E-Boland & Gang Green

As was the case yesterday, Jets CEO Woody Johnson took in the afternoon practice. Among the things he watched, along with the rest of us:

1. It was Chad Pennington’s turn to work with the first team after Kellen Clemens took the snaps with the 1s in the morning. In one formation during the seven-on-sevens, Dustin Keller, who has lined up several places in the OTAs, split out wide left, covered out there by Justin Miller. On the play, Keller couldn’t quite get past Miller who was in press coverage, and Pennington dumped off over the middle to Laveranues Coles. When Clemens took the field for his first seven-on-seven, he completed a short pass in the flat to Jason Pociask, overthrew Keller on the right sideline and saw a well-thrown pass to the left sideline dropped by Pociask.

2. The Jets next went to their no-huddle drill, with Pennington going first. On the first play, Coles blew past David Barrett (groan, I know), who had no choice but to reach out and grab Coles, drawing an illegal contact penalty. There were a couple of runs from Thomas Jones and the only other play of consequence in the Pennington series was a 15-yard throw over the middle intended for Jerricho Cotchery that Darrelle Revis tipped away at the last moment. In Clemens’ set, he handed off twice and threw incomplete on a 12-yarder over the middle. Clemens next set of plays in an 11-on-11 drill went better, highlighted by a 20-yard pass down the left sideline to Pociask (Clemens threw his way a lot in the afternoon), who had beaten James Ihedigbo. Pennington’s best pass of the day came a little later when he lofted a 30-yarder down the right sideline for Coles, who made a one-handed catch after separating from Miller, whose coverage was pretty tight. Clemens’ best 11-on-11 moment took place during his second go-round when, during a red zone drill, he rifled a 20-yard deep slant to Brad Smith who made the catch at the goal line.

3. The day ended with a no-huddle drill in which Pennington and Brett Ratliff each faced a 28-20 deficit on the scoreboard with one timeout, first-and-10 on their own 18-yard line and 1:44 left. (Pennington sat out the morning’s no-huddle while Clemens got a shot, so this was part of the equal rotation thing with the QBs).

Pennington could only move the team as far as the 50, getting to that point with a 13-yard completion to Coles over the middle but only 13 seconds remained and the offense ran out of time. Pennington’s other completions on the “drive” were short outs to the sideline of 6, 3 and 8 yards.
For those Ratliff fans, and I know there’s a few, he nearly got his offensive unit down the field and into the end zone. He threw one of the afternoon’s best balls, a pretty spiral down the right sideline that David Clowney, whom Mangini singled out in a positive way Thursday, caught between Dwight Lowery and Hank Poteat for a 24-yard gain to the 24-yard line. Then came one of the day’s overall best catches as Chansi Stuckey found a soft spot in the zone and made a diving reception at the 5 for a 19-yard pickup with 13 seconds left. But the defense stiffened and that included a pass defense on third-and-goal from the 5 by Vernon Gholston who, along with Ihedigbo, deflected the ball away from Stuckey at the goal line. That left one second left and on the final play, the offense was guilty of a hold.

4. Mangini was set to end practice without players having to run sprints but Mike Nugent missed a 52-yard field goal that would have ended it. Some of the coaches ran with the players. The scene of the day was watching veteran defensive coordinator Bob Sutton run alongside the still imposing-looking Bryan Cox. Mangini, a treadmill fanatic, did not run.

5. The punter battle will continue full force into training camp with both in a good position to win the job. Ben Graham did not look good early in the OTAs but has come on strong. He looked especially good today pinning the ball inside the 15. Jeremy Kapinos might have a slight edge from the practices we’ve seen in leg strength.

6. To some of the other questions from earlier posts: R in CT, Nothing improves team chemistry like a shared purpose and the veterans who went through a 4-12 season aren’t interested in having their season end in October a second straight season. As for Coles, he’s content for now regarding the final two years of his contract being guaranteed ($11 million), but he did say on the first day of OTAs that at the end of next season he might want to talk contract again. He’s happy for now. As for players are favoring in the quarterback battle, get used to this answer: “We’re rooting for the guy who gives us the best chance to win.”
You won’t hear players really weigh in on that until the pads come on, there’s real heat on the quarterback in the pocket, and it starts to become obvious who’s really winning the competition. If players feel the guy who’s winning that battle isn’t getting the nod, there might be some grumbling, but most guys take this time of year for what it is: practices that favor the offense and don’t give the most accurate read on things. The “guns” question regarding Gholston and Jones is a funny one because Mangini made a joke about it today and I actually asked Jones about it a couple weeks ago. He, with a smile, said he was happy for the competition in the weight room. I’d give a small, very small, edge there to Jones for now.

Bryan, Baker’s teammates are staying out of the Baker mess. I asked Kerry Rhodes about it after the morning practice and his answer pretty much spoke for everyone I think: “You can’t even get in the loop on that. That’s between those guys (Baker and Tannenbaum) and I don’t know what was said. It is what it is. It’s situation he has to handle.”

Frank, undrafted free agents have a tough hill to climb. Woodhead has seen a lot of work on both kick return units and only really had the one bad day a couple weeks ago doing so. He has also been used as a running back on the third team, but his path to making this team – other than the practice squad – is going to be on special teams.

Joe, Darnell Bing has shown some nice spurts of athleticism but as of now, he’s pretty set on the third team. I haven’t seen him in any of the OTA practices we’ve observed any higher than that. Also, I know this was asked before, among the backup offensive lineman who have impressed are Robert Turner, Clint Oldenburg, Matt McChesney and Shawn McMackin, a rookie FA signing from Hofstra. Have to write a newspaper story on Gholston now. If I didn’t get to something that had been asked, my apologies. Remind me and I’ll get to it tonight. Oh, this was a question too: who were the second string linebackers today? Vernon Gholston and Matt Chatham were on the outside and Brad Kassell and David Bowens were inside.