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The addition of Brodney Pool could be very significant for the Jets this year. Dan Leberfeld looks back at his spring and forward to what he might be able to do for the Jets this year . . .
Q)How is Brodney Pool progressing?
Rex Ryan: No doubt (he is showing me what I had hoped to see). You’ll look at tape and it’s clear that this guy is a good football player. Somebody who spent a great deal of time with him was my brother (Rob Ryan) and he thought this guy was a heck of a football player. He told me the same thing once about Fabian Washington who played great for us in Baltimore. He knows what we’re looking for. He knows Brodney is our kind of guy. Now, obviously there are differences of opinion and medical reports, but he has been fine that way.
Leberfeld: He is a very athletic safety. He’s the kind of guy you can put on some receivers, and not worry about putting a safety on a wideout, which is often a mismatch. I think he fell below the radar in Cleveland a little because he was on so many bad teams. People kind of forgot about him, but he’s definitely a talent. He was a stud at Oklahoma.
The big question is obviously the slew of head injuries he had in Cleveland. I hear the Browns thought it was too risky for him to keep playing. The Jets have a different opinion. The Jets and Pool feel some of the head injuries that were called concussions in Cleveland were actually migraines. I’m not a doctor, and I know this stuff is pretty complex, but you would think in 2010, neurologists would know the difference between concussions and migraines.
The bottom line is this – if he stays healthy, he could turn out to be one of the true steals of free agency, not just from a talent standpoint, but also financially. He signed a one-year deal for $1.3 million.
Q)How is Pool doing picking up the defense?
Ryan: (I’m) very excited about him. I love the fact that he embraces his teammates. He’s going to learn from (Darrelle) Revis, from Jim Leonhard, from Eric Smith, from all those guys. I don’t know if he’s the number one student, but he’s in the top five students of Dennis Thurman’s group over there. There are a lot of guys that really want to learn.
Leberfeld: Is it just me, or do you get the sense that so many of these answers about Pool are a shot at Kerry Rhodes.
Rex, Mike Pettine and Thurman have roughed up Rhodes pretty good since his departure. Pettine and Thurman have done it on the record, while Rex has done it more with insinuations.
First off, let me make one thing perfectly clear. I’m not friends with Kerry. I’m not friends with any players. I don’t operate that way. Unfortunately too many reporters do, and it clouds their judgement. I don’t have Kerry’s cell phone number. He’s not giving me stuff.
Kerry didn’t have a good year last season. There is no way around that.
But before we talk about how well Pool is picking up the defense, let’s see what he does when the real games start. Let’s not make him into Bill Gates just yet.
That isn’t to say he won’t do great mentally.
But to say how well he’s picking things up right now is a little premature.
He had a number of mental mistakes in the spring. That’s not a big deal though. The spring is to work out the kinks. If it happens in September, then it’s a problem.
(This format of Rex’s answers being analyzed by Dan is a popular feature in the magazine, but what you just read wasn’t a reprint from the print publication.)
