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Not looking to stir anything up, just going by what I see.
Early in camp, quarterbacks Joe Flacco and Mike White have looked better than Zach Wilson.
The operative word here is “early.” Wilson still has plenty of time before the season to work the kinks out.
Today’s practice ended with Wilson throwing a short pass to running Breece Hall, and it landed at his feet, and was incomplete.
They then blew the whistle ending practice.
Look, they might be on a tight schedule, and could not continue due to union rules, but in the old days, a coach might have yelled after this play, “Do it again!”
It certainly was a rough play to end a practice with. The quarterback has to think about that for 24 hours. I had an old basketball coach (I wasn’t very good), who always believed you should end basketball practice by making a shot. I guess it was a psychological thing.
But with the new CBA, time restrictions are so tight, maybe they had to wrap things up.
Perhaps Wilson’s best play today was where somebody on defense jumped offside, and Wilson was smart enough to take advantage of the free play, and rolled left and threw a rocket downfield to Elijah Moore.
This was a nice play, but too often Wilson’s best plays are on these broken plays, where it turns into street-yard ball, like the TD pass to Corey Davis against Tennessee last year.
These plays are great once in a while, but you can’t make a living doing this all the time in the NFL. You need to get most of your work done from the pocket, going through your progressions and throwing with anticipation.
So far in camp, and it’s early, Flacco and White have done a better job than Wilson going through their progressions and throwing with anticipation.
An example of a quality anticipation throw, was White hitting Denzel Mims on a deep out. The QB threw the ball when the receiver was hitting his break . . .
While the Jets have a “battle” between Sauce Gardner and Bryce Hall for the cornerback spot opposite D.J. Reed, early in camp, you get the sense, that there really isn’t a competition at safety, where Jordan Whitehead and LaMarcus Joyner are likely to start. The Jets had a lot of blown coverages last year on the back end, and they probably want to have two savvy instinctive veterans back there, for more consistency, and to settle things down . . .
One thing about training camp that always is an interesting dynamic is when one guy makes a really good play, somebody on the same team, facing him, might have had a rough play. So the brass can have mixed emotions about a given “great” play, because there is often a flipside.
Here is a perfect example: Rookie running back Zonovan Knight had nice run off right guard. On the play, tight end Lawrence Cager had a great block on rookie end Jermaine Johnson, locking him up and taking him to the ground.
That is wonderful news for the Jets on the Cager front. He’s a wide receiver the Jets are converting to tight end, so for him to show that kind of tenacity as a blocker at his new position is impressive.
But should a wide receiver in his first camp as a tight end, control the first-round end like that? That is probably not ideal.
Look it’s not a big deal, and Johnson will learn from it, and should be a good player for the Jets.
But just wanted to point out the dichotomy on so many plays in training camp – a great play for one Jet is often a rough play for another . . .
On December 23 last season, the Jets, who had suffered a lot of injuries at safety, signed journeyman Kai Nacua, who spent some time with Robert Saleh in San Francisco.
It looks like he’s been moved to linebacker. He’s wearing #46 now, and is working in linebacker drills. This is another example of a big safety being moved to linebacker by Saleh, like Hamsah Nasrildeen and Jamien Sherwood.
Speaking of safeties who moved to linebacker, Marcell Harris, who also played for Saleh in San Francisco, had two nice run stops on the one-yard line in a red zone drill today.
“I think Marcell, he brings an edge, a toughness,” said Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ublrich.
August 1, 2022
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