldn't identify him!

 

Good points. Conditioning should take place before camp, granted.

I guess we will find out in Miami. Preseason games never let you know about stamina because of the nature of them... 1st team playing a couple of quarters, 2nd team getting some of the work, etc... guys in and out, etc.

The 4th quarter in that first hot game in Miami will show what we're made of in terms of stamina.

 

Yeah, I can't wait. The first several preseason games give you enough of the 1st team against 1st team action to at least give you an idea of where we are.

As Jetcane said in his other thread, when you watch your 1st OFF against your own 1st DEF, you walk away going, "Was our OFF/DEF that good on that play or was the OFF/DEF that bad?"

I'm going to go out on a limb and tell you that overall, our DEF is a pretty upgraded, improved bunch. While it appears they've got a decent handle on stopping the run (getting a hand on the RB in practice), the pass coverage has been downright spectacular, which explains a lot of the difficulty Chad and Kellen have had in completing their passes and even the number of Clemens' INTs. When a DEF starts getting cocky and knows it has an Offense's number, they start getting "ball hawkish," which is what they are doing. AND THAT IS A GOOD THING, GENTLEMEN!

I hope my eyes aren't glazed over with green again (Jets fans know how easily that sets in), but it could be that our DEF is very good and our OFF is pretty good too.


If we can light it up tomorrow night on both sides of the ball, that will go a long way toward knowing what we have here. That's why I'm so looking forward to watching every play tomorrow night.

 

I didn't get to see him because somebody told me he spent the afternoon in the back of John Madden's travel bus that was parked in the parking lot. The bus was shaking a lot.

 

Yes. In fact, Chad's been so upset he was checking down to Mangold yesterday.

And Madden was so upset when he heard that he put in a call to Marty Lyons to come out to Camp and put a stop to the Tangini thing. I saw Lyons signing autographs for awhile and then headed off to the parking lot to go look for the bus.