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Florham Park – A heaping helping of Wednesday Whispers . . .
Adam Gase totally downplayed the impact Davis Webb can have as a spy. The former Jets QB is now on the Buffalo Bills’ practice squad.
“I’m pretty sure [the Bills] got enough as it is,” Gase said. “I don’t feel like they’ve really had too many problems with us in the past. We’ve had some close games, but I don’t think Sean needs a whole bunch of help. We’ve played them a lot. When you’re in a division and you go against each other four times over two years, you play New England and gone against Coach (Bill) Belichick like 14 times or something, they’ve seen majority of the things that you can do.”
I respectfully disagree. I understand why the coach would downplay it publicly, but it’s far from ideal.
If Webb couldn’t help the Bills, they wouldn’t have signed him to their practice squad. He was brought in for intel, there is no doubt about it.
He can not only give the Buffalo coaches great insight on Adam Gase’s playbook, but also on Gregg Williams. Throughout the spring and summer, Webb quarterbacked against Williams defense a ton in practice. Webb can give Josh Allen insight on the tendencies of the Jets’ defensive backs. He also was in QB meetings the last two years with Darnold, first under Jeremy Bates, and then under Adam Gase. He has seen Darnold’s game dissected to the nth degree by his coaches in QB meetings. He has a lot insight on what the Jets coaches thought of his strengths and weaknesses.
I’m not saying this will decide Sunday’s Jets-Bills game, but it’s a factor.
Remember in the last Super Bowl, it was Brian Hoyer’s insight into Sean McVay’s offense after playing in it, that helped the Patriots win the game. This has been well-documented.
Webb will help the Bills, there is no doubt about it . . .
The new Jets kicker Kaare Vedvick met with the media today. A couple of observations. First off, he’s big guy, a powerfully built athlete. Also, he comes across as a very, very confident guy, which obviously is very helpful at that position . . .
Not sure Kyron Brown, who is now on the practice squad, is 100 percent. He suffered a pretty significant hamstring injury in the preseason, and had a full medical sleeve on his left leg in practice today. Remember, he was held out of the fourth preseason game, even though he was on the bubble, because Gase decided to be cautious. Clearly, the Jets knew he was in their plans, with the practice squad a strong possibility.
Cornerback Arthur Maulet made the roster as the fifth corner, but my gut told me, watching this summer, that Brown probably would have grabbed that spot if he was healthy.
So Brown can work on the practice squad, get back to 100 percent, and very well could be called up in the near future.
The Jets really like this kid – he’s smart, instinctive and does a nice job of jumping routes . . .
It is going to be fascinating to see how Le’Veon Bell does in his first game in 19 months with no preseason action. The last time he played in a tackle football was in the Pro Bowl in January of 2018.
People who claim that he got the work he needed in practice are being a little pollyanna. I was at every practice this summer except one, and I can assure you that that very few hits out there were game-level, and he was almost never taken to the ground.
I’m not saying he won’t have a good game on Sunday. I have no idea, but if you think these practice hits prepared for a real game, I have some good swamp land to sell you.
Aside from the need for him to take real hits to get in a groove, former NFL RB LaDainian Tomlinson thinks it’s going to take a month or so for him to truly get used to his new offensive line.
September 4, 2019
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