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Never a dull moment out here.
I have no idea who the Jets’ starting quarterback is going to be, but ESPN’s Rich Cimini has a strong feeling, and he got two players to help him out today.
“Rookie Sam Darnold, who started the past two preseason games, is the heavy favorite,” Cimini wrote today. “Two players told ESPN the expectation in the locker room is that Darnold will get the nod over incumbent Josh McCown and Teddy Bridgewater.”
Cimini quoted a player who told him, “You kind of know where the flow is going.”
Can you imagine players doing that in New England? No way.
So let me get this straight, the coach refuses to talk this way, but two players feel comfortable doing that?
That’s crazy man. These players need to stay in their lane. If the coach isn’t talking about it, neither should they. Just worry about your own job.
Maybe I was around Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick too much. I don’t like this kind of behavior. Maybe I’m old school.
Look, I saw the reporters talking to an offensive lineman for a long time. Maybe it was this player.
Hey, it’s great reporting if you can get two players to confide this in you.
And honestly, I think other reporters are feeling the pressure of competing with a reporter who had three stories last week that got national publicity – three scoops if you will –
*Jets interest in Khalil Mack.
*Jets interest in Dante Fowler.
*Jets talking to teams about Teddy Bridewater.
I can’t comment on the veracity of any of these stories, but they got a lot of attention for the reporter, who is a aficionado after garnering click-bait.
So I think the ESPN reporter probably felt he needed a scoop, and he delivered one today.
This stuff is very competitive.
But as a tweeted before, “Todd Bowles ripped Terrelle Pryor a new one for talking about an injury, so what will he do about two players talking to a reporter about how they think the QB decision is going to go? Which is worse, talking about an injury or talking about a personnel decision?”. . .
Speaking of Bowles.
The Jets signed quarterback John Wolford today.
It makes perfect sense, but Todd Bowles said they weren’t going to do it a couple of weeks ago.
They needed a fourth quarterback who can play some series on Thursday night in Philadelphia.
“We were thinking about practice squad,” Bowles said today about the signing of Wolford, a former Wake Forest star. “We wanted to see if he can learn the system a little bit, so we brought in a guy a week early because we had an extra spot to use.”
This might have been spin.
Because a couple of weeks ago Bowles said they weren’t going to sign another quarterback for the fourth preseason game.
They certainly need a fourth quarterback for their game in Philly on Thursday, because they can’t risk injury to any of their first three quarterbacks – Sam Darnold, Josh McCown or Teddy Bridgewater.
All of them are starting candidates, but also, in the case of Bridgewater, they might trade him, so they can’t risk injury in a meaningless fourth preseason game.
So they need Wolford to go out there and play several series on Thursday.
That’s a no-brainer.
Not sure this was truly a move with the practice squad in mind.
August 26, 2018
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