Jets Minicamp Practice Review (6/18)

is for the Jets. What is it about now, thirty to forty days or something before the start of training camp, probably a four day acclamation period, like you said, before the pads do come on, and it's gonna be interesting to see how the players use this time off because Robert Salo is always talking about investments and also how can you better yourself every single day now that they're away from one Jet stride. That's gonna be up to

each individual. And I know that there's not like a whole lot that you can take out of being in shorts and a T shirt, but it's what we have to go off. So let's talk about what's transpired here a mini camp. How About let's just start with a couple of players who have actually before we get to that, let's just talk about Zack Wilson, Right, I mean, that's what guys want to know, right, That's what everybody wants

to know. Who's tuning into this podcast, and if you're Jets fan, you want to know how number two is performing on the field. And I would say you have to take with a grain of salt because the pads aren't on yet, but I think so far he's checked most boxes. Well, were you impressed? The other day when Greg Nap, the Jets passing game specialist, and Michael Fleur, of course, the team's offensive coordinator, talked about Wilson just

intelligence that he brings to the table. Nap, who's been in the league for shoot near thirty years and he's worked with a lot of good quarterbacks along the way, said that he doesn't make the same mistakes twice. And then la Fleur said here later on during UM mandatory mini camp, and they might have done this during O t A s is that they had a lot of unscripted periods for Wilson. So I mean that just shows that they kept on throwing a lot at his plate.

He's got that attitude where he can't get enough UM. So he's a quarterback who's extremely gifted physically, there's no doubt about that. But what potentially could set him apart down the line is that I think he's got a really unique hunger for the game, and he's also really intelligent. And what I really liked about what Zack Wilson said when he was asked, well, what are you gonna do in your break? You know, are you gonna take time

away from football? Because you've spent essentially from his last game against U c F where you lit up U c F in his bowl game, then you have the draft process, then rookie minicamp, O t as minicamp. It's been NonStop, So you're gonna get away from football? He said, well, I kind of think like watching film is my time away from football, where you give your legs a rest,

but you're still getting after him mentally. And he said that he was planning on organizing something with I assume the other the quarterbacks on the team, Mike White and James Morgan right now and the skill players to have a throwing session and at some point between now June seventeenth and the beginning of training camp. Does that surprise you at all? But I like it? Yeah? Yeah, no doubt.

I mean I wasn't being sarcastic. That just fits who he is is that he can't get enough and he loves ball as the guys like to say, and that's definitely accurate. And uh, I like to on the field out there. Fleur was asked the other day, it seems like you're taking more shots down the field, and he was like, well, that was actually part of the script. It's just kind of the way the defense was playing

on playing us. We saw the cornerbacks, the defensive back squatting a little bit, so we started throwing the ball down the field. And where Wilson continue to shine is isz accuracies. You know, what did you think about it? The shorts and T shirts? And we'll continue to come back on that um. But like he said, for a quarterback, he doesn't feel like it's much difference because the rush is common, the coverage in the back end, you're seeing

different things and different looks. You gotta go through your progressions, you gotta get the ball out quickly. Even in those practices, and he just showed a great touch with the football. I thought that I was very impressed. I thought that he had an impressive spring. Is where I'll start, and I know, and we'll continue to harp on it. Like you said, shorts and a T shirt not the full thing. Just quite yet, but I thought he showed good ball placement,

touch velocity when he needed it. And I really thought that, you know, there were a couple of players where you're like, oh, you know, I don't really know what you're looking at on that one, but I think that's to be expected. And I thought that he looked very comfortable considering that he's a rookie and a what is a complex system, And I thought that he was quite impressive to me.

And I'm interested to see if anything changes when the pads come on or not, because there have been guys in the past who have been extremely productive in the spring. And I'm not saying this is gonna happen to Wilson, but that player that I'm referencing was not productive in

training camp and didn't make the team. Okay, listen, here's the thing is that for Wilson, it can't come fast enough, meaning like he's gonna drop back in the in the pocket, and he wants to go through those progressions very quick and for him, he wants to do less thinking. And some of what we saw on the field was him thinking but him being frustrated myself. And you did not notice it. If you came to practice, you would say,

this guy delivers like a veteran quarterback. There were not a lot of times where he was a skin in the field and the ball wasn't coming out, but for him, he was going slow. So again, I love what La Fleur said the other day too. We saw them work a lot in the red zone and speaking a time. Mean, the quarterback position is so complicated, complicated, there's so many steps involved. And he said that something that they didn't

talk to Wilson about was changing your drops. But he inherently knew that down there in the red zone, I even have less time, so I have to change my drops. And that's not something that Greg Knapp and La Fleur talk to him about. He naturally did it on his own. Yeah, I think I've been very impressed with the athlete of Zack Wilson, right, And you know, we haven't seen him do like a whole lot, right, We haven't seen him

like play basketball. I know a lot of people have talked about his prowess on the hardwood, but we haven't seen that. You but you can just tell that there's a natural feel for the position and just being an athlete under center and you know one guy that I think that we should talk about a little bit is

Jamison Crowder. And Jack Wilson hasn't thrown to Jamison Crowder, but Jamison Crowder is a quarterback friendly target everywhere he's been, whether that's here in New York or with Washington in and Jamison was here for mandatory manicamp and then he was acclimating right like all the guys that showed up for mandatory camp, like Sheldon Rankins and Marcus May, Jamison Crowder, they didn't partake in teen drills or seven on seven. They were in the acclamation period. But with Crowder, this

wide receiver's room is very deep right now. And I'm just curious to your take on how Crowder fits in because he's a very good player. Well, just take what Robert Salis said that we anticipate that he's going to continue to do what he's done throughout his career, which is make plays. And as far as the receiving group as a whole, before we get a little bit more into Crowder, it's probably the most improved position group on the roster. Uh, you could say that without even playing

a game. I know we'll get to Elijah more. He's dynamic. Uh. Corey Davis only took a few team rops out there, like he said about the acclamation period, but he's a big body target Um who views himself as a number one receiver. Braxton and Burials, the ten was getting the ball all over the place throughout the spring. Um Denzel mims, he can't forget about him. He really flashed that last

day of mandatory minicamp. But listen, Crowdy Crowder is a crafty player who can beat man, who can find a hole in his own And after renegotiating his contract with the team, he didn't come in here and salk. He just said, this is a business. Yeah, it might have been a little bit surprised by it, but he's ready

to go. And he's also he also sounded very positive about the system right because he sees similarities between what Mike Lafleurs running and what Jake Gruden ran in Washington and when Crowder was there, he and he compared it to when he was on a team with DeShawn Jackson, Pierre Garceon and Jordan Reed and others. He said, when you're in a system like that like the one the Jets have said, everybody can eat if you if you execute it right, and I think you bring up Elijah More.

It leads me to my next point is people, I think it is a I think it is a common take that people say, oh, well, Elijah Moore slot receiver, Jamison Crowd or slot receiver. Well, if you listen to Michael Flour and coach Salah talk about how Elijah Moore lines up outside inside, they said, um, well, Michael Flour was saying, how Miles Austin has done a great job. Miles Austin's the wide receiver's coach at the Jets, of course, used to play in the league, most notably for the Cowboys.

But he was saying that for Elijah More, he lied him up at the X, at the Z, at the F,

which is the slot. So I would I would say that there is definitely a situation or different packages or situations plural where Elijah Moore is on the outside, which means that maybe you do have somebody like Crowd or on the inside in a situation like that, Oh yeah, you have a lot of flexibility could go out there and have Corey Davis out there on the field with a Elijah Moore Anna, Jameson Crowder and the three receiver set that that you could do that a lot potentially

um And again we talked about Mims em Barrios, and there's a few other receivers I did not even mention ke keenlan Cole, who had a tremendous spring, has been very productive himself throughout his NFL career, and the Jets like what he brings to the table. He's got a unique personality, likes to have a lot of fun on the football field. But we saw a lot of eight

eight out there, especially early in the spring. But you talk about position flexibility, the Jets think more can line up at the X Z and the F and they're also working him in a little bit at the punt return position. So that just speaks to this guy makes things happen with the ball in his hands. And what do you think about this? I see a parallel between

him and Zach Wilson. Not only have these guys established a really good bond and connection that you see translating to the field, but as far as their work ethic, because everybody talks about Wilson can't get enough, well, they're seeing the same thing about Elijah More. Yeah, I think it's a great point, and we've heard that from two different coordinators. Michael Floor said that Elijah Moore catches balls off the jug machine at the indoor facility at like

seven in the morning. Brand Bowyer says before that he's taking punt returns or it punps off the jugs to try to get better at tracking the ball. That's what Brand Boyer was saying, that that's the next step in. You know, he really likes the talent there, but if

you're a punt returne, you've gotta be sure handed. And right now he's saying that Elijah Moore needs to improve his tracking the ball, and you pointed to that at a practice too, But you wouldn't count against More becoming good at that because there's very few things he can't do on the field. Yeah, I totally agree with that.

I'm excited to see what these rookies will do, not only with pads on, but once they start facing different competition, because I would it's hard to tell with Elijah Bara Tucker just because you know, the pads aren't on, and it's hard to evaluate offensive linemen in general, let alone

without pads. But if you look at Zach Wilson, Elijah More, Michael Carter, and then you even think about some of the defensive guys, it feels like all of them have not only received a lot of reps, but they've all flashed at different times throughout the spring, which is an impressive I think is impressive. You know, I hate to pump the brakes because they haven't played any games, but yeah, this is a talented draft class. These guys have great

mindsets individually. Uh, in the really talented ballplayers. You can see that even with the hot the pads coming on, and that even you talked about throughout that draft class. Well, a couple of guys who are highly athletic who I can't wait actually to see when the pants come on, are on the other side of the ball, and that's Hamson nos Roldan and also Jamie Sherwood. Yeah, me too.

Listening to Jeff all Brick talking about loves him both him talking well, first of all, he's talking about Sherwood and I'm like, oh my god, Like he he's talking about how Jamie Sherwood has like an uncanny knack for the playbook considering where he is, and he's talking about

how he has a command of the defense already. You know, he's not calling plays with C. J. Mosley out there, but if he's the if he's the next guy up right, it seems like he's like I've seen him called plays in certain situations in minicamps, so it seems so that's impressive. Then he's talking about Hamsa who has like the longest wingspan I think of any he might have the longest wingspan on the team. He has long arms, he might

you might think like, oh, he's a little thin. But then all Brick is talking about his anticipation and there was one play, I don't know if you recall it. There was one play probably yesterday in the red zone and he was on a on a running back and he just very fluid motions, very smoothly worked with him on an angle route, just knocked down the ball. Now was it? It just looked like it was easy for him, and it was like, okay, well that was interesting. Yeah.

I think all Brick talked about instincts, instincts and anticipation with novel deans and listen, um, this is a very positive staff, but they also don't have to go out of their way, um sometimes and I don't think he was going out of his way. It's just that these

two dudes have already impressed. And I'm sure that staff is very excited to see what the linebackers can do as a whole, because we remember C. J. Mosley previously on the Official Chess Podcast that a lot of raw talent in that in that room, and a lot of people I think would say linebacker is a question mark for the New York Jets. I actually, I'm very excited to see what this group starts out at and then

what it becomes done a lot. Yeah, me too, and I don't I have questions that I want to bring up because but I'm tabling them for our training camp preview podcast, Like, for example, who's somebody that you could see breaking out in training camp? But we're not gonna answer that because I want to save that for training camp. I just kind of wanna. I want to hit on

two more things. One of them is we mentioned a lot of players, but is there anybody that we have not mentioned that you think has been impressive throughout the spring, whether that's Mini camp or O T A. S. That's very interesting. Um. I think we always go to the skill position players in the spring, just because the nature

of being out there in shorts. UM John Benton, who's the run game in coordinator, offensive line coach, um very complimentary of Elijah Vera Tucker, And you know, it's just about him being a positive force out there on the field. He's committed to learning the scheme and he also fits in very well with the guys. And I think people are gonna learn more about Elijah Vera Tucker in our

podcast profile series. But I think it's like his leadership and intangibles are they're they're very good at this stage of his career. Yeah, listening to Benton talked about Vera Tucker, you get the sense it's like, okay, like he's done everything he can up until this point and the next point is pads. So I think the early reviews of a VT have been very positive. You just mentioned the podcast profile series. That's what we've had up our sleeve.

That's coming next week or shortly thereafter. So I don't want to give too many details because we'll hear from that in a bit. But let's just wrap up with this. What's next for the Jets in terms of that might seem like a silly question because there's literally nothing on tap here for the next month on the football field. But you know, what do you think the next step in the evolution of an extremely young team that by

all accounts seems extremely hungry. What's the next step in their process as they inch closer to Week one at Carolina? You got me thinking your last question, what do you think about Hassle's spring without Marcus maybeing here for most of the spring and came here for mandatory minicamp, was

out there in the acclamation period. LaMarcus Joiner of course running with the ones, He's going to give you a lot of versatility and defensive backfield um, but at the safety position Ashton Davis coming off surgery, so he wasn't able to get out there with his reps. What do you think about Hassle and potentially just the depth he can give you at the position? J T. Hassle, I think had a nice spring, like a quietly nice spring. He definitely he had at least one pick I think

two and definitely two one, Okay, definitely too. And then I thought he had a nice spring, and I think he took advantage of opportunities at at his position. And I don't want to compare it to Burrios, but like Burrios also took advantage of reps at his position. You mentioned you mentioned him earlier, but you know he became a frequent target of Zach Wilson. He wasn't just a guy who like flashed a couple of days like Burrios. I think it was a little more consistent with his production.

But also, you know, it's not like there were a ton of interceptions in the spring, and I feel like j T Hassel definitely had the most. So I'm I'm interested. I'm interested to see how he performed with past. What did you think and we and again I'm not trying to get too far off tangent here, but what did you think about the rookie cornerback from Oregon State? Isaiah Donne? I was going to mention Pinnock actually, because both those

guys can make a push in camp. Those are the guys that you want to watch right when the pants come on. Yeah, And and like I I'm really excited to see who emerges from that rookie cornerback crop. So I thought, Isaiah, I don't want to get too much into it because I want to table some of it for the previous Okay, but but but done was impressive?

Can we say that? All Brick did say the other day that he's not only got the potential to push for a roster spot, but maybe pushed for playing time right off the bat, and all Brick said that the Jets almost drafted him, they ended up going in a different direction and they were surprised and ecstatic that he

was available in undrafted free agency. So I'm wanting to give fair credit to a couple of names because you're saying that, you know, we've devoted a lot of time talking about the draft class, and be honest with how about Jabari's unique Also, I think an underrated impressive spring,

I'd agree with that. And got to the quarterback showing some explosion while that defensive line has it's really deep and what are the how are the numbers gonna shake out once it wants a couple of these guys get back on the field and taking those reps, namely quinnin Williams coming off the minor surgery, and also Sheldon Rankings and yeah, fully got banged up a little bit early on my minor in uh O t A sessions but you got rankings to one the inside, so um, you know,

I think Vinny Curry is gonna be a big presence for this team as well. The numbers game is super interesting, especially up front. I'll tell you what so um and as June seventeenth that we're having this conversation. Granted, you know things crystallized and the month of July, but right now, it's like a fun exercise to go through the roster and be like, okay, how many defensive linemen you think are on the fifty three man roster and then start

naming names. You start running out of finger you know, you start running out of digits on your hands when you're going through it. So it's a fun little exercise. But you know, we got a month until things start to uh get a little more crystas. So what you said from now until training camp for for those guys will watch from afar and see if SEC Wilson doesn't d follow through, which I imagine he will. He probably has that all set up. I'm sure those guys got

playing trips already booked somewhere and probably somewhere warm. Although I would like I would if I were a receiver. I want to go to Utah. Going to Utah different. I wouldn't mind going to southern California either, just as long as I don't have to drive there. But what about not drive from New Jersey. Just drive in southern California. I feel like it's probably gonna be a warm weather state. Whether that's I feel like it's always either California or Florida.

His base operations. I think three d QB is in Huntington Beach. That doesn't mean that they have to go to l A. Sure that could have them in Utah. You know, well, I'm thinking like, where are these skill guys from? Right? So you think Florida could be? Yeah, I don't remember where Corey did. Oh, he's Illinois, so that's like Editor of America ish right, Denzel Mims Texas Center, so he's you know, they didn't go either way. Then I'm thinking like p rhyme cole I don't know where

Ty Johnson from? And then um, who else we got cole Man? I don't know. I just feel like it's gonna end up being Florida, that's my guess. Um, But what do these guys have to do? Robert Sala who it's a father of seven, said, I can't wait to spend some time with my kids. Obviously, it's been a rhurlwin year for him. Considering you're the defensive coordinator of San Francisco forty nine ers. You'll lose your guys, You're still able to lead them to a top ten ranking,

which was an amazing coaching job. You get to judge job in January, so then you have to get everything together here and he's just been running. He's just been running, so hell of a time to wind down a little bit, he said. Though, when I'm not spending time with the kids and I'm not at the pool or at the golf course, I'll be watching film. Um, so he we gotta try to get on the course with him. He sounds way too good for us. Yeah, but you know we we we could carry for him. I think he

probably shoots in the eighties. Yeah. Um, but it installations right, the installations were in so it's a lot of review and then from a personnel perspective, the two positions I'm watching right now. You know, there's been some talks that the Jets gonna have some interest at the tackle position, which will follow here over the next couple of days, but cornerback and quarterback, Uh, it seems likely we're headed to Zack Wilson starting in Week one against the Carolina Panthers.

That seems extremely likely likely. I think the team did take the right approach during the spring, getting James Morrigan and Mike White goes backup reps um. But could a veteran being the cards here prior to training camp or right at the start of training camp. Same thing with the cornerback position. We talked about Done, We talked about Pennock, we talked about Brandon Nicholes, we talked about mc squared. Um, you've got a lot a lot of young dudes, um

bless Austin was dealing with the minor injury. We saw Bryce Hall. He's gonna be competing for a position on the outside, some playtime on the outside. But do you think the Jets at a veteran corner here at some point? It's a young group and it's I think the easy

answer is yes, right. But listening to Solid today it makes you pump the brakes a little bit because he's talking about how Pete Carroll told him once like he can't be afraid to play young guys and they liked the group they have, They like the guys they added, but I feel like when push comes to shove, there's probably gonna be a veteran face in there. I looked this up today. The oldest cornerback on the roster is Justin Hardy, who doesn't really play cornerback. And after that

it's Corey Ballentine and Elijah Campbell. Both of those dudes are twenty five. So I mean you're talking about a young group. You're also talking about an inexperience group because the guys that I just mentioned are not named Blessed Austin and Bryce Hall, who are the two guys who started the most and played the most last year out of anybody else on this cornerbacks group. Very good point. We've got to monitor both of those situations. There position

groups here that have plenty of depths. Like in years past we look at coming full circle here, we would look at the wide receiver position. They are the Jets gonna add somebody. Now you're wondering as you go down the list and look at the roster, like how many guys are they gonna keep position right? And awesome point that you just made about solid today I thought he was fantastic. He always is. He's so cerebral. You definitely like the freight train thing at the end, Yeah, I did.

But when he mentioned Pete Carroll, who what salo is there in two thousand and eleven, I think that's right. And you just mentioned Pete Carroll. You can't be afraid to play young guys. They're hell on wheels and they're fun to watch. You could go either way just mentally. There's so many things they can learn. But they're going to be ups and downs. That's part of youth, and that's going to be part of the New York Jets two thousand twenty one season. They're gonna be ups and

they're gonna be downs. But this is a young roster that has been really turned over and the coaching staff. I thought that a find job this spring, and I think the guys are buying in. It's a very good bye out there, um, you know, but it's solid cautions. We won't know our identity until we go through those tough times together, and how are we going to respond to adversity? Right now, everything's good as they finish the spring. Knock on Glass Jets came out of this relative healthy

as well. So I was reaching over to knock on the wood. There you go, you found a piece of wood there. But I will say what I like more than his identity answer was someone asked him what do you want your identity to be? And he was like, I can't answer that because he used a couple of different examples. He was talking about Don Shula defensive minded head coach, or he was talking about how that that

Dolphins defense was their identity. Then Dan Marino comes along, then it changes, and he was talking about the same thing with the Patriots. Patriots defense, Bill Belichick, Willia mc guinnis Teddy Bruski, that whole team. Then Tom Brady comes along, changes the identity and the dynamics. So we don't know right now. And a great point, and then I'm gonna ask you, is if you're playing tomorrow, what you're not You're not further ahead the Jets offense and the Jets defense.

That's a great question playing each other. Just as far as the group is concerned. I think it's hard to answer because I think a lot of the guys we have not seen. Yeah, well no, I was even just gonna say quinnin May laws in rankins. Fully like, those are the guys who I want to see line up and how that defense looks. And I'm sure once they do line up, the defense might have an edge. But if you were to tell me tomorrow, I might give

the edge to the offense. What would you say? And typically I would say this time of year, they edge goes to the defense. Yeah. I just think there's a misconception about the offense too. And Benton talked about it the other day that the West Coast offense us to be considered a finesse offense. Well, he said on first and second dial. And these guys are attacking, and they're attacking either in the run game from offensive line perspective,

or they're attacking with the play action game. So these offensive linemen, I think are really going to enjoy the system. Um and so you're asking me, I thought there was a good back and forth, but these but these two groups aren't playing against each other. I just feel like if the Jets can figure out ways to score um and I think they're gonna be a hell of a lot more production productive than they were last year. Is this defense might be able to tee off and mostly

talk to us about it. I think it's imperative. Yeah, everybody's gonna be like, oh, yeah, of course you want to play with this, play with the lead. But the way they want to create chaos up front, I really think they might be able to dictate two teams if they can get this offense started early in the season. Yeah, I'm excited to see what happens. And we got a long way until the end of August and the early parts of September, but right now, Mini Camp is in

the books. Training Camp a month away, and you know, we'll be back for the Training Camp preview, but until then, enjoy the podcast profile series. That's all we have for this episode of the Official Jets podcast. H