The official first day of this season under Eric Mangini was an
interesting one, that's for sure. I was at Hofstra in the heat and
humidity on Friday morning, and for reasons which will be disclosed
later, I was also “inside the ropes” with media access for the full 2
hours and 25 minutes of the first practice, and then some. I snapped
many pictures, which I will hopefully be posting later on the weekend.
I didn't stay for the evening practice.

Rather than re-hash much of the stuff you've probably already read from
blogs of the beat writers about Chad and his arm or the absence of
Martin and McCareins, here are a few general things that I haven't seen
really talked about yet:

- To start the day, the team broke up by individual squads (offensive
line, defensive backs, etc.) for warm-up drills. (With temperatures
topping out in the 90s, especially when the sun peeked out from behind
the hazy clouds, I found it funny they had to “warm up” at all.)
- Practice was very regimented, following a specific schedule. Each
segment would go anywhere from 7 to 10 minutes, and when it was done, a
horn would blare and the players (and coaches) would switch areas. Over
the course of 2.5 hours, there were a lot of different
variations–7-on-7s, 11-on-11s, qbs and wrs vs. lbs and dbs, qb and rbs
vs. dbs, special teams work, etc.
- The coaches were constantly on the players about their tempo, pushing
them to hustle through drills and to each activity. This was a theme
for the day, playing fast and hustling–at one point during the
two-minute drill, Mangini felt Bollinger's unit was too slow (either
running the plays or getting off the field, I wasn't sure), and he had
the entire unit–Brooks, too–run a lap around both practice fields,
which near the end of practice, looked like a Battan death march.
- Early on there was a one-on-one open-field tackling drill–this is
where Victor Hobson nailed Phil Silva to the delight of the crowd.
(Later on, during the 11-on-11 scrimmaging, Silva got his revenge,
making a couple of nice catches from Clemens, including nifty one after
Clemens threaded it between two defenders.) The media on the sideline
were buzzing about this, saying they hadn't seen tackling practice like
this on the first day of camp around Hofstra in years.
- A group of officials were on hand to call penalties during scrimmaging.
- The 3-4 defense was on display all day, especially during the 7-on-7s
and 11-on-11s. As Berger noted, I had also seen that Trevor Johnson was
lined up as a lb with the first unit a lot, as was Matt Chatham (with
Vilma and Barton). The defensive lineman rotated quite a bit. David
Barrett and Justin Miller seemed to be the starting cbs, but there was
a lot of rotation here, too.
- There are two fields–a turf field and a grass field. The majority of the scrimmaging took place on the turf field.

A few player and coach nuggets:

- Kellen Clemens was the first player on the field. He got there about
five minutes before anyone else. Jovan Witherspoon was next on, and he
took passes from Clemens until the rest of the team arrived.
- While the team was stretching, Mangini went down the line to each of
the four qbs, chatting with each one, although he may have been
quizzing them for all I know.
- Obviously D'Brickashaw reads his own press because after practice, he
went over to the fence by the main grandstand and signed autographs,
much to the delight of fans. He then came over to where the press was
interviewing players after practice and spoke (kinda softly,
surprisingly) to all the reporters that came up to him.
- As reported in multiple places, early on, Pennington did not look
sharp, but as practice wore on, he looked better. I happen to be
standing next to Rich Cimini, Dan Leberfeld and Sal Paolantonio, who
were discussing that they thought Pennington's throwing motion had
changed, like he was tossing a javelin. Cimini pointed out that former
Packer quarterback Don Majkowski had told him this might be the case
after a second rotator cuff surgery. Leberfeld questioned whether maybe
Pennington has thrown like this all along and no one really noticed
until it became an issue. Pennington was picked by Kerry Rhodes and Jon
Vilma. On the 65-yarder TD, the db bit on a nice pump fake which allowed
Jerricho Catchery to gain separation on a go route.
- Bollinger was picked off a tippped ball during 11-on-11s, but looked
okay (not great) throughout. I don't know if it was the rotation, but
he and Clemens were usually the last two in drills, and got the least
amount of reps. (Cimini asked Mangini about this later during the press
conference, and Mangini gave his usual “we have a specific schedule and
everyone will get the same number of reps” line. Interpret that as you will.)
- Although it was widely reported that Ramsey looked better than in
minicamps, he had passes knocked down early in drills pitting the qb
and one receiver versus a db. He made a nice pass to a diving Reggie
Newhouse later in the 11-on-11s. He overthrew a wide-open Lavernaneus
Coles on a deep post pattern, which probably hasn't happened to Coles
since Vinny from Elmont retired.
- Tony Wise is an intense offensive line coach. Not only was he
constantly on the players to ratchet up their intensity and hustle, but
he started chewing out a ballboy that was too slow at one point,
yelling at him to move faster and lift his feet! Very vocal coach.
Brian Schottenheimer could also be heard barking throughout practice, but with more of wisecracking tone to it.
- Derrick Blaylock seemed to get a lot of reps with Curtis out,
although like everywhere else, there was a lot of rotating of players.
Nick Hartigan looked good on a few runs up the middle. Brad Smith made
a few nice catches (including one in traffic from Bollinger), as did
Witherspoon.
- After practice, certain players are made available for the media.
Vilma was one of the first, although practically the entire media
contingent left him en masse when Pennington came over. Sorta funny to see–like a swarm of bees.
- Some of the sizes on the press sheet don't seem to add up: D'Brick is
listed at 6'6 (generously, I think), but while I was standing there
watching the group around Pennington, the sun was literally blotted out
behind me–I turned to see Shaun Ellis right behind me, and he was
huge! Seemed much bigger and taller than D'Brick, although he's listed
at 6'5 (maybe it's just their bulk throwing me off?). Ramsey and
Clemens are both listed at 6'2, but I was standing between them both at
one point, and Clemens looked to be taller. Vilma does not seem very big at
all, and neither does Anthony “The Beast” Schlegel.
- Speaking of “The Beast,” he was totally gruffed out today–unshaven,
long hair–as was Stone Cold Nick Mangold. (Must be an Ohio State thing.)
Mangold, by the way, in person looks to be about 15: blonde hair, blue
eyes, total baby face. If he shaved, they would mistake him for a
ballboy in a heartbeat.
- Following at 2.5-hour practice in the heat, Joel Dreessen worked a
10-minute session catching passes from the juggs machine by himself.

And some media stuff:

- The Jets press room is tiny–forty by forty, tops. There is a podium
up front, four rows of six chairs and a platform for cameras in the
back, and around the outside of the room are little work stations,
designated for each of the beat media.
- Leberfeld (a very nice guy) was laughing about the whole D'Brick
running away from the beat reporters episode and was surprised that it
had become any sort of story. He said that he knows the fans could care
less about the media's griping about access to the players under the
new regime, and it shouldn't be “a story.”
- Mark Cannizzaro is clearly the dean of the group; he got to ask the
first question during Mangini's post practice press conference. When Canny arrived to the
press room, Dave Hutchinson was sitting in his chair, which brought
laughs from the group.
- On the sidelines, I was between Hutchinson and Cimini at one point,
and I overheard Cimini saying that he thought that although the team
would have a hard start, if they could finish strong and finish on a
good note, that would be a good year for them.
- During Mangini's press conference after practice, there were at least
50-60 media people jammed in that tiny room. One TV reporter joked
loudly with his camera man that if Herm was still there, they'd have to
put in a fresh tape, but with Mangini, they would probably only need
whatever was left at the end of a tape, which wasn't too far off. His
whole press conference lasted about 15 minutes.
- After the press conference, the coach and PR people go back through a
locked door with only keypad access, but apparently the regular beat
guys like Cannizzaro and Cimini have the code and are allowed to follow
the coach into the back offices, which they did. For all their
grumbling about “access”–and I overheard a bit on the sidelines from
Cimini, among others–they seem to have more than most.

Anyway, I'll hopefully get pictures up later with anything else I can think of.

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