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Football fever is in the air with the NFL and NFLPA getting close on a new CBA. So let’s dive right into Dan’s Jets Notebook. Enjoy . . .
If the NFL doesn’t miss any games, the furloughed Jets employees will get their money back.
And the way the talks are progressing, it looks like no games are going to be missed.
Remember, all the Jets business side employees, starting in March, have been forced to take one non-paid week off each month during the lockout.
It’s unclear what the timetable will be to pay the money back.
It will likely be paid back incrementally in each paycheck, not all at once.
However, the Jets won’t have to payback 100 percent of the furloughed money, and here is why –
The furloughed workers qualified for unemployment insurance, and in many cases got up to half of their scheduled salary.
So there won’t be any double-dipping here.
The furloughed employees will get the money back that was NOT covered by unemployment insurance . . .
If the talks are wrapped up by July 21, which is the guesstimate by most experts, expect Jets training camp to start the last day of July or the first day of August . . .
While the Jets brass has made it clear that Shonn Greene is going to carry the ball more than LaDainian Tomlinson this year, the lockout could made the differential not as significant as you think.
Why?
Greene is very inconsistent in pass protection and blitz pickup, and got no work on this during the lockout.
LT is a much better blocker than Greene, and on a few occasions last year, Tomlinson saved Mark Sanchez from some big hits with some terrific blitz pickup, often at the last second.
Greene has improved as blocker since arriving in Green Land, after arriving with almost no blocking experience. He’s improved a great deal, but still has a long way to go.
You can’t minimize the importance of blocking for NFL starting tailbacks. It’s huge, and one of the reasons why a lot of young backs don’t get on the field for a while . . .
Speaking of protecting Mark Sanchez, reading the tea leaves, you definitely get the sense that the Jets are going to bring back Damien Woody.
As we have mentioned here many times, while Vlad Ducasse is an outstanding prospect, he really needed a ton of work with Bill Callahan this off-season to get up to speed on playing right tackle in the NFL, and he didn’t get it.
While Ducasse got in great shape this off-season working out in Martinsville, NJ with some outstanding trainers (much less baby fat), he also needed to be a lot of tutoring from Callahan, and he didn’t get it.
Woody really wants to return to the Jets.
He still lives in New Jersey. He has six kids, and doesn’t want to move his family.
Woody will definitely be reasonable with the Jets. And let’s be honest, he’s coming off an Achilles injury, and he’s still making his way to 100 percent, so the market for him might be limited.
Mark Sanchez joked with Woody on twitter recently that he might hire him as “a body guard.”
That might end up coming true – he could be his right tackle “body guard” once again.