http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/jets/2008/09/gang-green-signs-hodges-to-rep.html The Jets have a new punter. Two, actually. As expected, they signed Reggie Hodges to replace the departed shank master, Ben Graham. But, in a mild surprise, they also added a punter to the practice squad - Waylon Prather, who has ?some potential to develop over time,? according to Eric Mangini. This was a smart move for the Jets, but maybe not such a good move for Hodges? job security. If Hodges falters, the Jets already have his replacement on the premises. Prather?s presence will create a weekly competition, which is right up Mangini?s alley. What do you need to know about Hodges? Drafted by the Rams out of Ball State in 2005. Struggled there. Picked up by the Eagles. Struggled there. Didn?t punt in 2006 and 2007. Battled Ryan Plackemeier this summer in the Seahawks? training camp, but got cut after having two punts blocked. Spent three days on the Patriots? practice squad before the season started. You knew there had to be a Patriots connection here somewhere, right? Hodges had an impressive workout yesterday, Mangini said. According to my mole, Hodges? hang time in the workout was consistently over 5 seconds. He also will replace Graham as the holder on PATs and FGs. Mangini said he was sorry to dump Graham. He got a little nostalgic, recalling the time he was a Jets assistant (circa 1997) and scouted Graham in a muddy cow paddock in Australia. Fuzzy memories aside, this is a business - a cold business - and Graham deserved to get whacked that his awful display on Sunday. Who knows? Maybe he?ll end up with the Patriots; they?re known to be concerned about their punting situation. The other development here in lovely Florham Park, N.J., was Brett Favre?s weekly presser. Our man, Gary Myers, seemed to get under Favre?s skin a little - Gary is good at that - when he asked if he was frustrated by the conservative play calling on those three running plays at the Patriots? goal line. Favre cut off Myers before he had a chance to finish the question. ?It was frustrating that we didn?t get the ball in,? Favre said, with an edge to his voice. ?Hopefully, these questions will subside at some point ? Would I liked to have thrown it? Sure, I would. But I would much rather get the ball in, whether it be running or throwing?. I feel very confident in Brian?s play-calling ability.? That?s Brian Schottenheimer, the offensive coordinator. Believe it or not, there was some talk about this week?s opponent - the Chargers. Mangini broke it down this way: Referring to the Chargers? last-second losses against the Panthers and Broncos, he said: ?You look at the two plays at the end of the game, you?re talking about six or eight inches on both those plays, the difference between winning and losing. They could easily be 2-0.? Oh, one more note about the Jets-Patriots game: Maybe you caught this on TV, but according to several players, the Patriots? sideline (namely Tedy Bruschi) was livid because Shaun Ellis removed his helmet before the final snap. The Patriots? offense ended up getting penalized for a false start. There was less than a minute left, and the win was in the bag, but the Patriots went nuts. To paraphrase my favorite anchorman, Ron Burgundy (in honor of the upcoming trip to San Diego), ?Come on, New England, stay classy.? We all know we picked up Hodge but we are preparing for our future with Waylon Prather.
yeah Ole' Teddy boy got caught screaming "f-ing faggot" (dont shoot the messenger) on live TV. It was classic, anyone else here catch that? Anyway sounds promissing that his hang time was consistently 5 seconds, but there must be a reason hes always gettin cut. We will see....
^Yeah--I caught that and others were yelling too--it was just more gamesmanship and Ellis opened himself up to it. You should always play to the final gun; in football and in life. It builds character and good things happen. When you quit early, the shit gets piled on and your worse off than you were.
it's about time we got a punter who can be homegrown and knows the Special Teams system inside and out. Just kidding... it's a punter
Great to see that we got conficence in our new Punter. Why didn?t we do something during Camp to adress that? We had that bum Kapinos in camp for a bout a week, and then it was all Graham. Why not bring in some other guys to challange Graham for his job when it was time for experiments. Now we run those experiment 2 weeks into the season. Or did Graham get wore instantly 10 days ago. I don?t get all that.
Ellis is also the player that put that final crunching hit on Brady in the Jets' last win in NE. Lest we forget. :jets:
Minutes later he was complaining about numbness in his left side and a loss of depth perception as well as an overall confusion as to where he actually was. I'm going to hell.
