Eric Smith To Crack the Lineup?
After a number of weeks in recovering from his concussions, Eric Smith has been again cleared to play, and has taken, according to Mangini “even more reps this week.” An indication of the team working Smith into the scheme for the week.
Smith might be activated and play in some pass packages, but with 12 defensive backs a lot could depend on who’s practicing well that week.
13 Responses to Eric Smith To Crack the Lineup?
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Scott says:
12 DB’s and only one really good one. Ok, maybe Rhodes is ok, but not lately. Not really his fault tho, right?
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Mel31602 says:
Had New Orleans resigned linebacker Jonathan Vilma to a long-term contract extension this season, or even shortly thereafter, two New York teams would have benefited.
First, the conditional fourth-round pick the Saints traded to the Jets for Vilma would have become a second-round pick.
And if that Vilma trade with the Jets had involved a second-round pick, then the Saints would have been forced to compensate the New York Giants with a first-round pick for tight end Jeremy Shockey.
But New Orleans can exhale. The Saints did not re-sign Vilma, and will not attempt to do so until he becomes a free agent, thus the value the Jets and Giants receive now can be determined.
The conditional fourth-round pick the Saints traded to the Jets for Vilma will become a third-round pick in 2009. The Jets used the Saints fourth-round pick in 2008, but they will have to return a fourth-round pick to New Orleans this April.
And while the Jets get the Saints third-round pick, the Giants will get New Orleans’ second-round pick for Shockey.
So the Saints now are scheduled to have their first-round pick, and two fourth-round picks, with no second- or third-round picks.
Via NFL.com
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nyckage says:
Mel31602
I really hate all this conditional trades, it just make things confusing and teams can find ways around it, and we basically got ripped off with the Vilma trade, and the robertson trade , Denver got ripped off because I would have given them a 4th Rd pick just to take his ass away from us.
Anyway this thing i about Eric Smith, right now I’m open to anything , I don’t care what it is, if that doesn’t work out let’s put David Harris t the QB spot let Favre be the Kicker and big Jenks will play the WR spot, I know it’s to early to hit the panic button but just for fun, how chaotic would it be for us if we lose this game
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Dean Barbella says:
Eric Smith stays and Justin Miller goes – Really?!
Since that awesome decision, Justin has returned his fourth career kickoff return for a touch down and Smitty’s catching splinters on the bench – dumb!
I’ve got nothing against him and even love the way he saved a touch down reception covering Bouldin in Arizona game… it’s just that we should have been using Miller’s All-Star tallent towards kickoffs all season.
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nyckage-
I usually like conditional trades since they are fair for all sides but one like this where the Saints can just save themselves a good pick by re-signing Vilma later in the off-season seems unfair for the Jets. -
are-tee says:
“it’s just that we should have been using Miller’s All-Star tallent towards kickoffs all season.”
I don’t know, but I thought this Leon guy is already pretty good at it.
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NickyLibs says:
Agreed, all we could of used Miller for is an extra DB. Miller, most of the time, was the fastest guy on the field and would get burned everytime a decent receiver lined up against him. The coverage in the secondary is aweful (excluding Revis), but I’d rather have a receiver catch the ball 5 yards in front of our guy, than 5 yards behind him.Plus we already have an allstar return man in Leon Washington.
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hank/naples says:
I love smith and his commitment, but, he’s always too late!!
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It cant hurt….Like I suspected Elam is like a backup SS in baseball…put him in for a few games and hes pretty good after that he gets totally exposed
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swizzle81 says:
Um this is good news, Smith is awful and shouldn’t be anything more than a special teamer.
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are-tee and NickyLibs,
Leon should be a Westbrook-like All-Pro runningback, not returning kicks.
Who is our third string running back?
If we’re gonna expose Leon to injury, then we should have kept Miller too. This way kickers would have to choose who to kick to.
Keeping Smith over Miller is just plain stupid. Must have been something more to the decision – I mean besides his last year of his contract and his DB ability.
Rather, something like Character. Dunnoh?
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Bent says: Maybe Leon will be that one day but he is not yet.
Anyway, as I pointed out at the time, the reason it was Miller that went was three-fold. One – financial. Two – because he was likely to be claimed on waivers for his return ability and therefore couldn’t be picked up for Patspionage. Three – He is absolutely terrible in coverage…our biggest weakness, so there was no hope whatsoever of him seeing the field.
Eric Smith has had a rough year, but he’s not worse than Justin Miller. And, as you say, character was an issue too. Plus it doesn’t make the Jets organization look great to dump a guy who is dealing with concussion issues.
The third string running back in an emergency would have been Brad Smith and then if the injury was going to continue, they’d pick another back up. You do raise an interesting point though – what if TJ or Leon were hurt this week (assuming Brad can’t play)? The other would get a huge workload.
I’m sure Eric Smith is the cure to all the problems in pass coverage. He’s proven to be very effective back there.
Just to be safe though, maybe we can petition the league to allow the Jets to have 12 men on the field for defense. We could sure use the extra help in the secondary.
If that doesn’t work, don’t pass rush anyone, just go with 11 dbacks. That might enable the Jets to hold Lossman to under 350 yard passing.