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It’s time for an edition of “News to me.” We get into a number of topics today that we consider newsy around the Jets. Let’s get into it . . .
The Jets have two “questionable” players on the injury report.
“Two players will be questionable for the game, Kenrick Ellis with his back and Santonio Holmes with his foot,’ Rex Ryan said. “Both those guys were limited today.”
I’d be shocked if Ellis plays.
He needs to get in better shape.
He’s a big guy who hasn’t done much the last three weeks, after hurting his back in the weight room.
He looked sluggish to me on Wednesday at practice.
He needs another week to get his sea legs underneath him.
I think he’s a long shot to play.
I think Holmes plays.
He seems to be at the point of his recovery where the foot is really not going to get much better. He’s going to have to deal with a little pain and find the right shoes, but the foot isn’t going to going to advance much further past this point . . .
How will the Jets deal with running back Doug Martin, one of the best running backs in football last year as a rookie?
“Like any good back you have to have more than one guy on him,” Ryan said. “He’s a guy who runs hard (and) runs through arm tackles, so we have to make sure that we have a lot of guys flying to the football, getting off blocks and don’t assume one guy has him on the ground. So, we just have to set our edges, we have to have a lot of guys on him, and like I said, don’t assume the guy is down because I’ve seen him run through some pretty good tacklers in this league.”
When it comes to this match-up, I think we need to keep a close eye on DeMario Davis.
Rex Ryan has talked him up quite a bit, but this player is still a major question mark.
There is no question he works hard. There is no question he has great speed for a linebacker. There is no question he’s strong. There is question he’s a good leader.
But keep a close eye on his instincts.
On David Wilson’s 84-yard touchdown run in the Giants-Jets game, Davis took an awful angle, leaving a big hole, and Wilson was off to the races.
Bart Scott was shaky in coverage, but very solid against the run. He was very good with his run fits.
Let’s see what Davis does on Sunday.
The jury is still out on his instincts.
Let’s see how he responds this Sunday against Martin . . .
Rex Ryan addressed the low media expectations for his team this year on “Mike and Mike.”
“There’s a lot of negative talk surrounding our football team, which I think is pretty comical,” Ryan told ESPN Radio hosts Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic. “People don’t know our team. Our team has had an incredible offseason. We know we have to improve a great deal as a team. With us, we’re not driven by one or two players. We’re going to be driven by the 53(-man roster).
“This team will play extremely hard. We’ll be ready to roll. We don’t believe the so-called experts who are picking us where they’re picking us. Well, we’ll see. We get to play on Sunday and I think everybody will see. And they’ll see if I’m any different or whatever.
“I think our team is going to be a heck of a lot better than people think.”
First of all, there is no way he can know, “our team is going to be a heck of a lot better than people think,” when he has no idea what he is going to get from the quarterback position. The NFL is a quarterback-driven league. It’s very hard to have a feel for what you team is going to do, when you don’t know what you have at quarterback position.
He says, “people don’t know our team.” I don’t think he knows his team yet.
How will Davis do? How will Dee Milliner do? How will Antonio Allen do? How will Vlad Ducasse do? How will Santonio Holmes play coming off a serious foot injury? Will Stephen Hill hands improve? And as I mentioned before, who knows what they will get from the all-important quarterback spot
I’m not saying the Jets are going to be bad, but I don’t think Rex knows his team, or any of us do.
Rex has no idea if the predictions are “comical.”
We will see what happens starting Sunday.
September 6, 2013
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