E-Boland & Gang Green

By Tom Rock

A few quick notes from this afternoon’s practice:

Bobby Hamilton is running around like a rookie trying to make this team. Yesterday he flattened Alvin Banks (more on him later) and today he batted down a pass at the line of scrimmage and kept showing up in the right spot for defensive plays.

The Jets made a few tweaks to their starting defensive unit. Kenyon Coleman was at DE with the starters for the first time. David Bowens was at OLB opposite Victor Hobson. David Harris was at ILB next to Vilma and in place of Eric Barton. And Eric Smith was at safety instead of Erik Coleman (though that change was made Friday night).

As for Banks, he’s been getting hit hard. Today I thought his head flew off, but it was only his helmet, when Cody Spenser stood him up and drilled him in a one-on-one open field tackling drill. That hit ended the drill that saw some of the more intriguing performances of the afternoon, including FB Darian Barnes running over S Kerry Rhodes, DB James Ihedigbo putting a lick on Juan Wong, and Anthony Schlegel whiffing on an attempt to tackle Chris Davis.

Spencer, by the way, also provided a big hit on Wong during a special teams return drill.

Chansi Stuckey is looking good and seems to be finding his balance as an NFL player. He’s got good speed returning punts and showed some good hands as a receiver today.

TE Chris Baker was shaken up on a play during the 2-minute drills that ended practice. He ended up walking off the field after the workout on his own. It seemed to be his midsection that trainers were paying attention to, so it might have been a cramp.

No movement on the Pete Kendall situation, and Pete’s body language backs up what his actual language said yesterday: he does not want to be here. At one point the players were standing and watching the offense work and Pete was about 10 yards behind them, on a knee, by himself. The only guy who approached him was special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff, and they had a brief chat. Wonder what that was about.

The joke on the sideline is that every time Justin Miller or David Barrett misses a play or gets beaten, it adds another million dollars to Darrelle Revis’ contract. Still no movement on that situation either, by the way. GM Mike Tannenbaum didn’t seem to be too concerned about it while running around the field with his kids after practice, though I’m sure this first draft-pick no-show of his career is bugging him.