Throw it as Favre as you can
Larry David is a Jets fan so maybe he’s the one feeding Eric Mangini his material.
He (Mangini, not David) had a few gems in today’s press conference, including a line in his opening statement that anticipated a tick-tock-what-has-Brett-done-today question.
“In terms of this morning, Brett had two hard boiled eggs, a little bit of orange juice, there was a garnish I think, and some hash browns,” Mangini said. “I can take you through minute-by-minute after that.”
Yes, we in the media overdo these things when it comes to the stars and Mangini was correct in poking fun at us for it. As for my minute-by-minute schedule from today, it started early this morning when I awoke on the World's Most Famous Futon…..…..
Carry on, I know.
So to the morning practice, which as several posters have already noted (thanks again, Jason, for the YouTube link), featured the site of Brett Favre getting treated like everyone else – put the ball on the ground, run a lap. During an early 11-on-11 drill Favre fumbled the center exchange and both he and center Nick Mangold took off around the field for their lap.
The crowd cheered enthusiastically.
“It’s funny, you run a penalty lap because you do something bad but people are cheering,” Mangold said. “It was neat.”
Favre, addressing the last time he ran a penalty lap, said: “Maybe little league, maybe. The crowd was cheering and all that stuff. I am not embarrassed by it. I think it is kind of funny, but yet it serves its purpose. I think things like that are important in the fact that everyone is involved in it.”
Of course the cheers that went up from the lap were dwarfed by those produced later when Favre unloaded an absolute rocket down the left sideline on a go route that hit Jerricho Cotchery in stride. The ball traveled 65 yards in the air and resulted in a 75-yard touchdown. David Barrett’s coverage wasn’t awful (I know what’s coming…), the throw was just perfect. Earlier in the practice Favre hit Cotchery on another go route, this one covering 35 yards down the right sideline with Cotchery beating Ahmad Carroll. Cotchery and Favre look like they’ve worked together for a lot longer than two practices. Obviously, it’s a work in progress with the other guys.
* Brett Ratliff made quite a few nice throws – again – including an 18-yard rope to Brad Smith in the soft spot of a zone look. In a two-minute situation with the first unit (Favre hasn’t done the two-minute yet) Ratliff made a pair of nice out throws to the left sideline, a 10-yarder to Smith and a 12-yarder to Laveranues Coles. Ratliff went for the end zone on one play but his 40-yard spiral down the left sideline for Cotchery got knocked away by Kerry Rhodes, who was step-for-step. Rhodes has stood out all camp.
* Besides Rhodes’ nice defensive play, we saw David Harris get into the backfield quickly and in the quarterback’s face on an inside rush. Bryan Thomas also showed up in the backfield, as did David Bowens, whose camp has been outstanding to this point. And when Kellen Clemens threw a nice 15-yarder to the sideline that Smith caught, Kareem Brown, coming on a speed rush, was in Clemens’ face.
* More on Ratliff from Mangini. And keep in mind Mangini said of Ratliff that “it took an act of Congress” to get a play into the huddle and for Ratliff to call it correctly during last year’s training camp. So here was Mangini talking about a 21-yard completion from Raftliff to Chansi Stuckey: “There were a bunch of times that you probably couldn’t see it from where you guys were, but we had a run called, they brought down an extra guy in the box and he [Ratliff] made the check. The play that he hit Chansi, that was a called run. When they showed an eight-man box, he made the check at the line of scrimmage and got us into the right play and was able to make the right read.”
I said this in response to a comment in another post, or maybe here. Who knows; I get confused what’s what and where. But Ratliff has to make this team and Mangini’s comments make it sound as if he will. Ratliff’s situation will bear watching the next couple years.
* Mangini likes what he’s seen from the offensive line, but addressing a question many of you have asked, the second unit too. That includes Will Montgomery – who’s had a good camp – Wayne Hunter and Robert Turner.
“I’ve been happy with not just the first group, but the second group,” Mangini said. “I like the communication that they have both in run and pass, the way that they are able to work together when the defense would run some kind of game, some kind of variation on the line.”
* Justin Miller and Bubba Franks returned to practice after sitting out yesterday. Shaun Ellis, Marcus Henry, Jesse Chatman and Jason Trusnik were out. Dwight Lowery started the practice session but ended up on the sideline the last half of the workout with what Mangini termed “a few things.” He then picked a body part from an imaginary hat and said, “I’ll go with a leg. He’s got a couple legs.”
Mangini said the upcoming 5:45 p.m. practice would be spent mostly doing work in the red zone. It should be – and will be now – noted that severe thunderstorms are supposedly on their way so who knows if that practice will be outside. That in no way is to discourage you from showing up because the merchandise tent is open. And with that, time to work on the newspaper stuff.
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Comments (28)
Ellis, huh?
Darrell, it's a hand injury for Ellis. Happened late last week. Severity unknown but no cast.
I remember that now. Got nervous for a sec. Still, it's not good, Shaun not getting his time in with reps.
Erik,
a lot of times the feasability of a QB is determined by where they came from and where they were picked in the draft, rather than real time performance. Parcells made that mistake in '99 when Testaverde went down, going way too long with Rick Mirer before giving Ray Lucas a shot. The Jets ended up missing the playoffs by one win that year, beating Seattle in the last game of the season, while Seattle backed into the playoffs.
All this comes down to the fact that so far, from what I've read and seen, Ratliff has far outperformed Clemens. He has as good an arm, and far superior decision making skills.
Erik - Made it out to my first practice this morning. Nice talking with you and getting your take on a few things you've seen in camp. I think it's fair to say that in a few short weeks of training camp & OTAs you've given all of us Jets fanatics more meat about the team than we've had in the past few years combined. And thanks for chatting up my boys. Matt (the wanna-be sports journalist) thought it was "awesome" to actually meet a real reporter he reads in the paper every day.
"All this comes down to the fact that so far, from what I've read and seen, Ratliff has far outperformed Clemens. He has as good an arm, and far superior decision making skills."
I agree Z Seems to be more accurate withthe long ball to. Hope they give this kid a lot of thought. Interesting he was working with the 1 st unit.
Any word on Lowery Erik? Hope this is nothing serious, kid has looked good. With Mangini I guess we won't know anything unless his leg falls off
Erik
I noticed that when you were mentioning the second string OL that were playing well, Bender's name wasn't on the list.
Was that an oversight, or is Mr. Bender in jeopardy?
John Z,
Nice meeting you yesterday. And i agree with you Ratliff has out preformed Kellen so far this summer. But lets be fair ratliff is going against the 2nd and 3rd teams while Kellen is going against the 1st and 2nd units. Next summer i can see Kellen and Ratliff battling it out for lets hope the #2 spot while favre comesback for his 2nd year. I think Bender is not long for this team.
IRA, agree, would be nice to see Clemens get a chance to throw one deep to Clowney and I suspect he will this week once Favre departs the game.
"But lets be fair ratliff is going against the 2nd and 3rd teams while Kellen is going against the 1st and 2nd units."
Let's also be fair, if Barrett is working with 1st and 2nd units, that means that Clemens has a HUGE advantage with basically having a WR open all day long.
oh, dmb, I was wondering when you'd show up. Barrett's name was mentioned so i knew you couldn't be far.
dmb,
Whats happens if Barrett picks off Brady to seal the deal vs the Pats on 9/14?
The world will end.
IRA, you'd then wake up and realizing you were having a dream
Erik, thanks again for posting the video. It's up to 14,000 views now.
Marty, good meeting you and your sons, too. And Matt can email me any time.
Anon, Lowery was back out this afternoon, though he was limited. But he was still out there.
flgreen, no oversight on Bender, I was just listing three of the guys who have stood out on the second-team. Bender hasn't stood out but hasn't been outright awful either. But in the end, his prospects don't look great.
dmb, my man, how did I get in the middle of this???
Deb, always good to hear/read your voice.
Ira, I undertand about playing against second string guys, but he also has second string lineman in front of him, and he's throwing to second string receivers. Hell, give him a shot with the starters on a series or two and see what he does. That's what the preseason is for. Even in the positional drills at practice he looked sharper than Clemens.
"dmb, my man, how did I get in the middle of this???"
Boland, that last post wasn't me. Someone is posting under my name, just like they do to you. Seems some people are bored.
IRA, lighten up. You can't handle a joke? And I love most of the jet players, so not sure what you're talking about, not sure why you'd resort to making stuff up.
Erik - I'm new to your blog but I've been reading it regularly. I was wondering if this Coles silence thing following Chad's release is a real issue or something being played up in the media? I'd hate to see it become a distraction for the team.
From watching jets nation and hearing BF, it looks like he is already calling the play book ! This is sure to create friction with Mangini ! He was saying that all you need is a handfull of plays to be successful. Whether true or not , I think the staff should have some input. This has been a major concern from the start. BF must realize, it is NOT the NY Farves, but the NY Jets !
This could get interesting, especially if the jets get off to a slow start !
dmb, I doubt that post was actually IRA. The lack of punctuation and stuff is not like him.
Si had a blurb that Ratliff has been moved up to #2 Any truth to that?
Boland,
It looks like Ratliff is starting to get some looks with the first team. Is the front office/staff down on Clemens? He looked decent in the first preseason game, but the O-line gave him tons of time.
Also, what happened to all this talk about needing depth at receiver? With Stuckey, Clowney, and Smith, would you say their receiving depth is a strength?
Haven't been hearing much about Gholston either. Should we be concerned? I mean, it took the Texans Mario Williams a full year before he "grew" into the position. Does Gholston need a full season under his belt before he grows up?
Finally, do you see any draft picks that may not make the team?
Erik,
Fantastic work on the blog and the newspaper. You are doing excellent work!
One thing that has gone relatively unnoticed (except for when my friends and I call up WFAN to get try and get some traction for this cause) is the fact that Favre gave away Mark Gastineau's sack record to Strahan several years ago. You remember: There were 30 seconds left in the regular season finale and Strahan was 1/2 sack behind Gastineau so Favre essentially laid down and gave his buddy Strahan the record. It jusn't wasn't right.
Say what you want about Gastineau, he left us in the middle of the season to be with Brigitte Nielson, he almost killed Kosar in 1986 to steal defeat from the jaws of victory, he was a louse...but he is OUR louse. He deserved that record and Favre had no right to give it away. Favre is a legendary figure and should have had more respect for the game of football and the NFL. It was not his place to determine who gets to hold records.
Anyway, before us die-hard Jets fans can truly embrace Favre as one of our own it would be great if he could at least acknowldege that he had a temporary lapse of judgement when he gave Strahan the record.
Would you please ask him what was going through his head at that time? You are the voice of the Jets Fans and you have the ability to right this wrong by giving Favre an opportunity to quickly address this disservice. Please throw it out there at the next press conference.
Thanks very much, Erik and we hope to clear this up so Jet Nation can get behind our new QB.
Keep up the great work!!
Why don't I have any impersonators? Am I not cool enough?
Where's Darrell when I need him.
Scott, don't you remember CP? I mean, he had essentially 3 plays. Run, Dump Off or Out Route. I'm sure Favre's got more than that :P
That wasnt my point , it has to do with coach /player chemistry!
I figure you meant Favre's ego vs. Mangini, but I thought I'd take the shot at you and CP. Ya know, because I can.
Nice come back !