Day 12: afternoon practice report, and Eric Mangini plans to marinate his quarterbacks
Or that’s a version of what the coach said when he was asked this afternoon about who would start Thursday.
“I'll look at it, marinate on it and make a decision,” Mangini said. “But it won't be any sort of earthshattering news.”
Nothing to see here, folks, nothing to see here, so on to practice:
* We’ll start with defense because Vernon Gholston registered two “sacks” [non-contact] against the first-team offensive line tonight lining up at OLB. Remember, he abused the second-team line a week ago Sunday in the practice bubble so getting those two against the first line (the Woody/Moore side) was a positive sign. For Gholston, at any rate. Also, another strong, strong practice for David Bowens. We talked about him this morning and he was even better this afternoon. He deflected two passes, one by Chad Pennington and one by Brett Ratliff. He was in the backfield twice as well for pressures. And chalk up two more pressures for Calvin Pace, too.
* Chris Baker, who returned to the field this morning, caught his first pass of camp, a 17-yarder on the left sideline, getting away from Cameron Worrell, thrown by Pennington (Baker later dropped a 10-yard pass in the flat from Clemens).
Pennington had a great throw down the seam to Chansi Stuckey for 23 yards during one 11-on-11 drill and then one play later, Stuckey made the catch of the day, of the last week probably. Running a medium out pattern, Stuckey laid out horizontally and caught a Pennington pass for a 15-yard gain. Pennington’s other solid throw of the afternoon came when he hit David Clowney on the right sideline for 15 yards. Does Pennington have a little more “zip” on his passes so far in camp? I would say yes – though we’re not talking John Elway – on the seam stuff and deep balls over the middle. On the deep outs, not so much.
* Clemens’ afternoon wasn’t as good as his morning. He probably peaked during a blitz drill when he lasered a 21-yarder to Jerricho Cotchery on a corner route. Clemens also completed a 10-yard pass over the middle to Leon Washington on the next play and later in the series connected with Cotchery again, this time underneath for eight yards. But the interception scourge reared its head once again, as that tally now reads 8-2 in favor of Clemens. Throwing for Dustin Keller deep down the left sideline, Keller mistimed his jump – though it probably wouldn’t have mattered on the overthrown ball – and Justin Miller made the easy interception. That marked Miller’s third interception of training camp.
* There was an Erik Ainge sighting. The fifth-round draft pick has had a tough camp but he threw and absolute dart over the middle to Stuckey for 11 yards during an 11-on-11 drill. But that was nothing compared to what happened later in practice when he unloaded a Hail Mary from the 43-yard line toward the right corner of the end zone. In the middle of four defenders – including safety James Ihedigbo, who badly mistimed his jump in trying to deflect the ball – Wallace Wright came down with the ball for a touchdown. Rafliff showed off his gun once again, hitting David Ball down the right sideline for 43 yards as new pickup Rudy Burgess was a half step behind.
* Among the lap runners this afternoon: Alan Faneca (false start), Damien Woody (False Start), Leon Washington (muffed punt).
* Injury note: backup offensive lineman Clint Oldenburg injured what appeared to be his right knee during an 11-on-11 drill and was helped off the field by two members of the medical staff. He spent the rest of the practice on the sideline getting treatment. Stanley Daniels replaced Oldenburg. Laveranues Coles (thigh) practiced after missing the last several days. David Harris (leg), Jason Trusnik (foot), Marcus Henry (unspecified) and running back Jesse Chatman (unspecified) sat out both practices.
* Practice ended with some humor as Mangini allowed the two starting safeties, Kerry Rhodes and Eric Smith, to attempt 43-yard field goals toward the goal posts that are the same distance apart as the ones used in Arena League. Turns out had the goal posts been 50 yards apart, it would not have mattered. The kicks barely cleared ground level but everyone got a laugh.
* Just one practice tomorrow, at 1:30 p.m. It is open to the public. As is tomorrow morning’s live chat, which will take place on the road, away from the World’s Most Famous Futon. We will be here, in the media room at Hofstra, with the chat, our third on this blog, set to begin at 11:30 a.m. Questions are welcome because, well, that’s the idea.
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Comments (19)
EB - thanks for the hard work, man - Mangini must be rubbing off on you!
I have a sneaking suspicion Mangini was searching for another word, but substituted "marinate" when the other word excaped him (I have always been strong in my vocabulary skills and stuff like that). Some possibilities for the elusive word (sorry if it sounds a bit like an INXS song, though that may be before your time anyway, Boland):
ruminate
meditate
hyperventilate
prevaricate
baste
Alternative suggestions are welcome.
Baker later dropped a 10-yard pass in the flat from Clemens
AGAIN!!!!!!!!
Why are the receivers having a hard time catching passes from Clemens?
DKnyj, sure, yes, we'll go with that...
Joe M., baste, he definitely meant baste
JayM, on that particular throw, to be fair, it was a soft toss. I should have clarified that (thought I know your comment is based on a larger point). And to answer your question about Henry from the last post; not a bad camp for the rookie but there's such a logjam in front of him at receiver. Still, the few opportunities Henry has had, there's been some nice grabs. Waving to the camera...
Do you have details on the David Harris injury?
Not for nothing, but I think Joe Musgo uncovered a Freudian slip by Mangini. He wanted to say ruminate but he was daydreaming about his appearance on the Sopranos. Unconcious thoughts of marinara sauce came to mind. Next thing you know, marinate inadvertantly crossed his lips.
Bo-Man, not counting the players, you are far and away the hardest working man at Hofstra.
Kellen needs to learn how to cut back on the mustard when he throws short passes. Thats one of the reasons WR's are dropping those passes. Great am practice and then he takes a step backwards. I just can't see him winning th job if the up and down play continues.
Should we be worried about David Harris?
Erik, is it true your old Futon has re-thought it's decision to retire and has petitioned the commissioner for reinstatement?
IRA....i agree. cp has been a model of consistency from day one as opposed to kc. and great point about the touch passes. another chad specialty, along with putting the ball on the proper shoulder, that gets overlooked. i think alot of it has to do with confidence in your decision making. chads reads are better so he is able to get rid of the ball sooner whereas kellen waits a second or two longer and has to throw it harder.
Correct, its a learning process that every young qb goes through.
Only way to learn is to play which is why a young qb, can only be evaluated after 24 games according to popular wisdom.
No doubt Chad is ahead of Kellen mentally, he should be at this point in their careers. The deciding factor will be if the coaches believe Kellen is close enough to "getting it" that his superior upside deserves the shot right now.
For the record, Erik clearly indicates Baker dropped a "soft toss", he did not overthrough this one, although he was certainly guilty of this plenty of times last year.
Also note that Erik states Chad still has nothing on his "deep outs", the throw that Chad has struggled with for years and is necessary to stretch the defense.
In any case, we will see live action in two more days.
Just for info, the Jets "unofficial" depth chart, which the NFL requires they release, lists the following:
1QB - K. Clemens
1Corners - D. Revis & J. MIller
1Receivers - L. Coles & J. Cotchery
2Receivers - B. Smith & C. Stuckey
TEs (in order) - Baker, Franks & Keller
While they stress the unofficial thing, I don't know what that means, since the league requires one, and thats what they submitted.
John,
I think they do the "official" depth chart in alphabetical order... seriously. Clemens comes before Pennington because "c" comes before "p."
Erik,
Are you hiding some secret nugget of knowledge on the Harris injury? Did Mangini threaten to "marinate" you if you told? I can't remember if Harris has actually been on the field during training camp yet.
Maybe you should think about doing a live chat during the Jets/Cleveland game. You may want to warm up the "censor" button first though.
The david Harris injury must be serious.The guy has missed the whole training camp.
As far as the alpha-depth chart goes, that would make Ainge the starting QB, and Clowney the top receiver. I'm not saying there's any creedence to the depth chart, but Chad did lose the job once already, while Clemens hasn't.
David Bowens is practicing also the ILB position. Insurance?
So it is very important that he is playing well.
IRA,
I have not been to camp but I seriously doubt the problem is Clemens overthrowing the ball. He was never know as a strong armed QB. Next to Chad maybe, but comapred tot he rest of the league no.
I think there may be something else (delivery, timing, etc.) because Chad does not seem to suffer from the same number of drops. KC was also known as an accurate passer in college. He has clearly not yet made the transition.
If the receivers are so used to Chad that they can't handle Clemens passes then we really don't want Favre coming here.
Clemens has more drops partly because he is throwing mostly to back up wideouts. He did not have the luxury of playing with sure handed Coles and healthy Cotch last season.
Reports at the time indicated Clemens had the second strongest arm of the top QB's in his draft class, after Cutler of course.
He has B+ type arm strength.