E-Boland & Gang Green

The Jets final training camp at Hofstra University begins July 16 with rookie orientation Quarterbacks and injured veterans report July 20, with the rest of the veterans reporting July 23. The first practice open to the public is July 24. Practice times for that first week, officially confirmed by the team this afternoon:

7/24 8:45 a.m. and 5:45 p.m.
7/25 1:30 p.m.
7/26 8:45 a.m. and 5:45 p.m.
7/27 1:30 p.m.
7/28 8:45 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. (Closed to Public)
7/29 8:45 a.m. and 5:45 p.m.
7/30 1:30 p.m.

A couple of good stories the last two days from one of our news reporters, Michelle Trauring, on D'Brickashaw Ferguson distributing a total of $30,000 in scholarships this spring to financially struggling students across five Long Island school districts. Last night Ferguson was on hand at Freeport High School, his alma mater, to give out a combined $10,000 in scholarships to four students. Trauring covered last night's event, with that story appearing today, and on Saturday she wrote an excellent background piece on the first-year scholarship program, which is part of the D'Brickashaw Ferguson Foundation (dbrickashawfergusonfoundation.org),established by the tackle in 2007.

I talked to Ferguson on Thursday about his foundation - its slogan is "Building Communities One Brick At a Time" - and it was clear he is as passionate about that as anything in his life. And, he made clear, it's important for him to be as involved as possible, lending not only his name but his time.

I talked to Ferguson about his off-the-field activities Thursday but also collected some things that I'll be writing about during training camp. I have said here that I thought Ferguson, during the OTAs, looked stronger in his upper body than he did last season - not to mention very motivated - and he confirmed it.

"I've been working out for a while and it's really paying off," Ferguson said. "Yeah, I'm bigger. I've made some strides in the weight room, set some personal records for myself. I'm really trying to do my part."

To no one's surprise, the Giants announced today they will be using Personal Screw Licenses to help fund the new stadium. The Jets, as we've discussed, have not yet made the call on PSLs, though last week's survey sent out to season ticket holders suggests that announcement is imminent. I continue, at no charge, suggest Woody Johnson take this approach to PSLs.

My favorite parts of the Giants announcement are the respective comments of co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch. Both sounded almost apologetic for the decision.

"It’s both an emotional and complicated process to establish the price structure in a new building that has an evolving manifest,” Tisch said.

Nothing like a little "I feel your pain" insincerity by multi-millionaires. But more important, when Tisch strings together the words, "in a new building that has an evolving manifest," he sounds like a lawyer with no case trying to confuse the jury with impressive-sounding, yet meaningless, terms and phrases. In this corner you have the Jets comparing PSLs to "taxi medallions", and in the opposite corner the Giants are babbling about a building's "evolving manifest." Sounds like the building has some kind of bizarre personal problem.

Last chance, Mr. Johnson, to boldly go where too few NFL owners have gone and say no to this heist.

Maybe you did, but I didn’t. And neither did Jets PR standouts Bruce Speight or David Tratner.

But there was Gholston earlier today on the Eisenhower Park driving range launching – and sometimes not launching – golf balls off his driver, Phil Mickelson-like, meaning left-handed.

“We got a lot of talent,” Gholston said of southpaws. “We can do anything.”

[NOTE: It is June. It’s either this or absolutely zero blog updates or, worse, another LENGTHY letter to Woody Johnson and I don’t think anyone, least of all Cliff or Bryan or Woody - the man himself - wants to slog through that. And yes, this means I spent another day at a golf course. Oh, and Randy Lange, of newyorkjets.com did mention Gholston was left-handed in a late April story I just now came across. Figures. The man is other-worldly when it comes to NFL/Jets trivia].

So anyway, Gholston, along with the rest of the Jets rookie class with some veterans sprinkled in, were at Eisenhower taking part in a golf clinic – to show athletes the value of golf – conducted by area Met PGA assistant professionals. One of them, Jamie Kilmer from Meadow Brook Club, said, in so many words, the players took to coaching better than most people. Even those players with little golf experience, which was most of the players.

“They understand the coach/student relationship so they do exactly what you tell them,” Kilmer said. “And then there’s just their natural athletic talent. If you just start them in the right spot, they figure it out from there.”

Dustin Keller seemed to, after taking just a handful of pointers on posture and stance, ripping some 200-plus yarders that had some nice right-to-left movement. He also, of course, produced some shots with very little movement and even less distance, but no one is perfect, particularly when it comes to golf, which nonetheless has proven over the years to be an addiction for athletes, including Erik Ainge. Ainge, with his 14 handicap, is one of the better golfers on the Jets. Eric Smith, also there today, is also pretty good.

“I love golf,” Ainge said. “I play as much as I can play.”

[An aside: yes, while Jets players cannot discuss injuries, you can probably conclude from Ainge being at the golf course that he'll be ok for training camp].

Center Nick Mangold is among the veterans still on Long Island. Many have departed for what amounts to a brief summer vacation before training camp starts in late July, but, “I heard ‘golf’ and I was like, ‘sign me up,’” Mangold said. “I heard golf and figured I’d come running.”

And speaking of running, I asked Mangold how much he and the rest of the offensive line had improved this offseason. [For the record, my transition to ask Mangold football questions wasn’t that awful or cornball. Bad, just not that bad].

“It was great to be able to pick the brains of those two guys,” Mangold said of two veterans – Damien Woody and Alan Faneca – the Jets acquired and with whom Mangold got to work with for the first time during OTAs and minicamp. “They bring in different experiences, different viewpoints.”

Mangold was particularly effusive in talking about new assistant Bill Callahan, who has been working extensively with the line.

“It’s exciting being able to work with him and get a feel of what are things to come,” Mangold said. “He brings different viewpoints to existing techniques that guys do, but he also brings a new sense of ways to do things and gives you, really, another tool in your toolbox that you can bring out and use effectively throughout the year.”

I’ll repeat what I’ve said here before and it’s been reinforced after talking with some of the O-linemen this offseason: I think getting Callahan is going to, by year’s end, rank as one of the Jets best offseason moves.

Jets season ticket holders, and those on the waiting list to get season tickets, spent the weekend mulling – and seething - over the recent PSL survey the Jets sent out. The surveys were received, to understate it a bit, negatively.

Woody Johnson could make it better with a follow-up letter/email such as this:

"Dear Jets season ticket holders,

It is after careful consideration, of both my bank account and yours, that I have decided that this franchise will NOT use PSLs to help finance the new stadium.

I reached this decision not to curry favor with you but simply because there’s always been something kind of untoward about this whole PSL business. It’s time an NFL owner stood up and said, “no.”

I’m sure just about every season ticket holder was concerned recently when we sent out a survey that said, among other things, “The Jets have taken a substantial amount of debt to finance the construction of the new $1.3 billion stadium. Like other teams that have built stadiums in the recent past, the Jets are required to pay back this construction debt quickly. The Jets are surveying different types and terms of Personal Seat Licenses (PSLs) as one of the ways to help achieve this requirement.”

The point has been made elsewhere that this stadium is being funded entirely via private means and the implication of the above passage is because of that, the public should share some of the costs for this private enterprise. If I was a fan and I read that, my response would be this:

So if we as the public have to help subsidize this “private venture,” does this give us even partial equity and therefore the ability to share in some of the profits?

Of course, any owner would have a simple answer to that:

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Anyway, in the survey, we describe a PSL as “an asset, like a taxi medallion, that is purchased in addition to the ticket that give the holder ownership of the seat. This holder can then sell the seat license in the future, including for any profit, to someone else if the holder no longer wishes to purchase season tickets.”

That was an affront to your intelligence and an overall clumsy comparison. Did you know that a retiring NYC driver, who had been a cabbie for 25 years, sold his medallion in 2007 for a reported $600,000? According to what I read, the gentleman paid $30,000 for it in 1981. But individuals don’t really buy taxi medallions anymore the way individual fans buy PSLs. The city has just over 13,000 taxi medallions and most of those medallions, because of their high price (we’re talking mid six figures here) and the infrequency in which they hit the open market, are owned by investment companies, THEN leased out to individual drivers.

The medallion analogy fails on so many levels and here’s another: a taxi medallion gives its owner the right to operate a licensed vehicle for continuous profit (basically, the fare charged for driving someone from point A to point B). Where is the continuous profit in a PSL? Sure, you can sell your tickets on a week to week basis but a season ticket holder can do that now, without a PSL.

Most important, let’s be honest about something else here. No fan looks at season tickets as an investment or an asset. Terms like that didn’t enter the sports vernacular when it came to season-ticket discussions until the Carolina Panthers started peddling their PSLs in the mid-90’s and introduced the “investment” concept as a misdirection play to what was really happening: a con and a hustle for an easy influx of cash.

The reality is, those of you who have had season tickets with us since those wind-swept days at Shea or have gotten them since we moved to the wind-swept Meadowlands, you have those tickets because you are rabid fans of your team, some of the most loyal fans in the NFL. Simply put, you love your team, living and discussing it 365, 24/7. The investment you make is emotional with the dividends paid in the form of bonds established between fathers and sons – daughters, too – and/or the friendships forged through the shared experiences of arriving in a parking lot before sunrise and knocking back a few while grilling meat over an open fire.

Believe it or not, sometimes when I watch those scenes on my way into the stadium on Sundays, I’m jealous. Ultimately, pricing those kinds of fans, who repeat that Sunday ritual even in the snow and bone-chilling winds of December, out of seeing their favorite team isn’t the right thing to do.

What was also unfortunate in regard to that survey was its timing. I mean, some of you received it around the same time you read that Anheuser-Busch had joined MetLife as a “cornerstone” sponsor for the new stadium. As we finalize the deal for that money – in the neighborhood of $10 million a year from each cornerstone (and there’s four of them) - you get hit with this prelude to what amounts to a forced panhandle masquerading as a “survey.”

Admittedly, that’s a bit unseemly.

Additionally, and I really should have read this stuff more closely before it went out to you folks, there was this poorly phrased justification:

“PSLs have been sold in virtually every new NFL stadium built in the past 15 years as a way of paying for the construction costs. For example, the Dallas Cowboys have announced a PSL program with prices ranging [from] $2,000 to $12,000 for general admission seats and from $16,000 to $150,000 for club seats.”

But you know what? The “everyone else is doing it so that’s what we’re going to do,” reasoning stinks. It stinks because that’s not how my family built the company it founded in the late 19th century into one of the world’s great corporate juggernauts. And it’s not how I became one of the nation’s sharpest businessmen. I became who I am by knowing that it’s possible to go against the grain, to take calculated risks and still succeed. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ‘Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is not a path and leave a trail.’

Just one small example: Over 30 years ago when I was starting off in Florida, I invested in this new fad known as “cable” television. This, when banks wouldn’t touch the stuff. Sold it off, too, at a tidy profit when I was ready to tackle other interests. The unconventional aspect of who I am extends into my personal life as I’m one of the few of the super-wealthy who, when lobbying Congress, has done so for philanthropic purposes. That’s how six years ago I secured a guaranteed $750 million in funds for diabetes research.

‘go instead where there is not a path and leave a trail…’

So that’s what we, the New York Jets, will do, regardless of the Giants’ plans, which though not yet announced, are to sock their fans with PSLs at to-be-determined prices. I will let the Giants turn themselves into all sorts of verbal pretzels in attempting to dress the PSL porker up into something aesthetically pleasing, tossing around words like “asset” and “investment,” to make it sound like a benefit to fans when it only benefits ownership.

I can tell you parking and concessions will still be high, and there will be gradual ticket increases, but those things have been going on for years in professional sports and, I think, most of you grudgingly accept that as the price of doing business. It’s the concept of paying a user’s fee for the right to THEN pay those outrageous prices that disgusts you, and understandably so. Seriously, do I have to pay a PSL on my owner’s suite? That’s ridiculous and I’m not going to ask you to do something I myself wouldn’t do and certainly wouldn’t want to do.

In short, the debt issues are real but guess what? A lot of my success in life can be credited to this adage: there’s always more than one way. And I intend to find it.

Go Jets!

Sincerely,
Robert Wood Johnson IV

Jets season ticket holders were hit the other day with a survey sent out by the Jets in which the dreaded specter of PSLs was raised. Thanks to reader JayM for posting most of the survey in the comments section of the previous post, but here are the most relevant paragraphs:

"The Jets have taken a substantial amount of debt to finance the construction of the new $1.3 billion stadium. Like other teams that have built stadiums in the recent past, the Jets are required to pay back this construction debt quickly.

"The Jets are surveying different types and terms of Personal Seat Licenses (PSLs) as one of the ways to help achieve this requirement. A PSL is an asset, like a taxi medallion, that is purchased in addition to the ticket that gives the holder ownership of their seat. This holder can then sell the seat license in the future, including for any profit, to someone else if the holder no longer wishes to purchase season tickets."

I put in a call to the Jets this afternoon to see if the survey meant that PSL's were a foregone conclusion because no official announcement, at least in public, had been made on them relating to the new stadium, which is being built by private financing.

Here's what I was told: "We are still exploring financing options for the new stadium and have not made a decision regarding PSLs."

But PSLs are the only "financing option" that has been mentioned to this point so the conclusion you're apt to draw is probably the correct one. There, to be sure, will be more to come on this topic but I - at no charge - humbly suggest to the Jets to drop the, "A PSL is an asset, like a taxi medallion," sales pitch from future PSL justification literature.

It's insulting.

Offensive lineman Shawn McMackin, an undrafted rookie free agent who was a local feel-good story having gone to Hofstra, was waived late this afternoon. His roster spot was taken by tight end A.J. Schable, a rookie free agent signing of the Cardinals in 2006. The 6-4 273-pound Schable played in 11 games at defensive end and fullback for the Cardinals in 2006, recording 12 special teams tackles. In 2007 Schable, a defensive end at South Dakota who had 19 sacks his senior season in 2005, attended training camp with the Cardinals but was released in the preseason. He was signed this offseason by the Eagles before getting released.

No, this is not an intended as a message for Chris Baker. Felt it necessary to put that out there.

The Jets have just signed safety Cameron Worrell, who appeared in 12 games last season with the Dolphins, starting five of those contests. Worrell finished the season with 56 tackles. The 5-11, 194-pound Worrell has been in the league five years, getting his original shot with the Bears as an undrafted free agent in 2003. Worrell, an All-WAC safety at Fresno State, played in 46 games - mostly on special teams - in four seasons with the Bears.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming, which for me means covering tonight's Yankees game (brutal life I have, I know). For those of you who are Yankees fans, they just signed Sidney Ponson, he of various off-the-field issues in Texas, to bolster their starting rotation. Really.

Jay Cross, the Jets president the past eight years, is moving on, accepting a position as President of Related Hudson Yards.

That means new titles for some of the Jets hierarchy: Matt Higgins is the Executive Vice President of Business Operations, Thad Sheely is now the Executive Vice President of Stadium Development and Finance, and Mike Tannenbaum adds Executive Vice President to his current General Manager role. There is no replacement for Cross, whose duties are essentially being distributed amongst the three individuals mentioned above. Overall, this seems to be an indication that owner Woody Johnson intends to be more involved in the day-to-day operation of the team.

Not as exciting as a practice report, I know, or beach photos for that matter. Just passing it along.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter had some interesting things to say yesterday (Monday) to the Philadelphia Daily News editorial board, the most interesting being that he’s dropping his once burning desire to get to the bottom of Spygate.

“I've gone as far as I can,” Specter said.

As I’ve written before here, I’m torn on this. I can’t make a logical argument for spending tax dollars on a Congressional hearing. At the same time, after watching Arrogant Bill pull his “What? Who? Me?” act on the CBS Evening News last month, I wouldn’t have minded seeing him and some other Patriots personnel having to raise their respective right hands in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Moving on, Brian Bassett once again turned up a winner on thejetsblog, referencing something I didn’t know existed – the NFL Cheerleader Blog. I feel I let down readers by not disclosing this fabulous league resource sooner. The picture to the right is but one example [it was either that or a photo of Sen. Specter].

And this non-football note just because we try to be all-encompassing: Enough with the collective media wailing and indignation about the manner in which Willie Randolph was fired by the Mets. It was, no doubt, done poorly but what organization, in any sport, fires its coach/manager and gets a resounding, “Boy, you guys really handled that wonderfully,” pat on the back?

Exactly.

That said, a strong argument for Omar receiving his walking papers, too, can be made. Just not here.

First and foremost, Happy Father’s Day to all, especially my own, still hacking his way across the golf courses of Cleveland but against whom I still suffer a major mental block when we play. I’m not the only victim, I’m sure, of that kind of phenomena.

Anyway, I saw and met a few fathers yesterday (Saturday) who were watching their sons and daughters - more than 200 overall - participate in the Generation Jets Club Clinic over at Hofstra. A good portion of the Jets rookie class served as instructors at the various stations set up on the Jets training camp field.

Quarterback Erik Ainge, besides showing great comfort dealing with the kids - pretty much all the rookies did - appears to be better as he wasn’t wearing the soft cast we saw him with during the OTAs and minicamp. I say appears to be better because he gave me a “you’ve got to be kidding me” look when I asked him about his recovery from the surgery on his throwing pinky. I was kidding, knowing how Jets players are, let’s say, strongly discouraged from talking about injuries. But I always like to see if guys have a sense of humor. Ainge does.

Ainge did say it was difficult sitting out all of those practices – he went through the drills in terms of footwork, but threw no passes – but that mentally there was plenty to keep him busy.

“There’s so much I can learn from the shoulders up,” Ainge said, referring to the playbook. “It’s like learning a new language.”

Dustin Keller, who also participated in Saturday’s event, said after going through a round of OTAs and the minicamp, the biggest adjustment he had to make related to what Ainge talked about: the amount of information rookies are hit with.

“I reached out to some of my friends in the NFL [before the OTAs] and they let me know that everything’s going to go real fast and that they’re going to throw a whole lot of information at you in a small amount of time,” Keller said. “You have to absorb everything and just be focused with no distractions.”

And that continues even now, the so-called “down period” in the league – the 1 ½ months before training camp – that Keller said isn’t a down period for players, or at least for the rookies.

“It doesn’t seem very down lately,” Keller said with a laugh. “We still go in there [the practice facility], us rookies, and we study together, we study a few hours every single day. We go in there, work out, have some meetings. We’re still working five, six, seven days a week. We’re always doing something in there.”

Though on a day “off” last week, as part of the league’s rookie orientation program, Jets rookies toured the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“It was awesome,” Ainge said. “I had never been there before. Getting to go into the room with the busts, seeing the Joe Namaths and all those guys…it’s unbelievable to see all those faces and names and it’s kind of like, ‘this is what we’re all trying to do.’”

Keller, who had never been to the HOF either, said he gained an appreciation for the players who were part of pro football's origins, thinking about what it might have been like to take a shot over the middle wearing minimal equipment, including a leather helmet.

“Those guys, they were still ruthless back then so I couldn’t even imagine what that felt like,” Keller said. “It was really cool, just to see the evolution of the sport. To see how it started and how it evolved into what it is today. Those guys didn’t have it as good as we do, in every way.”

The Jets officially announced late Friday afternoon the moves within their front office, the most prominent of which was the hiring of Scott Cohen as assistant general manager, that first broke May 30. Additionally there are some new titles within the organization -- Joey Clinkscales is now vice president of college scouting, Terry Bradway is the senior personnel executive, Michael Davis is the assistant director of college scouting, Tim Tubito is the director of video, Rich Gentile is the senior director of broadcasting and multimedia production and Steve Scarnecchia is now the director of multimedia production. The Jets also announced - though this was confirmed by a source May 30 as well - that JoJo Wooden's contract as the team’s assistant director of player personnel had been extended.

The most significant of these moves is the addition of Cohen. Cohen spent the last seven seasons as the Eagles' director of pro player personnel, an area of the Jets' organization GM Mike Tannenbaum had wanted to strengthen.

Until seeing this story late Thursday. It's about Carl Mayer, a Jets season-ticket holder from New Jersey who filed a lawsuit against the Patriots and Bill Belichick last September that contended Spygate violated the contractual "expectations and rights" of ticket holders "to observe an honest match played in compliance with all laws and regulations," might drop the case. [The stuff in "" is directly from the lawsuit and my only thought is I never in my life have seen or heard a football game - an American football game - referred to as a "match"]. Mayer has until June 30 to tell to a judge why the case should continue. I want to be at that hearing.

No legal analysis here but I'll ask this much more important question instead: what could the picture below possibly have to do with this story? There is no direct link but in a general-theme sense, there is a connection. Major points awarded to whomever gets that connection. Keep it clean.

Bryan, as to your question in the previous comments section about Baker: He has not specified - and neither have his agents - exactly what kind of $ he is looking for. Kendall last season was very clear on the dollar figure he wanted -- the $1 million dollar raise he claimed had been promised to him. Baker has not, in public, said anything more than wanting his deal redone to, as he has said, a "number that is fair" to both him and the Jets.

Coming this weekend, some more on the rookies.

The Jets rookie class toured the Pro Football Hall of Fame earlier today (Wednesday), part of the league's rookie orientation program. The Jets were the 18th team to send its rookies to Canton since May 28 and the remaining teams will visit over the next six weeks. This is the first year the HOF visit has been part of rookie orientation and was an idea that came from a conversation between Michael Irvin, a 2007 inductee, and Commissioner Roger Goodell last August.

The picture, admittedly not as, um, thrilling as some of the others posted here in recent days, is from the Hall's home page, profootballhof.com. For those who haven't seen much of the Jets rookies, that's Dustin Keller and Erik Ainge featured prominently in the photo.

Or not-yet-summer. Whatever. Newsday's NFL columnist and sometimes ESPN personality Bob Glauber will participate in a live chat at 2 p.m. this afternoon, talking about the Jets, Giants and other NFL-related stuff. Or, based on some of his blog posts, unrelated stuff.

I was going to put up another beach picture (see yesterday's apparently quite popular post) but I don't want to be accused of pandering.

Chris Baker will appear on the Pro Football Central Radio Show (http://www.ProFootballCentral.com/) tonight at 7 p.m. Wonder what he'll be talking about.

I have said it before, I'm taking a verbal vacation on this story, barring news actually breaking around it of course, until training camp.

UPDATE: The interview can be found here.
Nothing new from what he said during last week's minicamp, other than Baker saying he received a $3,000 fine for missing last Friday's practiced with his tweaked back. That is new, though disputed as the fine wasn't for missing practice, it was for missing a treatment session. But whether or not he missed a treatment session is disputed as well. And on it goes...

So within a couple of hours after I posted that rather long wrapup of OTAs and such - the same wrapup where I declared Jeremy Kapinos slightly ahead of Ben Graham in the punter battle - I find out just now the Jets cut Kapinos. WR Chris Davis and K Mark Myers were also cut and all I can say is I'm glad I didn't declare Myers ahead of Mike Nugent. As for my evaluation - and I do promise Kapinos showed a strong leg - I'm reminded of something a coach told me years ago: "Sometimes you need to keep in mind what you didn't see rather than what you saw."

Words to live by.

Oh, added to the roster in this afternoon flurry of activity was WR/KR Ashlan Davis and P Joe Smith. Brief bios, from the Jets PR staff - and by that I mean the overworked interns:

"Smith (6-2, 195/Central Washington/Enumclaw, WA) was selected as a Division II All-America and led the league in punting at Central Washington. He finished his senior season (2003) with a 44.2-yard average and served as the national leader every week of the NCAA’s statistical report. Smith spent the last three years with the Yakima Mavericks of the Evergreen Football Semi-Pro League. He averaged 42.8 yards per punt and was named the league special teams MVP in 2007."

"Davis (5-10, 180/Wake Forest/Atlanta, GA), originally signed by the Jets as a rookie free agent on July 26, 2007, was waived Sept. 1, and signed to the practice squad Sept. 3. Davis appeared in two games for the Jets in 2007. He made his NFL debut on Nov. 4 vs. Washington, carrying the ball once for three yards. He recorded his first career reception for three yards at Miami on Dec. 2. Davis spent portions of the 2005 and 2006 seasons with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, tallying nine catches for 83 yards."

So there you have it. Might have to put up more borderline salacious pictures as way of distracting from my poor evaluation of the kicking game.

Things are dark at Hofstra, at least on the practice field, until late July when training camp starts. The Jets finished their minicamp Saturday, the conclusion of offseason activities that started in early May with the rookie minicamp. The media did not get to see all of these practices over the past 40 days or so, but we did see parts of the rookie minicamp, a handful of OTA practices, and all four practices comprising the two-day minicamp. Certainly not enough to make any regular-season predictions, but enough for me to make some observations. Besides, as Darrell might put it, “C’mon Boland, what else do you have to do?”

Well, I should be on the beach (see above picture, if you already haven't)...but I digress. Or, as Bob Glauber would probably say, regress.

A note before starting: I will mention the phrase “non-contact” several times here because certain aspects of certain positions (such as how quick someone is getting to the QB) are impossible to judge during non-contact drills. Pads don’t, and can’t by league rule, come on until training camp.

1. The QBs, Part I,II,III, IV….: All the talk about FA signings and the draft and the secondary and everything else becomes irrelevant if the Jets don’t have someone who can throw the ball. It is an open competition between Kellen Clemens and Chad Pennington and after the past month-plus, I’d give a slight edge to Clemens, but very slight. Clemens was better during the OTA practices we saw, Pennington had the advantage, again a small one, in the minicamp.
What the last month showed is what even casual Jets fans already knew: Clemens has a stronger arm but still seems to struggle with his decision making - happy feet at times - and Pennington looks best throwing short passes. Don’t get too carried away with the Pennington-changing-his-motion story, either. He is trying to incorporate more body and less arm-only into his passes and I will say there seemed to be a little more velocity on Pennington’s mid-range throws (e.g. 12-15 yard throws over the middle). But there didn’t seem to be much difference on the deep throws, though there were a couple of nice deep fades. His motion has been “tweaked,” but it’s not an outright alteration. Bottom line: The Jets know what they have in Pennington: a solid quarterback who can get them to the playoffs – as he’s done before – if he’s surrounded with the right pieces. This competition isn’t about Pennington showing anything new; it’s about Clemens going out and leaving no doubt about whom the better quarterback is. These non-contact drills can't determine that. The real competition begins in July.

2. Will Pennington/Clemens have anyone to throw to? Laveranues Coles and Jerricho Cotchery both seem to have a renewed spring in their step (yes, I hate that cliché, too), but the interesting part of the last month has been watching the receivers who are trying to prove themselves. Second-year man Chansi Stuckey caught just about everything and goes to training camp as the No. 3 receiver. Brad Smith was limited during the OTAs with a sore back but returned for the minicamp and looked good in spots. Overall the receiving corps looked fine - Coles made a couple of one-handed catches that stood out - but there still isn’t a consistent deep threat in the group.

3. More on who catches the ball: Rookie Dustin Keller lined up all over the place and had only one day where he looked like a rookie. He runs fluid routes, has good hands and one thing that became apparent during the practices was that linebackers probably won’t be able to cover him. On the last day of minicamp we got to see the Jets two first-rounders match up. Keller ran a short out to the sideline and made the catch in front of Vernon Gholston, who had dropped into coverage, for a six-yard pickup. [For the record, Gholston did contribute on a pass defense later in that same Friday practice, dropping back to help cover Stuckey at the goal line]. As for Gholston, he was only on the field two practices - because of Ohio State’s academic calendar that extends into June - and lined up with the second team on the outside. Not much of a sampling read one way or another, though I like what I’ve seen of his speed, and his biceps indicate he’s the only one on the team who can give Thomas Jones a run in the weight room.

4. And still more on the rookies: Sixth-round pick Marcus Henry showed improvement over the course of the month-plus. At the beginning of the OTA’s he was running mostly with the third team and didn’t stand out other than for his height (6-4). But by the two-day minicamp Henry was running some with the second team and on the first day of the camp, Thursday, Henry caught two long passes. On the first one, Henry made a nice grab on a Pennington 20-yard pass along the sideline, coming down with the ball between fellow rookie Dwight Lowery and James Ihedigbo. Later in the day Henry went over Lowery, who had decent coverage, to snare a 30-yarder from Clemens on the sideline. Henry’s college coach, Mark Mangino, said draft day that the Jets got a “steal,” and the limited snapshot we got of Henry showed he might be right. As for Lowery, he showed some of the ball skills that earned him the nickname “Dwight Swipe” at San Jose State.

5. Big $ on the O-line: The Jets added Alan Faneca and Damien Woody and so the starting offensive line, a huge problem last year, looked like this during OTAs and minicamp: LT D’Brickashaw Ferguson, LG Faneca, C Nick Mangold, RG Brandon Moore, RT Woody. Faneca is an all-pro and Woody is solid, and the biggest question for training camp and beyond is whether Ferguson is ready develop into the elite tackle the Jets envisioned when they drafted him. Difficult to evaluate offensive linemen during non-contact drills but Ferguson looks a little lighter on his feet and I’ve seen him talking on the sideline an awful lot to Faneca, who obviously plays a different position but knows as much about line play as anyone. And don’t underestimate the impact the hyper-intense Bill Callahan is going to have on the offensive line. Nebraskans have their own opinions about Callahan but this is a specialty of his.

6. TJ’s Touches: There are a lot of motivated Jets because of last year, none more so than RB Thomas Jones, who came into 2007 with much fanfare and didn’t have the kind of season he, or anyone else, was expecting. He’s as excited as anyone about the additions to the offensive line, which last year gave him few holes to run through. Yes, the Jets have what seems an overload of backs – Jones, Leon Washington, Jesse Chatman, Musa Smith, etc. – but make no mistake, Jones is the featured back and, at least in these non-contact drills, has very much looked the part. One surprise from this big group of backs has been the speed of Chatman.

7. And about that second CB: Early on in the OTA’s David Barrett started opposite Darrelle Revis and the comments and emails that expressed some, to put it mildly, concern began to roll in. [An aside: Barrett has recently put up his Melville home for sale. My boss, sports editor, Hank Winnicki, emailed me this yesterday and I saw it on thejetsblog this morning, with the comment, “see what being a bad NFL CB can get you?” The tireless, and often hilarious, Brian Bassett strikes again].
Anyway, the athletic Justin Miller, who is coming off major knee surgery, started as the No. 2 corner the latter portion of OTA practices and all four minicamp practices, though Barrett still shared some of those snaps. It would be stunning if Miller isn’t the starter for the regular season opener. It bears repeating: Miller is being brought along slowly and the Jets clearly didn’t see a need to have Miller overexert himself in May and early June. Overall, however, if Miller can’t win this job, be afraid. Be very afraid. As for the safeties, Kerry Rhodes and Eric Smith started the entire month. Abram Elam, who missed the first week of OTAs dealing with yet another horrific family tragedy, should not be counted out in terms of winning that job from Smith.

8. The Chris Baker situation: I pass for now. There will be plenty of time in the near future to go through this story, which has become tiresome already. But it is news, especially when Baker, as he said last week, makes a comment saying that last year’s Kendall circus helped “tank” 2007. One way or another, the Jets FO can’t let this go deep into August like the Kendall case did.

9. Another big Kris story: And we mean big, though not as big as before. Eric Mangini had one of the lines of the offseason when he said of Kris Jenkins, “he makes 360 look good.” And considering Jenkins ballooned to about 400 pounds last year with Carolina, Mangini was right. Just as important, Jenkins is enthusiastic, at least at this point, about playing nose in the Jets 3-4 scheme, doing all the dirty work required of what can be an unglamorous position. A weight clause is part of Jenkins’ contract but as of now it’s not an issue. Attitude-wise, Jenkins is a clear upgrade from Dewayne Robertson and it’s hard to see how he won’t be an upgrade in performance, either.

10. Handicapping the punter battle: Ben Graham vs. Jeremy Kapinos probably has been a draw to this point, though overall I’d give a small advantage to Kapinos, who has shown a stronger leg. Graham looked flat out bad in a couple of early OTA practices we saw, but was better as May went along and his minicamp was solid, particularly when it came to placing the ball inside the 20.

11. I’m sure I didn’t cover 100 percent of everything you all were interested in so, as always, post any questions in the comments section and I’ll get to them. Between rounds of golf (that's for you, Bryan).

Because, as Sam Cooke put it many years ago, another Saturday night and I ain’t got nobody.

But seriously...

Anyway, at Patriots minicamp Saturday afternoon, Tom Brady was asked about a certain radio appearance from last month. Thanks to Griddertom for passing this along.

Q: There was a radio interview a few weeks back where someone said you didn’t respect the Jets or something like that. Could you just clarify that?
TB: "I have a great deal of respect of the Jets. They’re my favorite team in the league other than the Patriots. I love those guys. They’re the best.”

Here is the link. Is this news? No.

But if nothing else, it gives me an excuse to put up another picture of Gisele and, as we know, there is value in repetition. Football? I did a short story – a very short one - that will appear in Sunday’s paper on Eric Smith, who has been starting at safety along with Kerry Rhodes throughout the preseason. I talked to Rhodes about Smith after Friday’s practice and he’s seen some big strides from the third-year safety.

And these non-football thoughts just because: Watching Big Brown trainer Rick Dutrow Saturday – before and after the race – and overall since the Preakness, reminded me of the Jim Murray line about Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes. “He was graceless in victory and graceless in defeat.”

And RIP Jim McKay. His perfectly chosen unobtrusive three-word summation of the breaking news of the tragedy at Munich during the 1972 Olympics became one of the most famous on-air utterances in television history: “They’re all gone.”

As are, it seems, the national broadcasters who see themselves as mere storytellers, like McKay, instead of showmen.

The Jets spent the final day of their minicamp not at Hofstra but in New Jersey for a couple of team activities that were closed to the media. The team spent the morning taking a tour of the new Atlantic Health Training Center, where the Jets will move in September. In the afternoon, the team had a “Family Day” at Delbarton High School, located near the training center, where players got the lowdown – schools, housing, etc. - on the Florham Park area. Randy Lange, of newyorkjets.com, did accompany the team to New Jersey, and filed a detailed report of the day on the team site. I’m still one-up on Randy, however, given that I chronicled last week’s Flight Crew tryouts and he did not.

So, as Hillary gave her speech through gritted teeth and much of the sports world is looking ahead to Big Brown at the Belmont, that’s how your Jets spent this 100-degree day. A good number of individuals from the organization, including GM Mike Tannenbaum, coach Eric Mangini, and a handful of current and former players, will be at NYIT in Old Westbury tomorrow morning (Sunday) for the Fifth Annual Long Island Walk with Us to Cure Lupus, a passion of owner Woody Johnson.

I’ll have some leftover notes and the like from the minicamp in the coming days and will continue to answer questions as you submit them, either in this post or under yesterday's practice report. Enjoy the heat wave.

As was the case yesterday, Jets CEO Woody Johnson took in the afternoon practice. Among the things he watched, along with the rest of us:

1. It was Chad Pennington’s turn to work with the first team after Kellen Clemens took the snaps with the 1s in the morning. In one formation during the seven-on-sevens, Dustin Keller, who has lined up several places in the OTAs, split out wide left, covered out there by Justin Miller. On the play, Keller couldn’t quite get past Miller who was in press coverage, and Pennington dumped off over the middle to Laveranues Coles. When Clemens took the field for his first seven-on-seven, he completed a short pass in the flat to Jason Pociask, overthrew Keller on the right sideline and saw a well-thrown pass to the left sideline dropped by Pociask.

2. The Jets next went to their no-huddle drill, with Pennington going first. On the first play, Coles blew past David Barrett (groan, I know), who had no choice but to reach out and grab Coles, drawing an illegal contact penalty. There were a couple of runs from Thomas Jones and the only other play of consequence in the Pennington series was a 15-yard throw over the middle intended for Jerricho Cotchery that Darrelle Revis tipped away at the last moment. In Clemens’ set, he handed off twice and threw incomplete on a 12-yarder over the middle. Clemens next set of plays in an 11-on-11 drill went better, highlighted by a 20-yard pass down the left sideline to Pociask (Clemens threw his way a lot in the afternoon), who had beaten James Ihedigbo. Pennington’s best pass of the day came a little later when he lofted a 30-yarder down the right sideline for Coles, who made a one-handed catch after separating from Miller, whose coverage was pretty tight. Clemens’ best 11-on-11 moment took place during his second go-round when, during a red zone drill, he rifled a 20-yard deep slant to Brad Smith who made the catch at the goal line.

3. The day ended with a no-huddle drill in which Pennington and Brett Ratliff each faced a 28-20 deficit on the scoreboard with one timeout, first-and-10 on their own 18-yard line and 1:44 left. (Pennington sat out the morning’s no-huddle while Clemens got a shot, so this was part of the equal rotation thing with the QBs).

Pennington could only move the team as far as the 50, getting to that point with a 13-yard completion to Coles over the middle but only 13 seconds remained and the offense ran out of time. Pennington’s other completions on the “drive” were short outs to the sideline of 6, 3 and 8 yards.
For those Ratliff fans, and I know there’s a few, he nearly got his offensive unit down the field and into the end zone. He threw one of the afternoon’s best balls, a pretty spiral down the right sideline that David Clowney, whom Mangini singled out in a positive way Thursday, caught between Dwight Lowery and Hank Poteat for a 24-yard gain to the 24-yard line. Then came one of the day’s overall best catches as Chansi Stuckey found a soft spot in the zone and made a diving reception at the 5 for a 19-yard pickup with 13 seconds left. But the defense stiffened and that included a pass defense on third-and-goal from the 5 by Vernon Gholston who, along with Ihedigbo, deflected the ball away from Stuckey at the goal line. That left one second left and on the final play, the offense was guilty of a hold.

4. Mangini was set to end practice without players having to run sprints but Mike Nugent missed a 52-yard field goal that would have ended it. Some of the coaches ran with the players. The scene of the day was watching veteran defensive coordinator Bob Sutton run alongside the still imposing-looking Bryan Cox. Mangini, a treadmill fanatic, did not run.

5. The punter battle will continue full force into training camp with both in a good position to win the job. Ben Graham did not look good early in the OTAs but has come on strong. He looked especially good today pinning the ball inside the 15. Jeremy Kapinos might have a slight edge from the practices we’ve seen in leg strength.

6. To some of the other questions from earlier posts: R in CT, Nothing improves team chemistry like a shared purpose and the veterans who went through a 4-12 season aren’t interested in having their season end in October a second straight season. As for Coles, he’s content for now regarding the final two years of his contract being guaranteed ($11 million), but he did say on the first day of OTAs that at the end of next season he might want to talk contract again. He’s happy for now. As for players are favoring in the quarterback battle, get used to this answer: “We’re rooting for the guy who gives us the best chance to win.”
You won’t hear players really weigh in on that until the pads come on, there’s real heat on the quarterback in the pocket, and it starts to become obvious who’s really winning the competition. If players feel the guy who’s winning that battle isn’t getting the nod, there might be some grumbling, but most guys take this time of year for what it is: practices that favor the offense and don’t give the most accurate read on things. The “guns” question regarding Gholston and Jones is a funny one because Mangini made a joke about it today and I actually asked Jones about it a couple weeks ago. He, with a smile, said he was happy for the competition in the weight room. I’d give a small, very small, edge there to Jones for now.

Bryan, Baker’s teammates are staying out of the Baker mess. I asked Kerry Rhodes about it after the morning practice and his answer pretty much spoke for everyone I think: “You can’t even get in the loop on that. That’s between those guys (Baker and Tannenbaum) and I don’t know what was said. It is what it is. It’s situation he has to handle.”

Frank, undrafted free agents have a tough hill to climb. Woodhead has seen a lot of work on both kick return units and only really had the one bad day a couple weeks ago doing so. He has also been used as a running back on the third team, but his path to making this team – other than the practice squad – is going to be on special teams.

Joe, Darnell Bing has shown some nice spurts of athleticism but as of now, he’s pretty set on the third team. I haven’t seen him in any of the OTA practices we’ve observed any higher than that. Also, I know this was asked before, among the backup offensive lineman who have impressed are Robert Turner, Clint Oldenburg, Matt McChesney and Shawn McMackin, a rookie FA signing from Hofstra. Have to write a newspaper story on Gholston now. If I didn’t get to something that had been asked, my apologies. Remind me and I’ll get to it tonight. Oh, this was a question too: who were the second string linebackers today? Vernon Gholston and Matt Chatham were on the outside and Brad Kassell and David Bowens were inside.

As I'm finishing up this afternoon's practice report, word comes that the Jets have just reached an agreement with sixth-round draft pick Marcus Henry, the receiver from Kansas. To make room on the roster, Nick Jarvis, a rookie FA from Wake Forest signed about two weeks ago, was waived. The Jets signed their seventh-round pick Nate Garner earlier this week. Practice report to come shortly.

Morning practice

1. Vernon Gholston looks big and fast. And that concludes the Gholston portion of our program. Well, not really, but in these non-contact drills there’s not much that can be read in terms of how quickly a guy like Gholston can get to the quarterback, which is what everyone is most interested in. What I can tell you is Gholston spent the morning solely with the second team, alternating between the left and right outside linebacker spot. The outside backer opposite Gholston was Brad Kassell on some plays and Matt Chatham on others.

2. Good rebound day for Dustin Keller, who dropped several passes yesterday. This morning Keller made a nice fingertip grab of a Chad Pennington pass while falling to the ground in the back of the end zone during a goal line seven-on-seven drill. Keller did not have any drops this morning, and what is becoming evident in the OTAs and through three minicamp practices is that linebackers are going to have a very difficult time covering this tight end. Speaking of which, during a later 11-on-11 drill, Gholston dropped into coverage against Keller and Keller caught a six-yard pass on the sideline from Pennington.

3. This morning Clemens worked with the first team while Pennington worked with the second and the morning session between the two quarterbacks was a draw from this perspective. The morning’s best catch came courtesy of Brad Smith, who made a sliding reception on a 20-yard throw from Pennington over the middle in the back of the end zone during a seven-on-seven. Earlier, with the first team, Clemens connected on a deep slant to Laveranues Coles for a touchdown and a down later, Clemens threw a 15-yard touch pass to Keller, who had barely beaten Darrelle Revis, in the right corner of the end zone. Pennington had a second touchdown during this seven-on-seven drill as well, hitting David Clowney on a three-yard slant.

4. Clemens hit Bubba Franks, who had gotten inside Revis over the middle, for a 15-yard touchdown on his first throw of 11-on-11’s. But the next two plays of the series were Clemens overthrows, both intended for Chansi Stuckey. On one of those overthrows, Revis had as tight as coverage as a corner can have without drawing a penalty. On his first throw of the same 11-on-11 drill, Pennington dumped the ball away to Leon Washington who scampered into the end zone from 13 yards. His two plays were an off tackle run by Washington and a throwaway in the back of the end zone.

5. During down-and-distance drills toward the end of practice, Pennington went 2-for-3, including a 15-yard touch pass to Jesse Chatman, who had gotten behind Brad Kassell in the right corner of the end zone. Chatman has shown good hands to this point. Clemens went first in the same drill and was 1-for-4, his one completion a three-yard touchdown pass to Jerricho Cothery, who after tight coverage, finally shook free of Abram Elam.

6. Chris Baker, a day after sounding off about his contract – he did so again after this morning’s practice – spent much of the day on the exercise bicycles in the “limited” capacity. He participated in some position drills very early in the day but otherwise was on the sideline. He would not disclose his injury, per team policy, which is funny in way that he is following that team policy while ripping the organization to threads. Not a judgement one way or the other, just an observation. More from Baker later, though not as much as yesterday because it’s mostly redundant (NOTE to a few different readers: a couple of those “ask Baker” questions were asked today).

More to come in a bit, including answering your questions, but Eric Mangini is on his way to the press room.