Vernon Gholston is here so we finally get our first look at the No. 6 overall pick; well, the first since we saw Gholston in early May for the rookie minicamp. What to watch for today is how Gholston looks with the veterans and where and with whom he lines up. Eric Mangini, asked yesterday how far behind Gholston will be having missed the OTAs and the first day of minicamp, said, “He’ll be behind. It’s tough.” But Mangini has also said that Gholston has been in constant contact with the team in terms of gathering information from coaches and is a quick study.
Also, yesterday was a good day for Chad Pennington and a not-so-good-one for Kellen Clemens so we’ll have plenty on that and a variety of other things. Same schedule as yesterday here:
10:20 a.m. Practice
12:15 p.m. Players available coming off field
1:15 p.m.-1:35 p.m. Eric Mangini in press room
3:45 p.m. Practice
Back after the first round of player interviews.
Comments (6)
Mr. Erik Boland - Can u or someone on your staff try to find Chris Baker's Former Agent Cliff Brady and interview him, the person who told Baker that Mr. T promised to revisit Bakers Contract situation this offseason. Right now it Baker's word against Mr. T's, but the real convo was between Mr. T and Mr. Brady. Mr. Brady could of said that the Jets would revisit his contract this year to keep his job, but really Mr. T never said that. Its called an agent trying to keep his job while his client is upset with his contract. Agent tells client to go and play well and he will then get a new deal from the jets- well the agent hoped Baker played so well that the jets would, but it could of never been stated from Mr. T, it could of been just words from the Agent to keep his client happy and to keep his job.
Eric, I appreciate you answering my questions yesterday. I was wondering if you could do us fans a favor and state a specific question to Baker.
And if you're not comfortable asking, you can say a lot of fans of your blog are asking questions, and say its a question from the fans. I know many on the ESPN message board want these answers. He should know how we feel:
"Chris, looking at things, i'm having trouble wrapping my head around why you think you deserve more money, and why you think the FO promised you they'd re-do your contract. Your contract averages 1.8 million per year, the best TE's like Gates, Shockey, and Tony G make 4-5 million per, so it soundsl like you're right on par. You signed a new contract in 2004, so you felt it was fair at the time, and obviously if the market improves, as it has, a team can't re-do an entire team's contract as their deal goes slightly under market value because of current market conditions. That's the nature of the business. When you're a free agent again, you'll be back at or above market value. Then considering your quotes about what took place between your agent and Tannenbaum, it only sounds as if they said they've got too much going on now and they'd "talk" with you after the season, not re-do your contract. So, again, please explain because its really hard to understand why you feel the way you do to anyone not involved in the situation"
And if you really don't feel comfortable asking all that, can you challenge him on his statements yesterday about what went down with his agent on Tannenbaum. Baker basically admitted he wasn't promised anything. Once he said that, this entire issue should have been dropped as he's been shown to be a liar.
Hi Erik,
How's the punting competition going?
Also have you seen Bender around? We got teased so much last year that he was going to play, and never did, so what do you think of him, will he make the team this year, and who do you think the backups will be? I heard Turner, Montgomery, Oldenburg are ahead in the depth chart. Does Garner have a chance to make the team?
thanks again
Hey Boland,
How's Jenkins working out in the middle? Does he look like a true NT or no? Also, does Bryan Thomas look like he's giving all out effort, or was he just providing lip service?
How's the punt-return/kick-return competition going? Who's performing, who's not?
Can you post an unofficial OTA depth chart for the LBs? I want to know where Gholston fits in.
Thanks, and say hello to Denise Garvey if you see her. The wife went to school with her in Hicksville.
Brad, I tried yesterday and was unsuccessful regarding Brady. Rich Cimini of the Daily News got an email saying Brady "had no comment" on the Baker situation, which is interesting.
dmb88886, believe it or not your first question was asked a few different ways of Baker yesterday and today and each time Baker came back to the conversation where his former agent, Brady, was "promised" something. Anything about production and staying in to block and the like comes back to that conversation before last year's training camp. So here was an exchange from today's media session with Baker (and no, I'm not writing the same story I wrote for today's paper. Tomorrow is on Gholston for those interested).
Me: "Do you allow any possibility, because you weren't in on the conversation between Cliff (Brady" and Mike (Tannenbaum), that Cliff somehow didn't translate correctly what was said in that meeting?"
Baker: "I'm absolutely, 100 percent confident in that. He was going to tell me the truth about the situation. He was my agent for six years."
Me: "No way that he told you what he thought you wanted to hear rather than what was said?"
Baker: "I can't see under any circumstance why he would do that because even if he knew at that point in time that I would go out and perform the way I wanted to perform, that we were going to have to revisit it anyway so it wouldn't benefit him to lie."
Baker, asked by Cimini why he fired Brady earlier this year, said, "A big part of it is because of the deal I'm in. That was the big thing."
Steve and Roger, we're headed out for afternoon practice in a moment, which ended yesterday around 6, so I'll address your questions in my afternoon practice report.
Thanks for trying to get in touch with Brady! Had a feeling he would take the no comment route. Good questions during the interview. Sounds more and more that my somewhat conspiracy theory could be true! Fired his agent because he didnt like his current deal. Agent knew he was under serious pressure last year to get something done with his contract so he had to keep Baker hopeful, a little fib or twist of the truth that next year they promise to rework your deal, wouldnt hurt to keep the agent's job. End of the season comes, agent meets with Mr. T and states no new deal is insight. Baker says how come, thought they promised me a new deal. Mr. Brady the agent gets flustered, cant explain- maybe baker even knows he was lied to by his agent and fires him. New agent who worked with Kendall- say lets go with this story that u were promised a new contract- put pressure on the organization that now 2 years in a row they are promising players new deals or money and not coming through. Make the organization look bad so hopefully they give him a new contract to ease the player and the how the organization treats the players.