Monthly Archives: October 2007
Boogidy Boo!!!
As if this team wasn’t scary enough, according to our superduper undercover spy in Hempstead*, the Jets were practicing today in Halloween costumes.
Although Mangini had determined that giving them a day off wasn’t going to happen, he thought that providing a “Hawaiian Shirt Day” type of diversion might be helpful for the hapless Jets. What fun!
We were told that the day culminated in a parade with awards for best costumes and then according to our source, “the players even had the chance to knock on assistant coaches’ doors and ask for more plays for their playbooks.” We’re sure Brian Daboll and the gang saw the guys and thought they looked so cute, they stuffed a couple extras pages into their notebooks much to their mom and dad’s reluctant OKs.
Here are a few of the costumes in which some Jets showed up on the field today. From what we hear, the entire defense was all going to show up as the Invisible Man, but that was shot down by the coach.
If you have other scoops on costumes that were worn today, definitely let us know in the comments.
Darian Barnes (Black Panther) — A classic choice by this comic book junkie, BP was one the first black superheros.
Jonathan Vilma (Wolverine) — J-Vil thinks he has superregenerative powers … we wish it were so!!
Leon Washington (Mighty Mouse) — Heeere I comme to saaave the daayyy!!! The littlest playmaker on the Jets picked a costume that seems to fit his role, too bad the problems Mighty Mouse fixes don’t really matter.
Cannizzaro slides into his article today on Pete Kendall the possibility of Adrien Clarke being benched and the reunion of him and his old teammates this weekend that Adrien Clarke is likely on the outs.
Pete Kendall was on the other end of the phone line with The Post yesterday and there wasn’t a trace of gloating in his voice, not even when he was informed that his replacement at left guard, Adrien Clarke, is about to be benched by the Jets this week.
Benched by the Jets? From whence did this announcement come? From a quick look, looks like other writers might think this is the right move, (to which I would resoundingly agree) but might not be gospel, at least not yet.
As far as who would step into that role at LG, it’s tough to say. Bender didn’t see action last week, but was activated, do the Jets think that Panthers cutdown casualty Will Montgomery is the hold-the-fort guy they need? What about Adrian Jones, who has languished on this team for the past two seasons? My money is on Montgomery at the outset, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Bender could get some snaps before year-end.
Kevin Manahan writes an interesting profile in today’s Star-Ledger on new starting Jets’ QB Kellen Clemens leading off with a story about his self-administered workout regimen on offdays.
Kellen Clemens, the local high school’s star quarterback, had a reluctant tractor tire tied around him with a homemade horse harness, and — arms pumping and legs churning, his shirt drenched with sweat — he was dragging it behind him. A funnel of thirsty dirt and crinkly hay particles square-danced high in the air around him.
Manahan gets an interesting quote from the former radio play-by-play announcer from his high school.
Kellen was a great athlete, good at every sport he played,” said Randy Parks, the former radio play-by-play announcer for the high school. “People would tell me stories about how they saw him dragging that tire or throwing the football in a foot of snow or running in the dark.
Hauling around a tractor tire for fun? Sounds like another QB on the roster who is a gym rat and works his hardest to get every advantage he can. Hopefully with some live fire drills for the rest of the season, he’ll be ready for a playoff push come next September.
David Hutchinson always does a great job of getting players to trust him with quotes about sticky situations with the team, so credit David Hutchinson for getting more interesting information on the Vilma situation. This is an anonymous quote from one of Vilma’s teammates.
“Vilma doesn’t like this defense and a lot of the guys feel that way,” one Jets player said last night. “You guys in the media like (Vilma) but that’s not the way it is with the organization. He and (coach) Eric (Mangini) aren’t on the best of terms. A lot of the veteran guys think they’re going to be out of here this off-season and Eric is going to bring in his own players.”
The player spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to criticize the head coach on the record.
Last night, while checking in with our buddy MDS, he asked if I thought Vilma was likely to be shipped off this coming offseason. Although I can’t say for sure, basically what I told him was that “where there’s smoke … there’s fire … and there’s more and more smoke here.” With this quote, it’s getting hard to breathe around here.
Until the team starts winning again, there will be more and more questions and more and more leaks on how this regime is run behind closed doors. I had outlined this at the beginning of Mangini’s regime. If he’s going to be tightlipped, he’s going to face tough media pressure if he can’t win much more intense than someone like Herm ever did … welcome to the real New York, Eric.
- MDS writes a great article in the Sun about David Harris.
- Gregg Hayim leads the charge to give Pennington his due.
- Jets Journal chuckles at the uninformative informational call on Vilma. Cimini seems to disagree.
- Schein hands out his midseason grades to all 32 teams.
- Yay! The Jets are 30th in DVOA!
- Hutch looks at Kellen’s playing time last week closely and looks towards this weekend.
- Gotta check out Meth Minute’s Mike Tyson Brunch Out (sound NSFW).
Jon Vilma has written on his personal website (click Journal once there) about going onto the IR. Here are some excerpts.
I am going to spend the rest of the season as the biggest fan of the New York Jets. Hurting my knee and being placed on Injured Reserve is tough, very tough. I’m down about it, but all I can do is make the most of the situation. I wish I could be out there with the guys, but that isn’t the case.
Going on IR is the best thing for me, for my future … I’m going to work harder than hard to rehab and make a full recovery and even try to be better than I was before the injury …
I’m not sure if I am going to have surgery on my knee; I haven’t decided that yet. I may try to rehab the injury and get back that way. Either way, I’m going to come all the way back.
Also, you can check Vilma’s discussion with Joe Benigno from WFAN from Tuesday, where he expounds on his situation. Credit Benigno for trying to talk about tough questions, but he ends up basically making wild conspiracy style statements which Vilma doesn’t exactly appreciate.
Not sure what the future holds for Jon with this team, but here’s to a quick and speedy recovery!
With the chance at a postseason berth gone for the Jets, here are five things that you can look forward to watching over the coming weeks from paying attention to the Jets. Please add yours in the comments.
- KC & The Sunshine Band – Although Mangini hasn’t stated he’s the QB the rest of the way, we’ll asusme he’ll see most of the starts. Watch the development of Kellen Clemens … how does he do against the blitz? How well can he find second and third reads? Does his presence open up the running game?
- The Life of David Harris — Harris flashed in his first start for the Jets, making some heads up plays to tackle for losses and accumulating 17 total tackles.
- From Hangers On to Role Players? — With guys like Stacey Tutt and JoeKo getting more action this year, will players like Jacob Bender, Mike DeVito and others get more time on the field towards the end of this season?
- Get That Line Stout! – The Offensive Line has done a decent job, but needs to continue to get better. Can Adrien Clarke do a better job of playing consistently or will this be his first and last year as a Jets’ starter?
- Plots & Schemes — Can the Jets’ defense get their junk together? Sure they looked better against the Bills, but with some teams left on the schedule that have some better offensive weapons, this is the time to show some progress.
It’s not my favorite tune from Ryan Parker, but you have to laugh at the lyrics.
Funny … I was thinking about this just this morning when I got the email from Mr. Parker. Big Daddy Drew from KSK had offered a bounty on Brady’s knee, and I truly have thought that’s the only way to derail the Patriots’ season.
The stats might not bear it out, but at least this season hasn’t been all down for at least one Jet … Kerry Rhodes.
According to yesterday’s Page Six in the Post, Jets ‘Safety Kerry “Hollywood” Rhodes is dating former American Idol contestant and Oscar winning Dreamgirl, Jennifer Hudson.
Jennifer Hudson … at the Fashion Group International’s Night of Star’s gala Thursday at Cipriani. The Oscar winner walked the red carpet with Talley, but once inside cozied up to her new man, New York Jets free safety Kerri [sic] Rhodes. “He followed right behind her in a separate car, but when they were inside they were holding hands all night and taking trips to the bathroom together,” said a spy.
Taking trips to the bathroom together? Wha??? C’mon Kerry! That’s what girls do! Not hard hitting safeties from Alabama! What’s that about!!
Oh what?! Really? No … Oh I see … ahem … well then …
C’est l’amour or something!!
This morning the papers are getting quotes from his teammates, but I thought it would be interesting to look back at some quotes on Clemens around the time of the draft from coaches and draftniks …
It’s easy to quote the phrase “the #2 QB is always the most popular guy in New York.” But clearly those guys have forgotten about Quincy Carter or Rick Mirer … good thing some serious draftheads were higher on Clemens than those guys!
“Anonymous” AFC Coach (Herm … no one else says ‘spin it’) — “When I saw him in Indianapolis, I hated the guy. He couldn’t make the throws, he couldn’t push off. It was the ankle. When I watched him on film, I loved the guy … Really good arm. Can make all the throws. Very quick release. Pretty good mobility. He’s not a Vince Young type, but he can still get out of trouble and make plays with his feet. He can throw the deep ball and the medium ball. We really liked him. (Clemens) has a better release (than Young & Leinart), and his arm is stronger than Leinart’s. His ball spins better than Leinart’s. But I don’t know if he spins it better than Vince.”
Gil Brandt — “In my evaluation of the guy, I think he has really good mechanics and good velocity on the ball, which is a big thing when you play in a stadium that has a lot of wind like (the Jets) do. I think it was a good pick. I’d be really surprised if he doesn’t end up being a pretty good player for them.”
Ron Jaworski – “He can be the quarterback of the future … it would not surprise me if he’s a Tom Brady-type quarterback … I think he’s going to be a real good pro. If you had mentioned Tom Brady a few years ago, people would have said, ‘Who?’ Well, I mention Kellen Clemens because I think he has that type of ability and will surprise people in the NFL.”
Clemens also tied Leinart in his Wonderlic score 35 good enough for third total among QBs and the highest among QBs drafted in the first two rounds.
- Bullock is excited for the start of a new regime.
- Gross blogs about Pennington’s class after finding out that Clemens is the new starter this weekend.
- Rock tracks the mood after the change was announced.
- Our friend seanmac writes some thoughts on Football Outsiders about the switch.
- MDS makes sense in warning the Patriots about rolling over teams … lest someone roll over Brady’s knee.
So according to papers today, Chad Pennington is out as the Jets starter. Here are a few different NY sources and what they have said. The problem is, no one wants to be quoted or talk about the matter … but there it is. Here’s what the Daily News reported this morning:
The plan, according to spies in Mangini’s midst, was to give Pennington two starts and then use the bye week to work Clemens into form … but weak pass protection and a fan base clamoring for something, anything, different, has conspired against Pennington, likely costing him his job. Nice guys don’t always finish first.
Meanwhile, the Post claims exclusivity, but just says that the era is over … so please take their word they were the first source … whateva. When multiple sources (and NOT the Star-Ledger, they always have juicy bits) have this, it leads me to believe that this was leaked by the organization intentionally.
I liked the idea of giving Clemens two weeks to fully take over and diffuse the media … makes sense to me, it would also give Clemens some good competition (DAL, NE, TEN) without overloading him. I’ve tried to be in the background and not get on the soapbox too much on the Pennington thing, and I will write more about this later tonight. In short, I’m disappointed it didn’t work out for him, I loved what he brought to the team as a starter, and I still think he’s not the team’s biggest problem.
What I do think though is if Mangini and Tannenbaum think that Clemens is the real deal, they needed to put their money where there mouth is … they brought the kid in with the hope he would start, so this move is a necessary one. We’re going to find out sooner or later how good the kid is, so why not do it in a wasted season anyway?
Furthermore, if anyone could take getting benched gracefully, I imagine it would be Pennington. He wouldn’t be the worst backup, but it will be interesting to see how things work themselves out in the offseason. Is he OK with coaching the youngster from the bench, or will he want to try and start for another team?
Either way, it’s the end of an era as we know it, let’s hope that this kid can become an excellent player. At the very least we have something to look forward to for the rest of the year.
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