Content available exclusively for subscribers
Thursday Jets Whispers . . .
George Fant was hobbling around a little today during the media part of practice. He’s wearing a knee brace. Jets need to keep their fingers crossed on this one. They can’t afford to lose him after already losing Mekhi Becton and Duane Brown . . .
I know it was only positional drills, but based on Jordan Whitehead being described as “definitely questionable” yesterday, didn’t expect to see him out there participating, but he was in full uniform running around.
Don’t know what happened during the team part of practice, the 11-on-11 scrimmage if you will, because we can’t watch that, but the fact that he was out there participating in full uniform in individual drills, certainly gives the Jets some hope for Sunday . . .
I might have over-hyped Joe Flacco a little coming out of the summer.
He had a very good camp doing a nice job distributing the ball to the receivers and still showing very good arm strength.
Where I messed up was not factoring in the mobility factor. In camp, you can’t sack or touch the quarterback, so guys pull up and the QB can still complete certain passes that might not happen in a real football game.
What was apparent on Sunday is that he has a hard time creating extra time in the pocket when under pressure, and this has nothing to do with scrambling. It’s the foot quickness to avoid the rushers for a few seconds, dancing around in the pocket, to allow you to still get off a throw when under pressure. That is tough for him now at 37.
So that is where I did a poor job with my evaluation. He threw the ball beautifully this summer, but in more of a flag or touch football setting . . .
While there are no moral victories, and the bottom line is they lost a very winnable game, you could see that the Jets’ defense is certainly a little better this year.
Free agent addition cornerback D.J. Reed had a spectacular leaping pick, and first-round cornerback Sauce Gardner did a nice job on tight end Mark Andrews including a terrific PD on a deep pass on the goal line. Also first-round defensive end Jermaine Johnson showed a nice burst off the edge in beating veteran right tackle, Morgan Moses, a former Jet, for a sack.
And the run defense had a solid day.
Solomon Thomas, who was on some excellent San Francisco defenses, thinks this defense can be real good.