Just got back from the 5:30 practice. Still pretty freakin hot, but a bit better than the am session. As far as 1028's source, he doesn't want to divulge it, but He's very confident his info is good.... has a track record. Sentimentally, I'd hat e for Martin's career to end that way, but I actually think that it might help this team if he did retire. I've been very impressed with Houston and Washington so far. They look fast, and Houston has pop in his pads. I'm a little less impressed with blaylock, however. He is very good as a backfield reciever, but he gets hesitant hitting the line. When he stops like that, he loses his best weapon... speed into the hole. This morning in that goal line drill, he did a spin move before he even made contact. Needless to say, he actually lost a half a yard. Houston runs at the goal line with authority when he hits the hole. 4th and goal at the one is no time to dance or jiggle through the line. The QB mystery continues. This morning Bollinger took about 80 % of the snaps, Pennington took most of the rest. Ramsey never got into the 11 on 11's. Tonight, it was Clemens getting most of the snaps, and Pennington getting maybe 35%. Bolly was rested after all the work he had this morning. Ramsey had 4 snaps. That was it. Ramsey also continues to be left out of the 3 QB rotation drill, where 3 QB's take a snap, and each throw to a different reciever in different patterns. Ramsey is off playing fake QB with a different group altogether. This is three straight practices now that Ramsey has been excluded. He might have thrown 5 passes all day, but it's obvious there is nothing wrong with his arm. So, that is two days and 3 practices where Ramsey has gotten almost no reps at all. And, he's being left out of the 3 QB drill. Very puzzling. Clemens looks REALLY good for stretches, and just when you think he's the best QB on the team, he does something to remind you, despite how good he looks at times, that he is still a rookie. I think this kid could be the real deal.... the abilty and calm leadership is there. Mangold looks good, but can be manhandled with a bullrush some. Clement is a big, cumbersome slow linemen. I didn't like that signing, I like it less now. There is no way he beats out Jones at RT, who appears to have beefed up some. Blanton looked good in spots, but Moore is struggling on pass protection. Morely looked good at times, but I saw him taking at least two laps tonight. That means he screwed up. Dwight Smith.... this kid has potential. He can make the tough catches, but his hands are a little inconsistant yet. His 40 time may indicate he isn't a true deep threat, but he explodes of the line. He has burst. he looked very good in the bump and run drills, and made some nice grabs. He doesn't always look for the ball early enough, so he has trouble adjusting to the less than perfect pass. I think he could be a starting WR by 2007 or 2008, depending on how fast he develops. Tom Dwight threw a absolute wobbling dead duck on a reverse-flea flicker sort of trick play. Funny thing was the WR still caught the ball in the middle of 3 defenders. (dont remember which WR came down with it). Dwight got chewed out for not throwing it out of bounds. D Smith would be perfect for that play. The problem is, if he rarely plays, the D will be ready if he's lined up at WR. Ah.... what else... Robertson seems to be holding his own at NT, but they were only in shells tonight, so no meaningful comments could be made reasonably. If Pouha really is out for the season, we need another NT for sure. Grady Jackson might be a good one year solution, thinking out loud. Drew Coleman may not be around for long. He bit on a fake by Cotchery. I believe it was, and got caught flay footed. Cotch took it to the hose, running righ t by him. He otherwise was playing soft, so that makes it even worse. He is struggling, no doubt. Not much shotgun, not too many two TE sets. Lots of three wide 1 RB sets though. Hartigan is a better runner than reciever, his hands aren't reall good, but he's powerful hitting the line. I like the way he runs with the ball. Askew dogged a route that would have been a TD in drills if he finished. Had a good time spending the day with 227, 1028 and Kurt. We eventually retreated into the AC.... just too freakin hot outside. My new nicknames for these three: Section 227: One ball man. 1028: Black hole. (food reference) Kurt: Pizza killer. (kept talking about pizza all day, stole my local pizzeria menu, always orders double cheese and sausage, eats the whole pie in ten minutes)
Let's face it. Martin retiring does not hurt this team. He is on the way out anyway and it is time to pass the torch. Does anyone really think that Martin would be able to contribute next year at age 33 or 34??? He had a great career and if it ends, it ends. It was ending soon anyway. The Pouha injury is far more troubling both for this year and the future.
Hahahahahaha! Bull shit! This preseason speculation is always the same. Minor injuries happen in training camp. Everyone can go ahead and overblow the situation.
Okay, time for my $.02. The trip from Jersey was a killer yesterday... left the house at 6:30 and didn't get home until almost 10PM... couldn't wait to shower off the Bullfrog. The bleachers are ungodly hot in the AM practices. The PM practice actually felt cool compared to what the four of us endured in the AM. Many more people showed up in the evening and the practice turned out to be a better one than the AM... less footwork drills and a whole lot more 11-11's under the lights in front of the bleachers. For those of you who requested trading cards in this thread, my apologies, fellas. None of us stuck around any longer than we had to at the end of practice. It was a long day and I still had to wrestle with the Belt Parkway and a traffic jam on Staten Island and there was no way I was going to stand in line for some cards. My reports are almost always not as technical as T-Bird's, Kurt's or anyone else's. In fact, if you want to regard my reports as fluff, then stop reading right here. My intent is to suppliment other, much better written reports coming out of the media and coming from guys like T-Bird, Kurt, MM and others. For me to try complete with those technicians is foolish and not my forte. I instead choose to provide an overall flavor of camp and general commentary. Technical articles abound about individual players, so although I will attempt to answer some of those questions questions if asked, sometimes I'm not the best guy to ask anyway. The Two-A-Day yesterday (Tuesday, August 1) consumed a total aggregate time of a little over 5 1/2 hours (about 2 3/4 hours each). Compared to Herm's Two-A-Days last year (1 3/4 hours each, for a total of 3 1/2 hours), Mangini's Two-A-Days equal two of Herm's. So much for the criticism that Mangini is "only" having 7 Two-A-Days. Time-wise, Mangini's Two-A-Days exceed Herm's. But it doesn't end there, because Mangini's practices far exceed Herm's in quality in the alloted time allowed. He is jamming SO much more into the parctices this year than I witnessed last year, it doesn't even come close to comparison. The 5 1/2 hours those Jets were on the field yesterday was non-stop hard work. The coaches are doing more yelling and hollering... more in-your-face, hands-on teaching... MUCH more. Heimerdinger, for example, stood motionless and quiet last year, with arms folded over his gut, hand supporting his chin (as if deep in technical thought). The only one animated and vocal last year was Mike Westhoff, for the most part. The entire experience was disappointing for me last year. In fact, I had been a staunch Herm supporter until I attended last year's camp. That camp became a turning point in terms of my perception of Herm as a good HC. This camp is hurried. "Come on, let's go... hurry up... get going... do it again... move it..." Barking can be heard incessantly. I really liked the lineman drills. I believe it was Pete Kendall who was quoted in the papers the other day as having said that (reiterating) "they don't leave you alone. It's football all the time. You can't get away from it and you don't have much down time to recharge." But he also ended his comments by adding that he welcomed the difference in camps. This is non-stop, no-nonsense coaching fellas. They're on the players all the time. I have no doubt that this continues afterwards in meetings and discussions about positions, technique, etc. I envision the only down time these players get is when their heads hit the sack at the end of the day. Mangini has his staff geared up drill-instructor style. And he'd right there too... so if he sees something he doesn't like, he's right on top of it also. I know you've read all about this anyway, but I fugure it doesn't hurt to hear it from someone who's there and can compare it to last year. Okay, the QB's... which is about all I have time for anyway. In Dave Hutchinson's article this morning in the Star-Ledger, he claims "Jets go with Pennington as starter." He states this came from "a team official with knowledge of the team's plans," and that "the official, who requested anonymity because coach Eric Mangini isn't ready to make a formal announcement, said the competion at quarterback is over." It surprises me, if true, that this information leaked out, and God help the guy who leaked this, because EM is going to kick his ass severely. But be that as it may, it does answer some buring questions I had after watching practice yesterday. As T-Bird reports above, Penny took a lot of snaps. He was not sharp in the AM practice. Some of his passes had something on them, but infrequently. Bolly rotated in and out along with Clemens quite a bit, but Ramsey touched the ball twice, if lucky. Then, in the PM practice, it was all the Chad-Kellen SHow. Bolly didn't get much action and Ramsey again touched the ball very infrequently. In terms of any meaningful practice on Ramsey's part, it was non-existant. Clemens was taking 8-10 snaps, then Penny would step in for 8-10 more and the series would end with Ramsey stepping in for 2. This would repeat itself in the different drills. For all practical purposes, Ramsey might just as well have been off the field. Now, as far as Penny goes. I did notice a marked improvement over what he looked like last year at exactly this time. In '05, my first camp was a Two-A-Day, on or about August 2. Pennington looked pitiful. He threw the ball no more than 20 yards and had an exagerated, overhead, almost hand grenade-like throwing motion that looked as painful to watch as it must have been to execute. Immediately following this same point in Chad's recovery, Herm made the ludicrous announcement that "Chad was 89% ready." I saw with my own eyes that this was far from being the case, but for some reason Herm... well... no sense eve rehashing the ridiculouslness of that HC. Yesterday, Chad looked MUCH further along than he did on 8/2/05. He didn't show it in the morning practice so much, so it still had me wondering and wanting to see more in the PM before commenting. In the PM, Chad took even more reps and along with Clemens put on a real show. He still has rust, mind you. Some passes float more than I like, and even his accuracy is still not there, I regretfully report. He was picked off and some were batted. But he's taking the reps, and that's the important thing. He passed a lot of balls last night. And his presence is there. He looks like he's getting back in the groove, a point to which he never got going into Arrowhead last year (despite Herm's statements to the contrary). He even ran a few. The reverse in which Dwight became the QB last night was dowright fun to watch, although I would like to have seen Brad Smith do it. The rythm is coming to Chad, even while working with the second stringers. Meanwhile, Clemens just flat-out, stone-cold amazed me last night. I know T-Bird is of the opinion that Clemens is still a rookie and that every once in awhile, when you think he's looking capable, it's going to show. Well, hell, yes he threw some INT's. But I'd like to see some stats from last night on Clemens' completion percentages. The kid is accurate! He's got speed, he's got quick release, he's got command presence (with the first team no less) and he gets the ball to where it has to be and accutrately. I completely disagree with Dave Hutchinson when he says in the side article under "Who's Not Hot" that "QB Clemens, working with the first team... is clearly not ready to start." Well, perhaps he's right and I'm too pumped on this kid, but if you could see him last night you would never convince anyone that this is a kid we just drafted two months ago. Even a total stranger in the crowd agreed and said that the QB out there looks like someone who's been in the league and year or two. Whether Clemens is ready to start or not is a meaningless argument however, because if Penny continues to take reps in camp and shake the rust, he definately will be the starter, whether Hutchinson's source is correct or not. As for Ramsey, he looks for all the world like the Old Maid and as useless as tits on a bull. He's not getting any reps and this is by design coming down from On High. Something very serious is going on with this guy and it's almost like he's in the Mangini doghouse or worse. T-Bird and I speculated that, since none of us actualy know what happens in the classroom, that perhaps Ramsey is just not grasping the playbook or far from being mentally ready. Mangini is not wasting valuable rep time on this guy, for one reason or another and Ramsey wanders around the field looking almost forlorn and isolated. The snaps he does get almost seem obligatory and short-lived and Clemens is being showcased and studied repeatedly. This is not the scenarioo you'd expect from a just-signed rookie who, in everyone's mind, would be sitting on the bench for at least a year. There is more going on behind the scenes than meets the eye, that's for sure. In fact, we may very well keep all four QB's, but not in the order you'd expect. Anyway, I've made this far too long. If you get a chance, go to TC this year and watch your QB of the future. This kid is the real deal.
Man, I feel like a bum for not typing a report, but truth is, I was way too scorched to even concentrate on the players. Not to mention that I was always on the field opposite from the action But there WERE some pretty hot hooters chicks there that gave me a free Hooters magazine :up: Oh yeah, great job TBJ, 227, and Kurt, on your reports :beer:
Like I told you yesterday.... you are a fabulous writer, bud! Great report! You and I are definitely on the same page. I slept like a rock last night.... even without the travel, I was shot. This whole Ramsey thing is going completely unreported by these "scribes" that supposedly report for a living. If the fact that Ramsey isn't getting any quality practice time, and he's the odd man out, there is no question who the starter will be by process of elimination... not Bolly, not the rook.... it's Chad. For ANY healthy player to get as little practice reps as Ramsey does over a two day period..... he's lost the battle, no doubt. Could he re-emerge if Bolly or Clemens falter? yeah, but I just don't see it happeneing. Glad ya got home safe.
Guys, I'd like to get confirmation on Pouha? He was impressing the first day and then got hurt. It would suck if he's out for the season. What's the deal?
Had a great time and it was nice meeting other fellow GG'ers. 1028 and Kurt are knowledgeable guys. And thanks again for you hospitality, T-Bird. The Ledger today reports that "Pouha, who injured his right knee in a pileup on Sunday, is expected to be out roughly a week."
Injury report NT Sione Pouha (knee), S Erik Coleman (illness), TE Jason Pociask (shoulder) and CB David Barrett (leg) didn't practice. Pouha, who injured his right knee in a pileup on Sunday, is expected to be out roughly a week. Coleman could be back any day.
Hey Sec 227, I remember your reports from last year regarding Penny, I'm curious what you thought of him this year compared to last year.
Might as well add some comments on our kickers, as we haven't heard much about that coming from camp lately. Conspicuously absent yesterday were field goal attempts by Nugent. This was quite unusual, at least for me, because last year he was out there before every practice, kicking from different distances and doing a lot of kicking with Graham holding for practice. No sooner had I mentioned the absense of the FG practice to T-Bird in the evening session, than Nugent began kicking FGs. They had him down on the far left and Nugent was driving them over the goal post, beyond the tents and into the trees! Trainers were scrambling around in the woods looking for balls! Tooo funny. My only thought on this is that perhaps Mangini has better use for the field than to have a kicker out there monopolating valuable real estate during practice. For Nugent to kick 30-40-50 yarders, he needs to occupy far too much field. The other field is there, but it's still a distraction, and he's have to kick from right to left and have the balls landing in the end zone of the main practice area. By comparison, last year, Herm had Nugent kicking often during practice. This worked in Herm's camp because nobody was doing much of anything anyway, and Herm's silly little drills could be off to the side while Nugent practiced and everyone else sauntered around with hands on hips. T-Bird and I speculated that perhaps Nugent had done too much kicking last year anyway, as it appeared midway through the season that Nugent had burned himslef out and developed "kicker's leg" from too much kicking. Still, I suspect Nugent gets plenty of practice, it's just not going to be at the same time the rest of the team needs to be on the field and actively using the entire length of the field. Graham was really booming them last night. I was counting the hang-time in "One elephant, two elephant..." etc. Almost all of his punts have 5 1/2 seconds of hang-time! It doesn't seem to matter whether they wind up slightly short in distance, the hang-time is there. He was not displaying that weird, Australian, hard-to-catch ball that he experimented with last year. These were more straightforward, "normal" punts. T-Bird counted almost 60 yards on some of these. Of course, some were shanked or short for one reason or another, but even those had hang-times of over 5 seconds. Almost every one! He's just an incredible punter and we're really lucky to have him.
Hi Vision, Please read my above report on that. I know my posts are so damned long-winded, it's hard to find the substance, but I talk about the comparisons at length above. In general, Penny is MUCH more along than he was last year, much more so. And this is still early August. It was good to see him take as many reps as he took yesterday too. It shows his arm is handling the reps without flaring up.
Green Guy: this is exactly what I posted in the post immediately above yours. Perhaps we posted at the same time. This was reported by Dave Hutchinson of the Ledger. I'm hoping this is true and that Pouha is not lost for the season, as had been speculated yesterday.
I think in Tbirds afternoon practice report he got confused between Brad Smith and Dwight Smith. Brad Smith is the WR/QB from Mizzou. I think thats what your talking about because Dwight Smith is a safety. Besides that good report
Thanks Sec 227, I'm not sure how I missed your report( which by the way should not take a backseat to anyone's, in fact they are all amazing, there is no reason to read the papers anymore if i can get these kind of in depth reports every day) But as for Penny, It sounds somewhat encouraging, which I can live with right now..
A few more tidbits that just surfaced in my recovering, heat-stroked brain: Justin Miller had a great INT that he took to the house with such blazing speed that no one even came close to stopping him. There were other times when Miller would have drawn a flag though. Lil' Ray Mickens, perhaps one of my favorite Jets, is back to doing what he always did best, glue himself to the WR. He can still show the younger DB's a thing or two about what it means to cover. Andre Dyson is a welcome addition and made some good plays. I believe he had one of the INTs. Dante Ridgeway is catching a lot of balls as is Tim Dwight. Both are showcasing their talents well. McCareins is still McCareins. I was surprised that his PUP status was really over conditioning issues, so I watched him last night on occasion. He looked drained and tired, so it must be true that he showed up for camp in less-than superb shape. What was he thinking? To add to his woes, he was seen doing a lap last night for some infraction. Cotchery looks outstanding and is holding onto the balls. Brad Smith had a drop or two but he's doing okay. Coles had a nice hookup or two with his old partner Pennington, but there was some shoving off too, mostly among the other WR's, and the "officials" were not flagging them for some reason. This needs to be addressed. BJ Askew had a real nice reception and looked WR-ish in his catch and yards after. Cedric Houston is having a good camp and showing real N-S running capability. Blaylock had a catch or two and continues his impersonation of Freeman McNeil, dancing and bobbing. The interesting RB to watch is Leon Washington. A little smallish for my tastes, but this also works to his advantage. He's not afraid to charge the hole and goes at it at full speed. He's so short and stocky, he's got to be a handful to bring down. Dreessen looks bigger to me this year and had a good night catching a few balls. Baker caught quite a few and looks especially tough after the catch, while Doug Jolley continues to baffle the world with his impersonation of a TE who can actually catch. This man does not drop a single pass in any of the practices. None. Not one. Yet, come September....
I read somebody's post yesterday about Nugent's leg. In that, he was pretty good at getting it down to the 5 or goal line area. This is troublesome because in this heat he should be able to kick it well into the endzone. As the temperature falls in the later Fall expect the distance of Nugent's kickoffs to go pretty much back to where they always have been. When it is colder one can not compress the ball as much. His range currently seems to be peeking out around the 5. Expect him to lose 5 - 7 yards as the year goes on. Hopefully our special team's kick off coverage will be really good this year.
Did he drop alot before he was a Jet though? Maybe last season he had a few bad ones that were noticeable...but I also remember him making some good ones last season too...well maybe 1 or 2 good ones...
