Monthly Archives: September 2006
- Simmons does the JETS Chant as he runs down his Power Rankings.
- Pennington is a man on a mission.
- Mangini’s 9/29 presser and locker room quotes.
- Mangold’s blog gets an update.
- Tom Rock tells us what he gets to see at practice, it ain’t much.
- I don’t know this Andy Nesbitt, but apparently no one likes him.
- If you didn’t see the Madden Matchup, it’s worth a watch.
It’s April 29th, 2006 and you are the New York Jets, you are picking fourth and the top five options that are buzzing around are:
Reggie Bush
Mario Williams
Matt Leinart
Vince Young
D’Brickashaw Ferguson
Knowing that three of those players will be taken by the time you pick … who do you choose? It looks likely to be between one of the QBs and Ferguson. With a rehabbing Chad Pennington on the roster, what do you do?
Certainly, Young & Leinart have yet to really show what they can contribute long-term for their respective teams, but those teams that have been considered to have passed on Leinart (or even Jay Cutler) were New York, Detroit and Oakland. Of the three teams that were assessed to really need a QB at the time, only one (the Jets) have justified their decision to pass on Leinart. Again, long-term it’s hard to say how this will all shake out, but all I am saying is that I am a lot more confident in what Tannenbaum is doing with this team than what Bradway was doing.
Although we happy few, we band of brothers have been cautiously optimistic about the Jets, it seems now that the media has been alerted to the fact that it is now OK to be positive about the Jets. Check out the Post today. Randy Cross has a good quote:
You know they are going to have a pretty good plan on both sides of the ball, especially defensively. Eric is a guy who has been around some pretty good game plans against Peyton Manning.
When was the last time you remember hearing anyone use the words ‘good’ and ‘plan’ for the Jets?
In team games, individual awards don’t mean much. Ask Alex Rodriguez.But, its worth noting that the NFL has issued 12 individual awards so far this year in the American Football Conference anyway:
9 for players of the week, and 3 for players of the month of September.
Of these 12, the Jets have claimed 3: Chad Pennington was AFC Offensive player of the week in week one, Kerry Rhodes was AFC Defensive player of the week in week 3, and Laveranues Coles was just today announced as AFC Offensive Player of the Month.
Coles has been Chad’s favorite target, racking up 24 catches for 331 yards and a 13.8 average YPC. He already has 2 100+ yard games, and is on pace for 128 catches, 1765 yards, and 5 TD.
It’s also worth noting that two other teams in the AFC have claimed 3 of these awards: Indianapolis and Baltimore. Buffalo, Cincinnati, and Jacksonville each have one.
Am I suggesting we’re anywhere near as good as these two teams? Of course not. That’s why they play the games.
But I think its important to note that Mangini and company promised to put our limited number of “playmakers” in position to make plays, and thus far they have kept their promise.
Just like the title asks, if you are the Jets, knowing what the team’s strengths and deficiencies are, how do you stop the Peyton Manning and the Colts?
Just to cheat a little, here some ideas to get you going. Right now, the Colts are ranked 5th in total offensive YPG (#24 in rush, #2 in pass) while their defense is ranked 22nd in total defensive YPG (#28 versus the run, #10 versus the pass).
- Cimini thinks Pete Kendall is set to return.
- Power Ranking Check Current Rank: ESPN 19, CBS 20, Fox 19, F.O. 23 : Interesting how they have climbed from basically the 30s to low 20s in three weeks. Watch now as the go back to mid to low 20s over the next two weeks if they lose both games.
- Executive Order: Stay out of a track meet with the Colts.
- Cimini talks to Barlow about his relationship with T.O.
- I held another press conference yesterday with the New York Media.
- If you didn’t see the Green Day U2 footage from Monday night, it’s finally on youtube. Billy Joe sounds a little flat at times, but Bono kicks ass as normal.
- I don’t want to get into this whole T.O. thing, but Kim Etheredge has to be the worst publicist ever. If you haven’t seen the video, you can check it at ESPN Motion (right side). All I am going to say, is after her poor assessment of the situation, she then is at a national press conference chewing gum, and saying things like “he’s got 25 million reasons to be alive!” Terrell needs a better publicist, maybe Shauna from Entourage is available.
So, I mentioned on AOL Fanhouse the other day to look out for Kerry Rhodes, to see if he got any national attention … the first step of that was answered today. This from wire services.
Rhodes amassed 10 tackles, two sacks and forced a pair of fumbles to help the Jets to a 28-20 win at division-rival Buffalo. Rhodes’ first sack of J.P. Losman in the first quarter forced a fumble and teammate Jonathan Vilma recovered the ball. Rhodes’ second sack lead to another fumble and this time Victor Hobson picked the ball up and rumbled 32 yards into the end zone to give the Jets a 21-10 lead a little less than five minutes into the third quarter
Take a bow Mr. Rhodes, good to see him get some pub!!
After reporting on the Jets cutting three players (see my Fanhouse post) Cimini notes in the same artice that Leon Washington might be the best fit for the Jets in trying to run against the Colts in a talk with an unnamed scout:
“Leon will be quicker to the line of scrimmage than those other guys,” the scout said. “He’s not a dancer, not one of those little guys who looks to bounce it outside … He’s hard to find back there because he sneaks behind the guys on pulling and trapping plays, and he’s on top of the safety before you know it.”
I (finally) had noticed this past weekend, where the backs were lining up for the Jets and I am wondering about this whole “seven yards in the backfield” nonsense. Also, the scout takes a poke at D’Brick’s run blocking …
“I don’t think Freeney will be that big a challenge. He’ll do fine against the speed and quickness guys. It’s the big, strong guys he has to worry about. I think he’s a really good pass protector. You can read between the lines.”
Would you consider him an average run blocker?
“I’m not sure if he’s that good,” the scout said.
Wow, that’s harsh. It will be interesting to see how that pans out …
My wife watches two channels: TLC (she loves organizing) and FoodNetwork (she’s learning about cooking).
So last night as she is flipping between the two channels she watches, Rachel Ray is in Boston (about two years ago) talking about restaurants in the city. The next thing I know, I see Matt Chatham and a UMass baller hanging out with Rachel Ray at The Rack playing pool. When Rachel Ray asks Chatham how he stays so fit, Chatham responds:
“Well, everyday after practice, I come home and have a Guinness and a half pint of Ben & Jerry’s, so…”
Another week, another win. This is getting easy. I like how everyone is jumping on the “Jets might not be as bad as we thought” bandwagon, despite the fact that we’ve only beaten the Titans and Bills and lost to the otherwise unimpressive Pats. Oh, well. Once again, we didn’t get the game live over here, but I watched a ton of football this weekend, so there’s plenty to talk about.
Let’s get to it…
* I watched the following games this week: Clemson-UNC, California-ASU, Colorado-Georgia, Alabama-Arkansas, Seattle-NY Giants, Pittsburgh-Cincinnati and Arizona-St.Louis. Thank goodness for fast-forward!
* Tori Blaylock may only be a few days old, but he may also be the youngest candidate for a game-ball in Jets history. His well timed arrival over the weekend meant that Derrick “knife through cheese” Blaylock was unavailable. This meant more reps for the other Jets backs, each of whom made a key contribution. Sure, the Jets still can’t run the ball (not with Kendall out, anyway) but they made some progress this week.
(more…)
The Jets announced which players received game balls yesterday:
Brandon Moore – Offense
Kerry Rhodes – Defense
Drew Coleman – Special Teams
Anthony Schlegel – Practice Squad
Kerry Rhodes answered questions after the Jets’ game yesterday. Got to credit Rhodes for trying to be funny, but I think for a while there the reporters were confused by his jokes. Just like Franklin the Puppet (headphones at work!), this comedian’s work just isn’t appreciated by his audience …
