N.Y.Times Article: Clemens

All Work and No Play Has Transformed Jets? Clemens

By KAREN CROUSE
Published: August 12, 2007

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Aug. 11 ? Because quarterback Kellen Clemens appeared in only two games as a rookie last season and attempted only one pass, people assume his first season with the Jets was unproductive.

In fact, the opposite was true. During the week, Clemens took copious notes on the offense. After games, he huddled in the locker room with Chad Pennington and Patrick Ramsey, and paid close attention as they deconstructed every possession.

Pennington called Clemens a sponge, and on a cold, damp Friday night at the Meadowlands, it became clear how much Clemens absorbed last season by listening and watching.

In the Jets? 31-16 exhibition victory against the Atlanta Falcons, Clemens played like an old pro, throwing three touchdown passes in two and a half quarters of relief to solidify his standing as Pennington?s heir apparent.

?He watches everything I do,? said Pennington, who played the first quarter and did not attempt a pass. ?But at the same time, he wants to be his own man.?

Clemens, who completed 16 of 22 passes for 174 yards, has taken a lot more snaps during the first two weeks of training camp than he did last season while playing behind Pennington and Ramsey, who was released after the season and signed with the Denver Broncos.

?I feel a lot more comfortable,? said Clemens, who was in a groove in the third quarter, completing nine straight passes to three receivers during consecutive possessions.

Wallace Wright, a second-year player who spent most of 2006 on the practice squad, had four of the receptions and the rookie Chansi Stuckey had three, including one for a 13-yard touchdown.

Tight end Sean Ryan had the other two, the more spectacular of which was a 10-yard touchdown out of the no-huddle on a ball that Clemens released as he was being hit by a blitzing Falcons linebacker.

?He threw a great ball out there,? Ryan said. ?He put it where only I could get it. That?s all you can ask the quarterback to do.?

Clemens, who is competing with the seven-year veteran Marques Tuiasosopo for playing time behind Pennington, stayed lodged in the pocket like a piece of lint. His poise and presence in the face of the Falcons? rush drew praise from Coach Eric Mangini, who said, ?Kellen did some good things.?

He became only the third Jets quarterback in the last 15 years, after Rick Mirer and Ray Lucas, to throw three touchdown passes in an exhibition game. Clemens?s play did not surprise his teammates, who have watched him develop like a Polaroid snapshot. Every day his game has come into sharper focus.

Justin McCareins, who connected with Clemens on a 49-yard pass play in the second quarter, said: ?You could always tell he had the talent. Now you can just tell he?s getting comfortable back there and making great reads and making the right decisions.?

He graduated from Oregon with a degree in business administration and an eye toward eventually running the ranch. Yet this year he limited himself to one three-day visit.

?I?d love to go back home more,? Clemens said. ?I miss it. But New York is where my work is. This is where my career is.?

New York is where his receivers are, and Clemens spent a lot of extra hours during the off-season throwing to them. On Friday, he saw the first dividends.

?He?s always been that type of gutsy player,? said Joey Harrington, the sixth-year quarterback for the Falcons, whose career at Oregon intersected briefly with Clemens?s. ?He?ll sit in there and take a hit.?

Harrington, who started for the Falcons and completed 6 of 9 passes for 88 yards, added: ?I thought he played very well. Very composed.?


The best decision that Clemens made was also one of the hardest. After the season, he remained in New York instead of returning to his family?s 3,500-acre ranch in Burns, Ore., in the eastern part of the state.

The land that has been in his family for generations is a rich source of comfort for Clemens, who has said that every time he goes back, he falls a little deeper in love with the place.