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Piscataway – A few nuggets from the Jets’ scrimmage at Rutgers . . .
Tight end Jordan Leggett sat out the Jets scrimmage. He had a medical sleeve on his right leg.
Remember he had a right knee injury last year. He tried to come back from it last year and couldn’t, and now he’s out again.
Here is the deal. He was a fifth-round pick last year. Chris Herndon, Neal Sterling, Eric Tomlinson and Clive Walford are all having good camps. If you have to move on, you move on. Look, I’m not saying they should cut Leggett. It’s too early to say that. But if this injury issues continue, and the other four guys continues to play well, Mike Maccagnan has to have the gumption to move on and not worry about his draft record. Releasing a fifth-round pick in his second year isn’t a big deal. Look, I’m not saying they should do it, just making a point about how the GM must not worry about his draft record anymore . . .
By the way, Herndon was the star of the scrimmage. He was superb – consistently getting open and catching everything thrown to him. It looks like Mr. Coffee got a fourth-round steal, though he might get suspended at some point for a DUI . . .
How did Sam Darnold look tonight in the scrimmage?
He was solid. Not great, but solid.
And it was clear to me what Jeremy Bates was doing with him. It’s something football people call, “Confidence building play-calling.”
When you have a young quarterback, you want to get him in a groove and have him feel good about himself, especially early in his career. Bates called a ton of bootlegs to the right side. Bootlegs to the right side are dream calls for right-handed quarterbacks. It gets them away from the pocket pressure and allows them to make half-field reads, instead of full-page reads.
It seemed like half of Darnold’s plays with bootlegs to the right side.
Good move by Bates, especially this early in Darnold’s development . . .
Darnold was the victim of a strip sack in the pocket, so he still needs some work on keeping two hands on the ball in the pocket, which was an issue for him in college . . .
When the Jets’ starting defense took the field for the actual scrimmage part of the practice – which was the second half of the event (the first half was practice drills), their starting outside linebackers were Brandon Copeland and Frankie Luvu.
This might have surprised some people. The Jets’ regular starters in camp have been Jordan Jenkins and Josh Martin, so this move at Rutgers Stadium kind of came out of the blue.
But you know what, Jenkins and Martin haven’t been getting much pressure on the quarterback the first week of camp, so why not try something different?
Copeland and Luvu didn’t light it up tonight, but I have to say, I really like Copeland. He’s explosive, with a lot of spring in his legs, and plays with great hand technique. Keep an eye on this guy. I think Luvu is more of a practice squad candidate . . .
August 4, 2018
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