Home > The Way We Hear It ~ ~ ~ NY Jets Oct. 3, 2008 By Matt Sohn Smith hitting hard, but falling short of expectation in Jets' secondary The fact that S Eric Smith received a one-game suspension and $50,000 fine for his vicious hit on Cardinals WR Anquan Boldin wasn?t surprising. The fact that he was even on the field to lay the wood was the more surprising piece of news. The word we?re hearing from around the league is that third-year pro Abram Elam entered the offseason as the clear front-runner for the safety job. That notion was cemented even further when star SS Kerry Rhodes unveiled to PFW toward the start of training camp that Rhodes, Elam and CB Darrelle Revis would represent the core of their weekly film sessions at Rhodes? house, sessions generally attended by the Jets' starting defensive backs. The way we hear it, Smith simply had the better training camp, but that fact that none of the safeties has proven an inspiring complement to Rhodes has coach Eric Mangini thinking hard about inserting converted CB David Barrett into the starting safety role opposite Rhodes. > http://www.profootballweekly.com/PFW/The+Way+We+Hear+It/default.htm
I think Barret will do fine there, but I honestly don't think he will survive long injury wise. Its a much more physical position than CB.
What did happen to Elam? So, last year he can beat out E. Smith for playing time while being a mid season arrival who missed training camp, but this season he can't get on the field?
It would seem so and that sucks. I was hoping to see him sooner the way Smith has been sucking it up. We need to make a switch.
Elam just sucks...apparently more than Smith. Leave David Barrett at safety, he's played better than Smith and Elam. This off-season we need to draft a safety or sign a solid, proven free agent to play next to Rhodes.
I hope a decent FA comes available, because we can only seem to draft one good safety out of every 20 we gamble on.
