By Tom Rock
Just finished talking with the team and figured I’d drop a few soundbites. In general, the players were sad to see Pete go but happy for him that he apparently got what he was looking for.
From Nick Mangold, the Jets center who is Harry Potter to Kendall’s Dumbledore: “One of the greatest things about Pete is that he is a teacher and he helps with a whole bunch of guys. It’ll be tough not having that kind of teacher around, but now it gives us a chance for one of us to step up and take on that role of helping out the younger guys and moving forward with our offensive line.”
From Chad Pennington: “It’s the business side of the NFL. Things like this always happen. The only thing I hope is that it works out for him and he feels good about the whole situation and everyone can move on … Pete did an excellent job last year. We had a relatively young group with two rookies starting, and he along with Brandon Moore and Anthony Clement did a great job of leading those guys. But we all know the NFL is about change, there’s constant change. Everytime you look or read or hear something there’s change going on and this is part of it.”
From Brandon Moore: “I took a lot of things from him. He came to this team when I was just becoming a starter and I took a lot from him. Just watching him go about his business and being a pro and learning how to approach every week, that’s what I’ll take from Pete.”
From Wade Smith, a candidate to play at left guard: “Shocked wouldn’t be the word for it. It’s a situation that’s been going on for a while. Something was going to happen one way or the other. We just have to move on.”
Comments (4)
Dumb... just plain dumb. It's looking like Mangenius's true colors show through as the typical tyrant Coach that despises players who question his methods. As Pete found out, a fantastic Veteran player who was not afraid to help out others, give advice and 'raise' the rookies simply means nothing to this Coach. They will miss him and so will we. I can't imagine us filling the gap in the O-line with anyone on the current roster.
We may have won on the Jones deal, but this one just kills all the positives and adds more negatives than we need. Noodle Arm I'm sure will 'feel' Kendall's loss more than anyone else.
Now we NEED to put in Clemens, or Smith as our QB will need to scramble a lot, and Noodle doesn't do that.
Nice move Eric, take care of the good players by tossing them out. Sure hope you have this one figured out.
wrong wrong wrong... Kendall is a great guard, but he didn't exactly go to the pro bowl last season. He was a disruption to the team and it all started because of some of the ridiculous contracts that were given out during the last free agency.
I'd rather have people who want to be on the team and part of 1 unit rather than someone who acts like a child and stands alone away from his teammates during practice. If that comes in the form of a future draft pick, so be it. And besides, i'm sure there will be 1 or 2 Kendall caliber guards available in the next 2 weeks w/ all the cuts. There are some expensive new rookies and 2nd year players that are being paid too much for the vets to keep playing.
DOES any of this make sense?
3 reasons to get rid of Pete.
1- Team policy?
2- Better player on roster.
3- more value by making the trade?
They vastly overpaid Coles, the RB from KC last year etc etc. A million doesn't seem like alot to keep the offensive line intact.
4-not worth the money ?
Team's shouldn't agree to behind the scene deals when they aren't going to pony up. That's the moral to the Kendall story, and Bender did a great impersonation of a toll bridge gate against the Jints last night. The only problem is he wasn't charging a toll. If this is the Jets answer along the O line, better get Chad some heavy duty health insurance. Hard to beleive that Kendall was that solid, guess he was. Certainly must have been a wake up call for Man-genius! The waiver wire is going to be burning, looking for someone worth a 4th rounder that can play, probably going to be tough. The Redskins are starting to look like geniuses in this deal.