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Florham Park – A lot to get into from One Jets Drive, including notes on Hunter-Howard, Josh Baker, Royce Pollard, Yeremiah Bell and Tim Tebow . . .
You know what is strange about the Austin Howard situation.
He might not even make the team.
If the Jets acquire another right tackle in a trade or in free agency, Howard might end up off the team or back on the practice squad.
Think about it. Wayne Hunter isn’t going anywhere. He’s guaranteed $2.5 million this season, so he will be the backup swing tackle.
So if the Jets bring in another right tackle, it’s unlikely they will keep Howard on the regular roster because Hunter will be the swing tackle, and they are already are keeping Vlad Ducasse and Caleb Schauderaff. They aren’t going to keep more than eight offensive linemen . . .
As a wedge-blocker on a kick return, Josh Baker crushed Royce Pollard, and the TE/FB collapsed to the turf. He suffered a neck stinger, and lost feeling in his right arm for a bit.
Even with the new rules regarding kickoffs, with no three-men wedges, and more touchbacks, kickoff returns are still really dangerous plays.
Don’t be shocked if the NFL, with the major concussion issues they are dealing with, bans the kickoff in the near future . . .
Josh Mauga had two more nice plays in pass defense.
First, he broke up a pass over the middle to TE Dedrick Epps.
Sparano wasn’t happy with Tim Tebow on this play.
“Don’t throw it that way,” the coach yelled.
A big issue for Tebow throughout the summer has been delivering passes late. He needs to get rid of the ball faster.
Getting back to Mauga, he also had a PD on an out to WR Wes Kemp.
This guy has improved so much in coverage. If he had shown this last year, the Jets probably wouldn’t have picked DeMario Davis to help their coverage at linebacker, and could have grabbed a right tackle in the third round (and it was a good third round for right tackles) . . .
“Guge” instructed Howard to not lower his head when blocking somebody . . .
The Jets have a terrific group of blitzing defensive backs this year.
Yeremiah Bell used a 360-spin move to get by Shonn Greene to sack the quarterback. Bell also had another QB pressure on a blitz that forced Mark Sanchez to throw the ball away.
Antonio Allen made a great move to get by Epps to sack Sanchez.
LaRon Landry is also a good blitzer, and the Jets are sending Isaiah Trufant a lot, and he’s very good at getting under blockers to get to the quarterback.
With Rex back running the defense, expect to see the blitzing turned up a notch this year . . .
Bart Scott has some kind of right elbow issue, but it shouldn’t impact his availability . . .
Pollard beat Bell and Josh Bush on a post down the deep middle.
Pollard has probably locked up a spot on the practice squad.
I have to be honest, I have not seen a lot of plays from Bush this summer.
He’s a major work-in-progress . . .
August 23, 2012
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