Chad Pennington did not have a great day Wednesday working with the second team. His day Thursday working with the first team wasn't much better. But Kellen Clemens didn’t distinguish himself much, either. In short, it was one of those days, for both quarterbacks. It was a Thursday filled with an array of balls that came up short, sailed long and otherwise failed to reach their intended targets. When there were well-thrown balls, often times the receivers – including standouts to this point like Jerricho Cotchery, Laveranue Coles and Chansi Stuckey – dropped them. One receiver who did catch everything was rookie Dustin Keller.
These days happen. Every team has bad practices. No need to go crazy. Anyway, a brief review:
1. After saying all that about the quarterbacks, this wasn’t the best of days to evaluate either one because the practice was spent mostly working on special teams and game-specific situations. For example, the quarterbacks spent the first half of the practice throwing to each other [except for Erik Ainge who still is not throwing] on the lower field at Hofstra while everyone else worked on special teams.
Stuckey returned kickoffs along with Leon Washington and Danny Woodhead. The 5-7 Woodhead drew some “oohs” and “ahhs” on one return when he essentially looked hidden behind the blockers, then darted through a hole on the right side. It was a non-contact drill - all of them are - but had it been full-contact, the play would have been a long one. When it came to punt returns, nothing huge there other than Ben Graham’s Thursday was much better than his Wednesday. There were some spirals and no shanks. Jeremy Kapinos had another solid day.
We got our first look at the Jets “good hands team” for opponents’ onside kicks. The unit included Darrelle Revis, Jesse Chatman, Kerry Rhodes, Bubba Franks, Justin Miller, Dustin Keller, Cotchery and Coles. Last thing on the kickers: Mike Nugent missed a 53-yard field goal and two from 44 yards. He stayed after practice to work on his kicks. Nugent’s day wasn’t great but he did absolutely hammer a 55-yarder through the uprights that would have been good from 65 or 70.
2. The offense went through about every game circumstance it can face – goal-line situations, two-minute drives, Hail Marys, etc. Clemens completed a 35-yard Hail Mary to Chatman, who came back on the ball at the goal line and made the reception in front of Abram Elam and James Ihedigbo. Both Clemens and Pennington had Hail Mary passes from the 45-yard line – meaning they ended up throwing the ball from beyond the 50 – knocked down short of the end zone by Kerry Rhodes. The Jets went 1-for-4 on the goal line [Clemens was 1-for-2, Pennington 0-for-2], the one conversion coming when Clemens rolled to his right at about the 10 and hit David Clowney in the back of the end zone. In a later drill, Clemens, from the 15, found Dustin Keller at the goal line between two defenders.
In the two-minute offense drills to end practice, Pennington completed his first three passes – two were dumpoffs – but had three consecutive incompletions, including a nicely thrown touch pass down the left sideline that Leon Washington dropped. Pennington saw an 18-yarder bounce off Coles’ fingertips – though the ball was slightly underthrown - in an earlier drill.
3. Stuckey, whom I wrote about yesterday, stayed down on the field for several minutes after practice as, on the day’s final play, he got clipped by safety Nate Lyles going after a badly overthrown 20-yard pass from Clemens. After a few minutes, Stuckey was up and walked to the post-practice team huddle, even sharing a laugh with Mangini as he walked.
As I’ve been saying, overall, not a good day for either QB and that was an appropriate end to the afternoon.
4. Mangini, whose record on disclosing injury information is well established, actually disclosed some regarding Brad Smith. Smith has been limited to mostly holding on field goals and riding an exercise bicycle the days the media has been able to watch practice.
“He’s working through some things with his back,” Mangini said Thursday morning. “It’s an on-going process of rehab. When he’s ready to go he’ll be back out there.”
Mangini quickly reverted to typical nondisclosure disclosure when asked about long-snapper James Dearth, who has also been limited in the practices.
“He’s rehabbing something,” Mangini said, restoring order to the universe that had momentarily been thrown into disarray.
Also limited today was Artrell Hawkins and Kenny Patton, the cornerback from Hawaii signed last week. Speaking of corners, for the second straight day, Justin Miller started with the first-team defense.
And finally, the Mangini standup comedy moment of the day: Asked about 36-year-old Tony Richardson and what the fullback brings to the Jets, the 37-year-old Mangini said, “I wanted to bring in a contemporary. Graduated high school the same year. Could actually relate to the same songs, things like that, someone to hang out with personally.”
The man can deliver a punch line.
As for tomorrow in the paper [on line too], I’m writing about a very motivated Bryan Thomas, who after practice today copped to “slacking” last year during practice, which carried over to the games on Sunday. He was open about things, to say the least.
Comments (26)
So Miller started alongside Revis, but how did he look?
I'm getting tired of praising you, Boland...but solid as usual.
appreciate the in depth coverage eric. if you see cannizzaro tell him to pull himself away from the buffet table, read your blog, take some notes, and then maybe he might get an idea of how to cover a team.
i am starting to get the feeling that keller is going to be a monster ballplayer.
Fu**ing one of the quarterbacks better step the Fu** up
thanks erik, this is really great stuff. i know i appreciate how reponsive you've been to everyone's questions, too.
how does Nate Lyles look? he may have hit Stuckey for burning him repeatedly in college...h'es a nice kid, i hope that he makes the squad. what are his chances? he's not the fastest, but if he catches you - he'll lay a whuppin' on ya' (as Chansi knows!)
Nothing to comment other then this blog is excellent.
Great blog Erik. By far better than all the others I have been a part of. The in-depth detail and insight is much appreciated.
Quick question, what weight is Woody playing at? Unless I am mistaken he has weight incentives so the Jets must think it's important to be at an ideal weight.
Thanks.
Hey man, thanks for the updates. Seems like Keller is going to be the real deal. We'll see when the serious Sundays start rolling around. But after watching his Purdue highlights, as well as the blog updates, for how fast he can run, he is a biggg dude, with great hands. I think this is one draft pick Jets fans will finally praise for years to come.
I'm glad the Penguin is working on his comedy routine. I hope Keller has one of those magic rookie seasons.
Darrell, i'm sorry to hear about your loss. We're pulling for you.
Cliff, Miller had one memorable play today when he had a good pass defense on a Chad Pennington throw to Laveranues Coles in the back left corner of the end zone. Hard to gauge where he's at yet as today was only his second day on the field in defensive drills. In the practices we had seen previously, Miller was basically doing conditioning. They're bringing him along slowly.
(the real) mike, I might have given the wrong impression on the Lyles hit. These are non-contact drills so this was more a collision of two guys lunging for an overthrown ball. Lyles has shown some coverage skills, though he's been primarily working with the third-team defense, with a bit of second team thrown in.
Tim R., thanks...Woody is at 6-3, 335 and yes, a weight-clause is a part of his contract, though he's not close to being in danger of reaching it to this point. He looks in excellent shape.
And to the others who have mentioned Keller, he's a rookie so there's bound to be some mistakes. But I haven't seen any, at least in the practices the media has attended so far.
hey erik, why is this info and alot of other blogs that u have done so similiar to rich cimini's? http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/jets/
Strange.....hmmmmm
Mike, you got me.
I happened to visit Cimini's blog (where I used to hang out) earlier this week and the word about this blog is definitely starting to get out. There wer more posts referencing Erik Boland than Kellen Clemens.
If I were you, I'd be expecting a spike in readership.
cmon erik, you cant see the similarities? im just saying that's kind of odd. watever
Impressive yet again, Erik. I'm glad you'll be going in-depth about Bryan Thomas in tomorrow's paper. I've written on here before that if he is motivated (and therefore possibly more effective) the Jets have a chance to have a very solid pass rush. It's hard to say the day you described Clemens and Pennington having is troubling, but it's not something we as fans would hope for. Obviously it's very early, and like you said it was mostly specific situations. However, I'd like the problems to be something other than balls being grossly over or underthrown. I'm glad to see Nugent got back out there after a few misses and smashed that 55-yarder, that's always good to see. You covered everything about today's OTA terrifically, so I've got no questions there, but I just wanted to ask you a question about the quarterback situation in general. Do you feel that Clemens is too harshly, or perhaps too quickly, judged on his play based on the little amount he played last year on a terrible team behind an abysmal offensive line? I know he wasn't Namath, but he led the team to what was easily their best win of the season against the Steelers. Considering that was his first regular season game action, wouldn't it be more fair to judge him after a full season of work this year? I personally would like to see Clemens win the job simply because the offense becomes too limited with Pennington under center. I'm curious to see how Clemens can run this offense. Thanks, Erik.
Mike, in all seriousness, I'll do my best to answer you. Most of us who blog these practices do indeed have very similar major topics we end up covering. That's because we're all watching the same practice and when Nugent - for example - misses three field goals, we're all going to write something like that down. Likewise when Pennington has a bad day or a good one, or Clemens is off or on, or if someone makes a spectacular catch or an incredible defensive play. And so on. Those things stand out to everyone and therefore those major themes usually go in everyone's blog. But I do think all the beat writers who blog diverge when it comes to the smaller things. For instance, reading Rich's blog tonight I saw he had items on Shaun Ellis and the new defensive helmet radios, things that I didn't have. And I certainly think all of the beat writers who blog analyze all these things differently, even the major stuff. In those ways, the practices are like game stories. But Rich is one of the best in the business and has been for a long time. If you prefer his stuff, I'm not offended.
Bryan, I'll be quick on this because there will be plenty to come on the quarterbacks, as I'm sure you can imagine. It's funny you ask the question that way about Clemens being judged too "harshly" because when Rich Cimini and I talked to Clemens at a Central Park event before the draft, Rich asked him a similar question. Clemens didn't answer directly about whether he had been evaluated fairly, but I don't think there's any question he would have liked to have had this year's offensive line protecting him. I'm not sure any quarterback would have or could have flourished last year with the half-second it seemed Clemens had in the pocket before getting chased out of it or sacked. That said, Clemens didn't have many "wow" moments last season, the whole reason this is an open competition. To answer your question, it would be fairer to judge Clemens after a full season but should he get that chance if he can't authoritatively beat out Pennington in the preseason? That's not a slam against Pennington either, as he's shown with the right surroundings he can at least make the playoffs. I'm not advocating one way or the other [yes, I'm fence-sitting for now], just asking.
Erik, great coverage. Lot's of details made me feeel like I was watching it on TV. LOL!! Looking forward to the BT story. I don't think he was the only one slacking last year, but I'm interested in his view of things. In general, I think many were going through the motions as it became clear that they had no chance to make the playoffs. Thanks again.
Don't read if you don't care about my opinions: just a little foreword.
My personal thought is that Clemens, as well as most Jet fans, feel as we did a few years ago when we ALL called for Pennington to step up and just take the reigns. It has started to seem as if Clemens is getting the call from a lot of the fans who want to see a "wow" offense where big plays could strike at any moment (I.E. the Steelers). Let's compare for a moment. Sure, the Steelers have always had a solid line and they've got an incredible possesion receiver and TE. But, for a moment, realize that we've got Coles, Cotchery and Stuckey...Stuckey being the Nate Washington, Coles being the Santonio Holmes, ETC. We've also got a decent ground game (nobody near FWP's stature, but its still decent).
Keep in mind that the major difference between the Steelers last year and our Jets this year would be the QB. If Pennington got the start (which is still a possibility) we wouldn't have any deep play potential. We couldn't utilize Coles or Stuckey like Washington and Holmes got used by the Steelers as burner guys. Also, we've got Baker and Franks at TE (That's two possession TE's in the red zone, one more than the Steelers). There's no reason why, if we FINALLY got a cannon in the QB spot we couldn't have the exact same success as the Steelers. The steady marching offense only works when you're clicking on all cylinders. If we're not and we've got Pennington and we're down...suffice it to say, we're royally f*****.
That's my rant, sorry guys, long night at work.
Cliff, that brings up a good point because Erik mentioned that:
"Both Clemens and Pennington had Hail Mary passes from the 45-yard line – meaning they ended up throwing the ball from beyond the 50 – knocked down short of the end zone by Kerry Rhodes"
Did KR knock down both throws short of the goal line? Where both passes equal or was CP's pass floating and wobbling horribly like some of the throws I've seen him make in the past.
I guess I want to know if CP is still the weak armed QB we've seen over the last few years or does he really stand a chance of making some tough throws with some NFL quality velocity?
Erik, here's where you come in, buddy...
Big A, Rhodes knocked down both throws - at the 3 - from the 45 by Pennington and Clemens. Clemens' was a nice tight spiral but so too was Pennington's, though there was a slightly higher trajectory on Pennington's ball. In this small snapshot (one long pass each), both were good throws. A little more info here, not offered as an excuse, just a fact: both balls you could see in mid-flight get caught up a bit in the strong breeze that was blowing at that time of day right in their faces.
Hearing about all the dropped passes - especially by guys like coles and cotch - reminds me of what i found myself thinking when clemens came in at the beginning of last season: the recievers' familiarity with pennington's weak arm hurts clemens's numbers. look back at last season and the drops, especially early on, seemed to come from timing. clemens has such a stronger arm that it messes with the recievers' timing and the quarterback competition is hurting the chances of the offense truly gelling the way it would with a number one quarterback going into camp. even two quarterbacks with comparable arms wouldn't be as detrimental to the offense. make the decision now. give clemens a full training camp with the first team and he will have a solid season. if they don't think he can do that, they should have drafted a QB at a higher spot.
Add my name to the list of admirers. Outstanding Blog. Glad you've taken over.
I can be added to the growing list of your new blog followers Erik. It's nice to read a direct and honest response to your readers. That goes along way with most people. It's also nice to have a writer that is actively interested in the Jets and doesn't pour his resentment for the team's media policies out onto his page (see Cimini).
Pretty POd at Brian Thomas. It seems the only motivation that is making him step it up this year is the threat of getting benched, traded or released. He obviously showed no pride in himself last year and no loyalty to his team by doing what we all suspected, cashing a check. Wouldn't mind them making an example of him.
It makes me mad also to hear Bryan Thomas slacked off last season, if he had a strong year last year we wouldn't have had to fork over a ton of money to get Pace, who himself only ahd one decent year. On an up note though, it would be nice to have a lot of guys who could rush the passer this year
I don't understand why people are POd at Brian Thomas, in his 6 years with the Jets he has produced 37-47 tackles 1.5-3 sacks a year except for 2006 (77) which was his contract year. So at age 29 I don't expect him to improve.
He is just making excuses to why he sucks in general.
If he did slack off last year, maybe the Jets should ask for a refund, for breach of contract.
So bottom line is ...we have to look at Thomas as a one year wonder, working hard to get his lotto... 9million in guarantee money and 25million overall, and save the POd for Tangini for giving him that contract.
Erik, thanks for clearing that up. I guess the fact that KR was involved in both plays threw me off. I'm glad to see that Chad is at least matching distance...
MervDunkin, I agree with the "two quarterbacks with comparable arms" comment. It's one of the reasons that I'm hoping Ainge can throw as hard as KC. I think that when you have to similar type of QBs, there is a better chance that there will be no drop off in the offense in case of injury or if one struggles and you want to give the other guy the start. CP and KC seem to have different strengths and weaknesses.
I'm not convinced that Clemens has the "gun" everybody seems to be giving him credit for. I remember more than one downfield pass last year that came up short, and now Erik tells us he had a pass batted down after traveling barely 50 yards, the same as Pennington. Having said that, the jury is still out on both of these guys because they both played behind a swinging gate last year. We need to see where Pennington really is after two shoulder surgeries, and where Clemens really is in his development. Hopefully, now that we apparently have a line, maybe we'll find out by the end of August.
Thanks for all the info, Erik.