Content available exclusively for subscribers
Florham Park – It’s time for a heaping helping of Dan’s practice and locker room notes from bucolic Florham Park. A lot of interesting stuff going on. Let’s just into it . . .
It could be helpful for Mike Westhoff and the Jets’ personnel department that the Carolina Panthers are coming to the Meadowlands on Sunday.
Why?
The Panthers have a heated punting competition between veteran Nick Harris and sixth round draft pick Brad Nortman. A good punter is going to be released.
If T.J. Conley doesn’t get his act together, the Jets might need to go in another direction . . .
Josh Mauga has had a terrific summer, and has outplayed DeMario Davis.
And based on today’s practice, it looks like the defensive coaches have taken heed of this. Mauga was ahead of Davis in sub-defensive packages.
In fact, Mauga was with the starters, when the Jets came out with an alignment featuring three inside linebackers, Mauga, Bart Scott and David Harris.
In today’s practice, Mauga blitzed up the middle, and sacked the quarterback – I think it was Tim Tebow (sorry, I forget to write down in my notebook who the quarterback was.)
He also had a really nice PD on an out to TE Jeff Cumberland. Mauga has done a good job of covering tight ends throughout the summer.
Mauga is playing on a high level right now, and is another reason this Jets defense could be really special this year . . .
I asked Jordan White about his knee swelling up the other day. Remember, he has two surgical knees, so when you hear about a knee issue now, it raises a red flag.
He said it was a one day thing, and the next day he was fine . . .
We all have to remember that many of these Jets players are still attempting to get all the plays down in the team’s new offense.
Tony Sparano called out one player today for a blown assignment (a player who will make the team). Sparano said to the guy, “You looked like a deer in the headlights.” . . .
Nick Mangold is playing really, really well.
As Rex Ryan pointed out today, Mangold might have played his best game as a Jet against the Giants on Saturday.
In today’s practice, in the team part of practice, he paved the way for two nice runs early in the session.
First, he manhandled Kenrick Ellis, paving the way for a nice run by Joe McKnight off left guard.
Then, a few plays later, he took care of Ellis again, and John Connor ran behind him for a nice run up the middle . . .
Mike Tannenbaum must like CB Ryan Steed because he’s been on the sideline for close to week, and the GM hasn’t sent him packing with an injury settlement . . .
Jay Richardson continues to play “lights out” football.
If he doesn’t make the final roster, then they are full of you know what about the best players making the roster.
Richardson beat Austin Howard for a quarterback pressure.
Marcus Dixon also beat Howard for a pressure.
Howard is a terrific kid, but he’s too inconsistent, and really isn’t an upgrade over Wayne Hunter.
Hunter, even with his rough outing against the Giants, is better than Howard . . .
The health of Stephen Hill has to be a concern. He’s so competitive for the football, and such a great leaper, he’s constantly going up for balls down field, and coming down hard, like today, when he caught a deep ball, and came down on his back so hard, the ball popped out.
He also got his legs tangled with Revis (I could hear the players legs bang together), and came up limping. I’ve lost count of how many times he gotten up slow after plays this summer, after going up for a football, and coming down hard.
This kid is really tough, and goes after football like a man possessed, but this leads to a lot of collisions with other players, or hard landings on the turf.
August 20, 2012
(Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Tuesday.)