Erik Boland: Inside the Jets

Stephen the Intern was out with some Jets on Wednesday and filed this heart-warmer:

By Stephen Haynes

Eighteen Jets rookies stopped by the Ronald McDonald House in New Hyde Park Wednesday in hopes of uplifting the families of sick children, but for one Jet, the visit became much more than a perfunctory pop-in.

Mike DeVito, an undrafted defensive end, had to cut the smiling and signing session short when he ran into his cousin, Karen, who was a resident at the House. Karen's 10-month-old son, Benedetto, was born prematurely and was admitted to neighboring Schneider Children's Hospital and Karen checked into the House at 3 a.m. on Wednesday. After talking with his cousin, whom RMH workers described as "exhausted,” DeVito rushed over to see his younger cousin.

The hospital wouldn't divulge the baby's condition and the DeVitos couldn't be reached for comment.

The DeVito family is from Massachusetts and according to Karen Calma, the House manager, Karen was given a room because she had nowhere else to stay. She also had no idea her cousin was scheduled to make an appearance there.

The Ronald McDonald House, which opened in 1986, serves as temporary lodging for the families of ill children who are admitted to area hospitals, and others who come to America seeking medical aid for their kids but have no place to live. Families are charged $25 per night, but the fee is waved if they're unable to pay.

According to Robert Weitzner, the executive director of the Ronald McDonald House, the Jets have been working with the House since its inception and had a room dedicated to them after a $150,000 donation in 2004. Former Jets defensive back Bobby Jackson serves on the board of directors.

The 17 players who remained were able to bring a rare smile to the face of Muhammed Khan, a 2-year-old who has a heart ailment.

Khan and his mother, Noureen, flew from Pakistan this month to have open-heart surgery at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Because she has no family in the United States, Noureen was referred to the Ronald McDonald House, which is (about a 90-minute drive from the hospital. The visit from the Jets, she said, was a welcome sight in what has been a difficult period.

"It was special. At first was a little shy about seeing so many big people, but he got familiar with [the players] and they were all so nice to him,” the mother said. "They took pictures and let him play with a football. He was playing so much with the guys that I got worried his sutures might .”

Muhammed, who was diagnosed last year with Tetralogy of Fallot disease -- a condition in which the heart has four abnormalities -- had the operation on June 5 and was discharged from Montefiore on Tuesday. The medical staff there said that he was doing fine. He spent the week with his mom and will head back to Pakistan on Saturday with a smile, memories and autographed memorabilia.

Newsday tried to interview the taciturn toddler, but he stuck his finger in his ears before running off and diving into a couch. Touchdown.

By Stephen Haynes

So far so good for Chansi Stuckey, who could be this year’s Jerricho Cotchery. The former Clemson receiver fell to the Jets in the seventh round (235th overall) because 197 pounds + 4.65/40 = not much. But like Cotchery, who was also deemed too small to be that slow, Stuckey has gotten it done on the field with hustle and grit. He made four leaping catches in today’s afternoon practice (see, there's positive to be extracted from Kellen Clemens making high throws), and in the morning session, laid out for one and wrestled the ball from a cornerback for another.

He doesn’t run crisp routes, nor does he get separation from defensive backs so it’s unlikely that he’ll get a lot of reps at wide receiver later on, but he might be able to make the team as a special-teamer -- like Cotchery did in 2004. He looked good on punt returns, having more success than the others at corralling Ben Graham’s fluttering knuckleballs.

Please welcome another summer intern, Stephen Haynes, for his "Inside the Jets" debut. I understand that Eli Manning and Michael Strahan are big fans of his.

By Stephen Haynes

Darrelle Revis and Kellen Clemens, two of the fledglings the Jets expect to play big roles in the coming years, struggled in today’s morning practice.

Revis, the first rounder who wowed scouts with his 4.39/40-time and hip fluidity, looked shaky during the agility drills (almost fell once) and during scrimmages, he spent more time with the special teams unit than defense. Didn’t look too nimble on punt returns, either. And when he did line up at cornerback, Jericho Cotchery burned him for a touchdown on a drag route in the goal line drills. He also dropped an interception.

Clemens, who might be the quarterback of the future, was up down and during the morning session – but mostly down. He made a few good throws to his right, but floated most of his passes to the left. He threw behind tight end Joe Kowalewski a couple times and almost got picked off by Revis during a 2-minute drill. On a hitch route to Brad Smith, Clemens telegraphed the pass – to his left – and lobbed it. Revis jumped the route and the ball hit him between the numbers, but it deflected off his pads.

Clemens did look good later on a play-action rollout to his right when he threw on the move and hit Kowalewski in stride for a touchdown. But overall, he was unimpressive and didn’t demonstrate the accuracy he’s been lauded for.

In contrast, Chad Pennington was sharp throughout, connecting on all but three of his attempts with the velocity he showed early last season. According to Eric Mangini, Pennington spent the off-season adding muscle and toning his body.

***

If the Jets practiced indoors and dimmed the lights, you’d think you were in a nightclub and the Run n’ Throw was a new Atlanta hip-hop dance.

Rick Ross songs blared as the players stretched before the morning workouts; the music possibly a Mangini motivational tool. If the players ignored the drug references in the lyrics and focused on the chorus, they were reminded to “Push It To The Limit” and keep “Hustling.”

The DJ – yes, the Jets have one – drew bemused stares from a couple players when he put on Kriss Kross, though. I guess they thought that track selection was “wickity-wickity wack!” And the quarterbacks orchestrated the always-frenetic 2-minute drives with Chris Martin crooning in the background.

By Tom Rock

Spoke with Kendall’s agent, Neil Schwartz, this morning, and he and Pete are pretty steamed about the unnamed source in today’s Newsday article who said that Kendall had the option of signing a one-year deal before the 2006 season and decided to lock in for a four-year package.

“It’s a blatant lie,” Schwartz said. “The person who made that statement is cowardly for not putting their name on it.”

While hostilities between Kendall and the Jets continue to rise, there seems to be an easy resolution, at least from Kendall’s camp. I asked Schwartz if, after all Pete said yesterday, he would sign a contract if the team met his request for a million dollars more this year.

“It’s always been about the money,” Schwartz said. In other words, after all the snubs, unprofessionalism and unreturned phone calls that Kendall charged the Jets with yesterday, he’d still be willing to play here … for the right price.

By Tom Rock

So much to say and so little space. That’s the problem with a newspaper when a story like this one comes along. A blog, however, can go on and on and on. That gives me plenty of room to sprinkle some thoughts and observations about today’s first day of minicamp.

First, back to the Pete Kendall situation. The thing I found the most interesting is that Kendall spoke about his brief meeting with Mangini on Wednesday night and said the coach was more concerned about how things would fall out in the media than he was about having his starting left guard in minicamp. Kendall was asked if anything was accomplished in the conversation. “Absolutely nothing.” Was it amicable? “No.” How long did it last for? “Seconds.” Who initiated it? “He did.”

Kendall continued. “All I know is he wanted to know how this was going to go down today,” he said, pointing to the throng of reporters and cameras surrounding him. “I told him to do what he had to do and I was going to do what I had to do.”

Did he think the conversation was professional? “No. There’s some hard feelings.”

Kendall may not be right in this situation, but he certainly presented a more quotable account of the conflict so you’ll probably hear a lot more of what he said and not so much what Mangini and Tannenbaum said. Essentially their stance is that he is under a contract that he signed last year. While Kendall was turning phrases such as hoping to make this “a good divorce” and issuing statements such as “I tried to keep things under wraps and handle things professionally and I don’t think that’s been reciprocated,” the Jets maintained that all conversations and contract negotiations are internal and steadfastly refused to engage Kendall in a war of words.

So, how does this resolve itself? For a team that has such a tight grip on message and communication, it must have been disturbing to hear one of its own players – a captain no less – blasting the organization while standing on the practice field and still wearing the team uniform (sans helmet decal, of course). Normally punishment would ensue, and there’s a chance the Jets could fine Kendall. That would only create more of a chasm between them. Still, Pete’s comments and his actions in practice (he was very distant and unengaged) make it clear that he wants out. The Jets will release him since he has little trade value now. But the release won’t come until a little later this summer, making it a bit more difficult for him to find work in another training camp. The bottom line is that the Jets can’t have a player rip the franchise apart and then throw him an extra million bucks to keep him, which is what Kendall wanted to begin with. And while Kendall is a very good player and had a strong influence on many younger players including Mangold and Ferguson, he’s ultimately an offensive guard and can be replaced. Hell, when he was hurt last year, Norm Katnik stepped in. Kendall may be worth the money he wanted, but now he’s made himself not worth the aggravation for the Jets.

Here’s a few other snippets from the workout, where it felt more like October than June. At one point David Bowens came off the field and shouted “Somebody turn the heat on” and “Where are the space heaters at?” He did play the last few years in Miami.

WR Brad Smith is looking very sharp and caught a TD pass from Chad Pennington to cap a two-minute drill. He also made some strong catches in traffic in the afternoon session and then stayed “after school” with the rookies and other new Jets to play quarterback

Leonard Peters was chewed out by special teams coach Mike Westhoff during a three-on-three kickoff coverage drill. “Less dramatics and more movement,” the coach shouted. “Get your (butt) to the football!” Later Peters had a moment of redemption when he made a strong play at safety, breaking up a pass over the middle from Marques Tuiasosopo during 7-on-7s.

Darian Barnes is moving very well at fullback. In open field tackling drills he’s one of the better runners and showed some impressive agility along the sideline. In the same drill, Darrelle Revis flew past rookie DB James Ihedigbo with a burst of speed.

Rookie OL Andrew Wicker may look familiar. His heavy beard and long blond hair make him a ringer for starting center Nick Mangold. They even wear similar jersey numbers, Nick having 74 and Andrew 64. It usually takes a second or third glance to tell them apart on the field. New nickname for Wicker: Fool’s (Man)gold.

Kerry Rhodes missed practice today for a family obligation. Eric Smith played with the starting unit in his place.

Mangini tripped over some words this afternoon when talking about Vilma’s dog fighting comments (which were pretty tame but raised a bit of a storm because of the hot-button nature of the topic). Mangini said that both he and the organization “condone any cruelty to animals on any level.” Of course he used the wrong word and probably meant to either say “condemn” instead of condone or forgot the do not as in “do not condone.” Either way, it was a rare slip of the tongue for Mangini.

And Katie Strang, Newsday’s summer intern, was at minicamp today. She wrote a few blogs, as you can see below, and contributed to a notebook that will appear in the paper on Friday. I know some of you were very excited to see someone else writing on this blog. Well settle down, I’m still here! As long as Kendall is here, anyway. If he goes, I go!

By Katie Strang

The hope of becoming the first Nicholls St. player to see action as a New York Jet was looking bleak for OL Jacob Bender today. Bender took about as many snaps during drills as brownies I had for lunch.

Although he looked strong off the snap and held his ground against the less-mobile defenders, Bender had difficulty sealing off the more agile linebackers.

Bender also has very limited pass protection experience since Nicholls St. ran a triple-option offense, but has been watching film to learn and has gotten tips from D’Brickashaw Ferguson about improving his technique.

This isn’t the first time Bender has been an underdog. Ironically enough, Hofstra University (where Jets mini-camp is held) had originally offered him a scholarship but ended up backing out, leading him to become a Colonel instead. He had an impressive college career there and is hoping he can stand out by being the ”hardest worker out there.”

True to his word, he was the last player on the field during first session today. He worked with NFL veteran Lomas Brown on pass sets for an extra 10-15 minutes after practice ended.

Nice Kid. Hell of a work ethic. And he has one other thing working in his favor: No mention of dogfighting yet.

By Katie Strang

Coming into Jets mini-camp today, fresh off yesterday’s visit to the Giants’ opening day, I was expecting completely different scenes. It wasn’t until the press conference that I really got to see what I had been warned about. Funny thing is, even though Mangini dished out the, “This situation is not unique to the NY Jets” to EVERY question even remotely concerning Pete Kendall, it seems impossible to cast him as the bad guy. I think more than anything I came away from the presser with admiration for his restraint.

Considering his reputation for running such a tight ship in mini-camp however, I have to admit I was surprised to walk onto the field and hear music blaring from the sound system. You’d think a guy who wants his team focused would find LL Cool J’s “Momma Said Knock You Out” a tad distracting. Mangini claims it helps the players achieve a “higher level of communication” on the field, but I still find it puzzling. Who knows, though, I am just an intern.

Maybe more surprising was the sheer variety of the music selection. 50 Cent and Young Jeezy? Fairly predictable. Rolling Stones? A bit of a stretch. Classical music and Queen? Again, I was surprised, but hey, whatever it takes.

By Tom Rock

Veteran guard Pete Kendall addressed the media after practice today and told reporters that he wants to be traded or released from his current Jets contract. He gave a timeline of events since the end of the season that Kendall said brought him and the team to this point. Kendall said it is too early to say whether he will attend training camp in July, but he did have reservations about coming in for this weekend's mandatory minicamp. He also said he was in attendance for some of the early OTAs, but quickly realized that the contract situation was not going to be resolved so he left. He said the bridge is "not entirely burned" but made it clear that he is not happy to be here.

More later.

By Tom Rock

The Jets made a move regarding their receiving corps, and it had nothing to do with Justin McCareins. In fact, it probably had nothing to do with how the roster will look when the season begins in September.

The team signed free agent Evan Prall and waived Renard Stevens. Prall had been signed by the Cardinals out of Division II East Stroudsburg soon after the draft, but he was waived on May 29. At ESU he set Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference records for career receiving yards (4,093) and touchdowns (50) over his four-year career. He also returned kickoffs (38 for 774 yards) and punts (15 for 182). As a junior, he was named a second-team All-American after he totaled a school-record 88 receptions for 1,766 yards and 23 touchdowns.

Today’s the day Pete Kendall appears for the first time this offseason. I’ll post the themes of our conversation early this afternoon.

By Tom Rock

After some extensive work on kickoffs, special teams coach Mike Westhoff moseyed up to one of the officials who was overseeing today’s practice. “So,” Mike asked, “what do you think will happen?”

They agreed that Tony will get killed, and Westhoff even made the suggestion that the desperate gangster might even turn a gun on himself. It’s not officially football season yet – the real business begins with next week’s minicamp and next month’s training camp – so there’s still free time to speculate on what will happen in Sunday’s Sopranos finale. That show has become such a buzz around here, especially after Mangini’s cameo. There was a TV crew out here today STILL asking the players about their coach’s “performance” and I’ve seen quite a few national stories on the topic (for the record, Newsday’s Neil Best – lauded rightfully and profusely by Glauber – had the fastest and best take on it in Tuesday’s paper). It’s almost as if the Jets have become a recurring character on the show.

An interesting tidbit I hadn’t shared: A few weeks ago on The Sopranos they showed a huge headline in the Star Ledger about the Jets routing the Chargers. If you’re a Jets fan, of course you remember it. Well, I was watching the show on Ti-Faux (my wife’s name for our DVR, a fake TiVo) and was able to pause the close-up on the page. Turns out that the producers just pasted a Jets Rout headline over what was a Giants story. If you look closely (and quickly) enough, you’ll see that the piece actually has a byline by Big Blue beater Mike Garafolo. Even better, there’s a jump at the end of the story that says “See GIANTS on Page XX”. Turns out the Giants are as much a part of Sopranos lore as the Jets have become. Well, maybe not.

Enough Sopranos (Sunday, 9 p.m on HBO). Today was the final glimpse at the OTAs, and there were a few things to notice. The practice started with open-field tackling drills. Thomas Jones made a cut that caused David Barrett to whiff, FB Darian Barnes had a nice dash down the sideline, and Leon Washington put a move on Bobby Hamilton that was like the ones he showed in Miami on Christmas Day. Now, Bobby Hamilton isn’t the best barometer for a running back’s elusiveness (though J.P. Losman may not think so) but it was nice to see some ball carriers juking around.

Nick Mangold continued to practice lightly, snapping the ball to Pennington during 7-on-7 drills but returning to his stretching and exercise bike during 11-on-11s. LB Matt Chatham also spent most of the practice in the rehab area. WR Tim Dwight saw more time on the field than he did in previous practices.

Laveranues Coles was excused from practice today for what the Jets called “personal reasons.” Why someone needs to be excused from a voluntary practice is beyond me, but that’s what they said. Speaking of voluntary practices, Pete Kendall’s agent volunteered some thoughts on behalf of his client and was quoted in the Star Ledger as saying “Pete is extremely frustrated, disappointed and unhappy with the Jets’ organization." Still, he plans on attending next week’s involuntary minicamp.

Fullback Stacy Tutt is seeing a lot of opportunity, especially in the passing game. Last year he spent most of the preseason with a cast on his hand before being relegated to the practice squad and called up late in the year. This year it looks like the Jets will try to use his athleticism from a variety of positions. Remember, Tutt was a I-AA quarterback at Richmond.

Chad Pennington showed the best velocity of the spring when he scored on a QB sneak and spiked the football with ferocity. Nice to see such a spark from a guy who’s going to be turning 31 later this month. Pennington also threw a nice pass to Thomas Jones for a TD in a two-minute drill. Kellen Clemens still seems shaky – though he threw a nice deep ball this afternoon that was dropped by Wallace Wright – and Marques Tuiaso-typo had a rough day. On one drill he took only one rep and fumbled the snap before the horn blew and the stations were changed.

The team was excused from further meetings today when Justin Miller caught a punt. Prior to that, CB Andre Dyson attempted a 36-yard field goal that would have brought the same reward. A veteran said it was one or the other for the players, not double-or-nothing. It’s one thing to have a cornerback attempt a field goal as a quirk, but to have a Pro Bowl kickoff returner field a punt seems like loaded dice to me.

Mike Nugent, by the way, will be graduating from Ohio State this weekend. Maybe the Dyson kick was a tryout for Mike’s replacement in case his career in logistics management takes off.

Oh, and by the way, one poster wanted to know about Kenyon Coleman. Spoke with him today and he's pretty comfortable with the base defense because it is similar towhat he played with teh Cowboys. He also said he wanted to come to the Jets because he wanted to stay within the Bill Parcells coaching tree and added that there are a lot of similarities between the Penguin and the Tuna. As for Mangini, he spoke about Coleman a bit on Thursday and said he sees the free agent acquisition as more than just a two-down player. "We'll have to see how that goes. He's done some work in sub in the past, and I think that we'll definitely give him an opportunity to continue to work there," Mangini said.

Sorry for the long blog, but we won't be back until Thursday with minicamp (when Mangini has a pair of two-a-days scheduled). So chew slowly and make it last.

By Tom Rock

We had a little fun with such a big star in our presence today. Before Mangini came into the room for his press conference, Dave Hutchinson of the Star Ledger whipped out a pair of red bath towels he brought from home (without telling Mrs. Hutch!) and set them on the floor to resemble a red carpet. It was in reference to Mangini now being a TV star after his cameo on “The Sopranos” Sunday night. Eric took the ribbing in stride. “You guys know better than anyone why I didn’t have a speaking part,” he said to the room of reporters.

The topic came up again a little later, and Mangini said he enjoyed his time on the set of the show. “I love the show,” he said. “I’ve followed it for a long time. I think that whole creative process, the level of detail, all the things that go into making any show -- but especially a show of that level -- is amazing.”

Speaking to an insider who was on the set, HBO uses only one camera for its production so basically they do the same scene over and over a few dozen times to get it right. Hmm. Sounds a lot like training camp. Only difference is that in TV, there are stand-ins for the stars while they adjust the lights and set the scene. In football, the stars have to be out there for themselves.

Speaking of stars having to go through training camps, Laveranues Coles was asked if Mangini has mellowed in his second year. He laughed. “If anything he’s put his foot more on the gas since we’ve been back,” Coles said. “He’s not one of those guys that’s going to let up, that’s for sure. Right now he’s got us all going. He ain’t missing a beat. He’s pulling stuff out now that we didn’t pull out until camp. He’s on pace to break it from last year.”

Mangini said he was especially pleased with Monday’s practice, which took place in the driving rain. Not sure the players had the same enthusiasm.

Same “starters” as last week, with the exception of second-round pick David Harris taking the place of Jonathan Vilma on the first defense. Vilma is up in Beantown with his sister Alice, who is receiving her MBA from Harvard.

Still no Pete Kendall. Mangini said he expects everyone to be at next week’s mandatory minicamp. Not sure if that’s an ultimatum or not.

Justin McCareins continues to look really sharp in practices. He caught a couple of Chad Pennington passes for TDs today and also one from Kellen Clemens. Chansi Stuckey also made a nice TD catch and Mangini said he was impressive earlier in the week. Mangini also praised his speed, something that was a question during the pre-draft analysis. He might turn out to be a steal in the seventh round.

First-round pick Darrelle Revis continues to work in the sub defenses, mostly as a nickleback. He’s also playing opposite Justin Miller on the second team base unit. Mangini said Revis’ one early flaw is putting too many balls on the ground during punt and kickoff returns.

A few other odds and ends: DE David Bowens was working with the outside linebackers today … Nick Mangold participated in a few drills but no 11-on-11 work …Tim Dwight was limited in practice and Matt Chatham was sidelined at the stationary bike for the event … Jesse Pellot-Rosa, an undrafted free agent who was signed after a good tryout at rookie camp, showed a lot of spunk when he was able to break free twice on a punt coverage drill. Nothing wrong with a rookie drawing the coaches’ attention when he does something good.