E-Boland & Gang Green

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.