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This feature includes notes on Mark Sanchez, the 4-3 defense, the safety battle, Vlad Ducasse’s learning curve, Donovan Warren, Kellen Clemens and so much more . . .
Sanchez doesn’t seem to be favoring his surgical knee at all, whether he’s stretching or cutting on it . . .
Former Jets OT Siupeli Malamala was in attendance at Thursday’s practice . . .
The Jets like to play the 4-3 defense at times, and when they do, the current line consists of Shaun Ellis and Bryan Thomas at end with Sione Pouha and Mike DeVito at defensive tackle. This is a very good run stopping unit . . .
Antonio Cromartie makes one-handed grabs with regularity in drills. This guy really is a freakish athlete . . .
In some drills, James Ihedigbo was starting ahead of Brodney Pool at safety. “Dig” knows the system and Pool is still learning it. Ultimately, the Jets want Pool starting with Leonhard. Of the trio of Ihedigbo, Eric Smith and Pool, the latter is the top athlete with the best range . . .
Shonn Greene had a bad drop on a swing pass. While his hands have improved significantly over the last year, he still has some work to do . . .
Rookie free agent cornerback Brian Jackson is still dealing with a hamstring issue. While he did participate a little in practice on Thursday, his left hamstring is still heavily wrapped. He’s an underrated prospect. It’s not that easy to make First Team All-Big 12, and he did that last year . . .
Vlad Ducasse continues to struggle in blitz pickup, which is understandable because he’s only been playing guard since late April. He was late coming over to pick up Eric Smith on a blitz up the middle and the safety likely would have had a “sack” on the play. Since there is no tackling, it’s hard to give anybody a sack, but Ducasse was clearly beat on the play.
The guess here is that Rex is having defensive coordinator Mike Pettine send a lot of blitzes at Ducasse to help his learning curve. Ducasse is a quick learner, so the more you test him now, the better he will be once the season starts . . .
Donovan Warren had a nice “stop” on a run up the middle by Greene. It would have been just a short gain if Warren had brought the runner down (which doesn’t happen in these camps). But the question is, at 195 pounds, would Warren be able to bring the 230-pound Greene down one-on-one. Warren has the potential to be a very good safety, but he needs to get bigger and stronger to truly thrive in the role.
But on this play and also a “sack” on a blitz up the middle, you can see the impressive potential of Warren . . .
Marquice Cole had a nice PD over the middle on a Sanchez pass to Braylon Edwards. To this day I still don’t know why Cole didn’t play more in the secondary last year. I think it was a mistake . . .
Reserve center Robbie Felix had a nice block on newcomer Simi Toeaina, and this opened up a big hole up the middle for Joe McKnight to run through . . .
The Jets called a deep pass down the right sidelines to Brad Smith and he couldn’t run under it. Smith is clearly a valuable all-purpose player, but I’ve never seen the burst to run under deep balls . . .
Dwight Lowery had one of the better plays of the practice. There was a screen on the left side thrown to Brad Smith and Lowery was right there to make the “stop” as soon as the wide receiver caught the ball. Lowery was starting for Darrelle Revis who held out of practice due to a contract dispute . . .
Longsnapper Travis Purdam had a couple of high snaps on punts . . .
While I don’t think it’s particularly fair for the Jets to make Kellen Clemens workout and practice the entire off-season when he might be replaced any day by Mark Brunell, #11 isn’t helping himself. He looked shaky in the red zone on Thursday, including throwing a pick to Pool.
Clemens is a heck of a guy and a very hard worker but he’s just too inconsistent.
