By Ken Berger
Day Two was ugly, probably owing mostly to the 90-plus degree heat and scorching humidity. The entire offense had to take two laps around the field because the coaches weren't pleased with the tempo of the practice.
As reported earlier, Justin McCareins is back. To his credit, he gritted his teeth and took full responsibility for failing the conditioning test and missing the first day of practice. Say what you want about McCareins, but he showed he's a team player by not making any excuses.
That is, if we're getting the whole story about this. And I find that hard to believe because we are not getting the whole story about anything around here. How does a professional athlete in the shape McCareins is in fail a conditioning test? Something isn't right here, but we move on.
Coach Mangini continues to rotate the four quarterbacks, a system whose benefit I fail to see. Perhaps that is why I am sitting in front of a laptop and Mangini is the coach, but I don't get this. Today, most of the reps went to Brooks Bollinger and Kellen Clemens, the two most unlikely candidates to win the starting job. In my estimation, Chad Pennington and Patrick Ramsey wasted their time this afternoon and lost a day they could have used to get prepared.
In the training camp minutiae department, linebacker Alonzo Jackson, a fourth-year player from Florida State, was impressive in pass-rushing drills. Pennington completed a pass that went 40 yards in the air for the second straight day, hitting Jovan Witherspoon on a go route out of the shotgun.
Some of you have asked about the offensive line. It is exceedingly difficult to judge its performance in practice when no one is allowed to touch the quarterback. I will reserve judgment until we see them compete in the preseason opener, Aug. 11 at Tampa.
Back to two-a-days tomorrow, when it's not expected to be quite as hot.
Comments (7)
Day 2 of Training Camp, and already, you guys are all over Mangini.
If only you guys had been as critical of our previous coach's incompetence, we may have been rid of him sooner.
My suggestion: give it a rest.
As a fan, this Mangini BS is the minutiae.
What you classify as minutiae, is what we're interested in... what's happening on the field.
What players are playing well... which players are not.
We have a whole new organization, Ken.
It'll take time to get things rolling.
We get it, if only the media would...
Well said, Burf. I just don't get the media not able to accept the obvious -- that is, the guy who distinguishes himself will be the one to start at QB. Apparently that's too logical for many. It seems like they would rather have someone arbitrarily annointed. Whether or not that would be fair to the team or to the other individuals seems to be irrelevant. If the concern is over reps, you would think they would give some credit to the coaching staff in that they have a plan. Jeeesh! Just please tell us how the individual players are performing, and let's try hard to cut down on the negativity.
its conceivable to think that curtis isn't physically able to perform, but i highly doubt that given his work ethic and professionalism.
whats the chances that mangini is using curtis as an example of how to deflect questions from reporters? curtis is a long time vet coming off surgery, he really doesn't need to practice.
doe...
I doubt EM is using Martin as an example.
My thinking is that they're being extra-cautious with him. He's been through camp numerous times, and missing a few days shouldn't hurt him... while giving the others a chance to show what they can do.
If he's still on PUP a week from tomorrow (8/7), then it may be time for concern.
Ken... we get that Mangini
has the team being tight-lipped. Every column you write, doesn't need to make it an issue.
By the way, have you ever asked Mangini his rationale
for holding back the players from the media?
Since it's such an issue for you guys, that might be an interesting column, while providing an opportunity for you to let it go already...
Remember, this is a new offensive coordinator installing a new offense with different blocking schemes as well as an offensive line with a lot of new faces. Even though a veteran, I am certain that the Jets coaching staff would much rather Martin be on the practice field than off it.
Regarding McCareins being held out and Ken's specualation that he's not getting the whole story on anything. I think we should drop the conspiracy theories. It's very conceivable that he failed a conditioning test, and that is why he is being held out. That's not to say he is out of shape. He was likely given personal goals that he needed to attain coming into camp. Maybe he was given 4-5 goals and he needed to achieve 3 of them. Examples are ((1)bench press X lbs Y # of times, (2) run the 40 in x.x secs, (3) run 2 miles in under x minutes, (4) weight x lbs, etc)). So if he came in to camp and only achieved 2 of them instead of 3 - he wasn't able to practice on day1. He likely had an opportunity (fancy way of calling it punishment) to make up his missed goald on Saturday morning at 6:30am by running laps or doing some other type of tough conditioning drill.
I tend to agree with the media coverage of the Mangini era. This kind of Pravda-style obfuscation is not going to win Mangini many admirers, and lest he be unaware of the speed with which the media can put him out of a job, he should remember what happened to his mentor in Cleveland. There's no need for this, and he's going to pay a dear price for it in the event that he doesn't win.