By Tom Rock
Just got back from the locker room and will be heading out to practice in a few minutes. It was the last locker room access we’ll have to the players until Saturday or Sunday. Or maybe even Monday. So we reporters tried to fill our notebooks as best we can. At one point an alarm started blaring. Yesterday Pennington said no one is pushing the panic button. Today, it sounded like maybe someone did.
The stars of the locker room were the quarterbacks: Tuiasosopo, Smith and Clemens. It’s pretty clear that Pennington won’t be getting much playing time on Thursday and Clemens has become a known commodity through three solid preseason games. That leaves Tui, Smith and rookie Brett Ratliff to take the bulk of snaps against the Eagles (though Mangini wouldn’t confirm any of it, pure speculation). Tui will be the Jets third quarterback, but the question is whether they will keep three “traditional” QBs or go with Smith as the third-stringer without the active roster designation. Decisions will be made after Thursday’s game, most likely.
The Ravens released G Keydrick Vincent. Hmm. Anyone know a team in need of a starting-quality guard? Vincent is 29 and was due to earn $1.6 million. If the Jets brought him in at that rate, they’d not only have a replacement for Pete Kendall, but would save themselves $100,000 as Kendall was due to make $1.7. I’d be willing to take the hundred large off their hands as a finder’s fee if the Jets are interested. Vincent played RG in Baltimore.
Oh, and Mangini addressed the fact that Curtis Martin still has a locker in the Jets facility. The reason was pretty simple.
“Because he’s Curtis,” Mangini said. “He’ll always have a locker in Jets fans’ hearts.”
Sappy. But true.
Comments (2)
funny... I was gonna ask about the Ravens specifically... They had a guy at the Jets-Giants game... after drafting Ben Grubbs in the 1st round they had to eventually drop someone...
Obvious moves like this rarely seem to come to fruition. I'll predict he signs elsewhere.