Jets Training Camp Update (8/11)

the water? No, I just are you blowing bubbles? Probably? I just feel like it's where at the point in training camp where you're so locked into what you gotta do each day that it just goes by quickly and then before we know it will be like, oh, what do you what do we think about Jets Panthers matchups? Week one? How many training camps is this for you? Now? Six? Yeah? Six? It's like sixth seasons? So this is my twenty one

with the Jets. In twenty second, I believe in the NFL, and I think the longer you're in this, and I wanted to get your thoughts on that, the longer you're in the NFL, the quicker these camps seem to go. My first training camp was back in two thousand with the Buccaneers, and I thought, oh my god, training camp is never going down. Now we're sitting here, like you said, we're basically at the start of the third week a camp. I know you started training camp like in midweek or

Thursday actually was your first practice. But I mean, the Jets and Giants are playing Saturday night. We talked about it earlier. They're gonna have a day off, then they we'll have a practice Monday, leave for Wisconsin. Joint practices to joint practices will walk through. You play Saturday, Sunday, day off, Monday, probably a lighter practice, Tuesday, and Wednesday practice twice with the Eagles right out here at once

Jets drive and then you play the Eagles. Preseason's over. Yeah, like I said, goes by quick, and I agree with what you said. You know, I feel like my first training camp it was like, Wow, this is this is the NFL. This is a lot. And now it's like, not to say it's not a lot, but it does definitely feels a little. I feel a little calmer in the storm. Also, I'll put it that way. Can you imagine two days though, No, I was. I was thinking

about that when you were interviewing Curtis Martin. No, I can't. I can't imagine being outside and the kind of heat that we got a glimpse of today, Like it was overcast, so we were fine, but if it was sunny outside, we would have been scorching hot. And in the past, when it is scorching hot, I can't even imagine wearing pads, let alone two days. So tough job for the equipment guys. Because I used to play hockey and I was a goalie,

so I had a lot of equipment. And the reason why I'm saying that is that you'd have tournaments where you played multiple games in the same day. And I hated putting on wet equipment. That's one of the worst feelings in the world. And but if you notice the equipment staff here at one Jet Stride. For those who don't know, let's paint the picture. The Jets practice all a grass field and that all the players with their pads put them on the turf field. All the equipment

guys just have fans rotating and blowing. So I don't think that they wear wet pads ever. But it is. It's it's definitely not a good feeling. And I know we're gonna start talking x is and always in football. But from a temperature standpoint, this has been about as good as you could have hoped for. It's been rather cool on the days when it's been Sonny hasn't been too hot. It was very human out there today and right now on the calendar, people are gonna be listening

to this on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday and Thursday is gonna be high nineties around here. Yeah, it's not gonna be great, but the next two days are definitely like T shirt and short kind of weather for me because it's gonna be hot. But we got dudes on the business side walking around here and wearing sweatshirts and jeans. Yeah,

I know, I don't understand it. I called out the same person you did this morning and he said, you know, e A. He just said the same thing to well, you're talking to two guys that stand outside, and you know, I got warm just looking at him in the sweatshirt and jeans. So we were on the field late Green and White practice Saturday night. I wanted to ask your thoughts on just seeing people back in the building. It's great. I think the phrase it's a sight for sore eyes

is probably often overused, but it really was. It was great to hear fans cheer after pig plays, whether that's the offense or the defense. And I think that I think that the year away from football or the year without fans really, um, I don't know. I don't want to say like reinvigorated the fandom, but like there's something extra about, something a little special about this season because it's the first time that anyone's been able to see the Jets in person from a fan perspective in a

year almost now what full year and a half. Yeah, I'll tell you what. Elijah More is already a fan favorite from what I can see. I mean, they've been reading about him every day, and we've had an opportunity to see a lot of fans come out to one Jet strive for these open practices. Number eight is already becoming a fan favorite. He came out of the tunnel the other night at MetLife and you heard this roar,

and I loved what I saw out of McKay. Back then, he was just wearing a smile on his space walking out there on the field. Remember these guys who were rookies last year, they did not have that experience. Yeah, they didn't have a lot of experiences. Let's day back to O T s and minicamp when Connam government was saying, you know, I was talking to McKay back then, like this is what football is supposed to be about, by

building bonds with your teammates and playing football. And McKay backed in, and the rookie class last year didn't really have that. Now they do. And um, you mentioned the green and white practice, green and white scrimmage, whatever you want to call it. You had. We had talked about in the press box the emergence of three players, and I think that maybe we haven't focused on them enough

on you know, just across different platforms. But that's why we're gonna talk about it on the podcast, to make sure that we cover our bases. Here. C J. Mosley, we talked about a little bit. His neighbor on the field, Jared Davis, I would say, has been ascending in practice. And same with safety LaMarcus Joyner. Yeah, three defensive players. How about that Jets transitioning to a four three and

you're talking about two linebackers. The two veteran linebackers Jeff Albrick is going to depend upon, and you have a lot of youth at that positions and Nasril Dean Jamie and Sherwood of Black Cashman starting to make some plays out there on the field as well, so don't forget about him. And LaMarcus joint Or just brings another dynamic I think to the defensive backfield. And you see him and Marcus May starting both to make plays at practice, and they both have very versatile skill sets and the

Jets like it that. Yeah, join Or is his safety, but he does have that nickel versatility so he can come down and play some man to man. It's it's also feisty. And speaking of feisty, c J. Mosley he's not the raw rack guy. But you saw him come off the field other night. Actually, before he talked to the reporters, he was saying he had a couple of

messages for the fans. Yeah, a couple of couple explicit messages, like in a good way, not not like he was taking umberge with the fans, but he was basically saying, I'm still that guy. Yeah, I'm still a dog. Couple you know, you want to put whatever flavor, whatever explicit words within that sentence, use your own imagination. But I think I think with Joyner and Jared Davis in particular,

I think maybe I'm wrong here. Something about being under the lights just kind of clicked with them, and maybe it felt a little reminiscent of a game, even though it was just a practice, like it was a standard padded practice with some scrimmage like elements. There wasn't full tackling or anything like that, but it definitely felt like everyone tried to to elevate their levels a little bit, and those two guys in particular, I think you saw

it well. The Thursday prior to the Green and White scrimmage, I guess or game like practice, the offense was leaning on the defense out here is a longer practice. We saw a lot of ground games, but on Saturday night you saw the first team defense handle things and put them in unfavorable down in distance situations, and Jared Davis was flying all over the place. You talked about LaMarcus Joyner. He set up C. J. Mosley's interception, making a great

read on the ball deflected into the air. Mosley comes down with a diving interception. Mosley made a past defense earlier in that practice, and Joiner, we should have had an interception inside the red zone when he had a beat on. I would say a force throw from Zack Wilson. So listen, those guys have an opportunity here because it's a fresh start for everybody. But when you're talking about LaMarcus A. Joiner, he was most recently with the Raiders

strictly as the nickel. Now he is a safety with the Jets, and C. J. Mosley is a fresh start for him. We haven't seen him too much over the last two years, and he's eager to remind everybody what he can do on a football field. So you know, those are three guys who could be who should be key players for the Jets all year long. I just want to say this about Jared Davis. You're probably gonna make fun of me because it has to do with the number. Here we go. Thankfully he ditched the forty

from Detroit. I didn't think forty was a good number for him. I like that. I like the fifty, you know, I like the fifty two. I know it's David Harris and you know big, you know, you're a big David Harris guy. I just think David Harris is a very solid line. Me too, but I just got a lot of flash, just a lot of substance. Jared Davis also brings an element of piston vinegar, Like he is out there. He seems like a mad player. He puts the pads on, he's ready to go, he's raring to go, and he's

gonna leave it all out there. We saw one practice he kicked his helmet to the sideline. I haven't seen that in a long time. Uh. It seemed like the next day he was almost in a skirmish with somebody. So he's a veteran who's gonna, I think, gonna push it and then maybe take a step back. I think he knows where that line is. All right, Well, let's talk about the offense. I feel like, if you're not at Jets camping, you're going off the reactions of social

media beat writers. Tweets are tweets, you're eat our articles, you're eating articles about the Jets offense. You're probably thinking like, what in the world is going on here with Zack Wilson in the offense Because the defense, I would say, has been getting the upper hand the past couple of days. So can you please tell everyone watching, everyone listening, like, what why we gotta pump the brakes a little bit and not overreact on a day to day basis, Well,

what are you gonna overreact to? Because like we just got off the practice field today and one is Zeke Wilson's and might have been his first passing team. You'd have to correct me. Here was a forty yard past down the field, back shoulder to Jamison Crowder. You can't throw it any better? No, I was. You're right, You're absolutely right, But then there's no decision making. I feel

like based on green and white and all the other stuff. Listen, he's a rookie quarterback who's played in the league for eleven Training camp practices on certain days that we don't know about solid talks about it post practice. You have more installations than other days. There are days where the head coach knows when one side of the ball is going to be on ice skates going uphill backwards. You know, uh, and there there there have been certain days like that

for the offense at camp um. I think sometimes yeah, you know, even in a completion another night to Vincent Smith. I bet you Zack Wilson would have said afterwards, when he's watching the film that maybe releases the ball earlier, or maybe there were a couple of decisions out there. Maybe he doesn't throw that ball to Crowder where Javelin Gudry is pretty tighten coverage and comes up with interceptions. No doubt about that. No quarterback wants to turn the

football over. But Sala continues to talk about the process. Another thing that we don't talk about nearly enough at practice is you have no idea what the practice script is. So sometimes they're working on third downs, but it's not third it manageable. It might be third and fifteen, it might be third and twelve. There are certain points at practice called god to have its fourth down situations. We're gonna throw the ball up in there and things like that.

So there's different things going on. Sometimes you're facing more blitz packages, so you're gonna take a sack where maybe you're just gonna get better from it the next time around. I just think that for anybody to anticipate that Zach Wilson was not going to have bumps in the road, uh you, I mean, go watch It's a wonderful life fifty times. The bottom line is, there is adversity. There is adversity for young quarterbacks in the National Football League.

We haven't guys got more than a month until he even plays his first NFL game? Am I missing something there? I just like getting you fired up. I think you made a good point about not knowing what the practice

script is because I'll give you a great example. If it is a third and long period, which means that every snap the Jets offense takes, whether that's Zack Wilson, Mike White, James Morgan, or Josh Johnson, it is third and ten plus, which means that the defensive line can pin their ears back and really get after the quarterback.

Where if the Jets, let's say, on a standard drive in the regular season, run the ball twice and they get to a third and four area, the defensive line of whatever opponent is probably not going to be able to pin its ears back. So I think that it's a good you have to take that into account. But when we watch, we don't know what exactly they're working

on on a day to day basis. Like today, the Jets offensive line, the reserve offensive line did a great job opening up the holes for Ty Johnson, like here we come, and those guys couldn't stop them. It was full steam ahead. It was like here and that's really I think what the Jets want to do as an offense is establish a run and then execute chunk plays

off of play action. And that period it seemed like they were moving the ball up, so it wasn't like a third and long specific period, but earlier in practice when you see Zach Wilson roll to his right and you know, make a what I think people would say is a questionable decision, like, oh, why didn't you throw that away? To your point, maybe you know it's a third and long or it's a gotta have it period and you have to throw the ball. We don't know

exactly what's going on. Sala also said something very interesting that he's going through a learning process in terms of seeing what he can do and what he can't from that's all part of it as well. Yeah, you never want turnovers. I get that, and I'm not minimizing uh mistakes, But where do you want to make mistakes on the

practice field? Right? I want to make I want my young players to make more mistakes on the practice field so they can go back and have film to look at it, learn get better tomorrow, and then get better against the Giants, and get better during practices against the Packers and so forth. Um. The other thing is they continue to say that he soaks things up like a sponge. He can't get enough. And in fact, today Salo was

referring to him going across the hall. Not only is he learning from Michael Flour and Rob Calibery's the Jets quarterbacks coach, but I haven't heard too many young quarterbacks do this at this stage of their careers. Where he's going into Jeff all bricks room, the defensive coordinator at the Jets, and talking through things from a defensive lens. So he wants to know what they're thinking, how they're attacking. So that speaks to what he wants to be, what

he aspires to be. Yeah, has it been perfect out there? No? Has there been times where you're shaking your head and there like it doesn't look good? Yeah, but there have also been plenty of times on the practice field. Case in point red zone yesterday, throws an unbelievably gorgeous toss too, Corey Davis back shoulder to sick catch. But that's the kind of connection you want to see throughout the year.

And you mentioned it before. La Fleur has mentioned it before, Sala talks about it, Albrick talks about the problems this run game will give opposing defenses. Is everything they're going to do offensively is predicated on the run game done a lot of play action and boots that fit. Zack Wilson's game is going to follow. It's not like Sala and La Fleur are gonna have him come out and they're gonna throw twelve straight times and Caroline on, here

we go and we're just running spread off us. I also think I don't know, no, I agree with everything you're saying. I also think that over the next week between the green Bay joint practice, let's let me rewind the Giants Gang, the Green Boy, the Green Boy, the green Bay joint practices, and the game next Saturday against the Packers at Lambeau, I think you're gonna learn a

lot about this Jets team. And the Jets have had what four for four padded practices, five padded practices maybe, And I think that when you have joint practices and you have a game, things get elevated up another level. I understand the preseason you're probably running vanilla schemes, but I do think that you'll be able to see certain things.

You'll be able to tell certain things, like for just using special teams as an example, when the lights are on, that's really when you evaluate your special teams, whether that's kickers, punters, returners, gunners, core special teamers. Rand lawyers consistently set it. You can't really go a hundred ten miles an hour on the fields behind us because that's friendly fire. You can't. And when you're on special teams, you gotta go at a crazy speed all the time. Yeah, and you're right about that.

The kicking battle, uh is ongoing. You know those two guys who are here had good days today, and that he humanity that the kickers gotta love. Um Braxton Burials has done some very good things to the punt return on the National Football League. Corey Valentine Um was a lead kickoff returner last year, but it extends beyond that, because who are going to be your core special teamers.

Justin Hardy left practice early today. Hopefully that's something minor, because I like what I saw in limited plays Saturday Night when he was a gunner, he was all over the place, like as far as when that punt was coming down, thirty four was right there. Also, you got you gotta talk about Justin Hardy as a corner because we often think of him as just a special team's ace.

Feels like he's quietly having an impressive camp on the outside. Yeah, and I know he's going against reserves mostly, but if you have charted all the pds in camp, I don't know hard he might have the most p ds out of anybody. But speaking of cornerback, I'm glad you brought that up. I believe it's open competition everywhere. Everywhere. That's nickel and both outside spots. Yeah, that's that is straight up a fact. And I'm key at the Green and

White practice. After a couple of days of seeing rotational guys on the outside, like Salas said, as I had done getting some run, Brandon Echols getting some run, both rookies, one drafted, one undrafted. Then we saw Bryce Hall and

Bless Austin. And I feel like Bryce Hall the past four days or so has really started to come on strong in terms of coverage, and he's a player that in college before his scenes, so his senior year was basically washed with an ankle injury or leg injury that pushed his NFL debut back up to Monday Night Football midway through the season last year and against the Patriots. He was an ultra productive player at Virginia the year before,

led the nation in past defenses. He's got height, he's got length, and I feel like if they were a player that could take a pretty sizeable jump with a proper offseason with I don't know a scheme fit, it could be Bryce Hall. You could definitely make that argument.

You know, you mentioned his length, and that's what he's known for, right So, I think where you gotta watch him now as the Jets take the next up here in the preseason, as he's talked about defeat and the quickness aspect of it, he can only get better from facing the guy like Elijah Moore, and I think oftentimes we've seen that matchup here in training camp. You're not gonna play too many players in this league or face too many players in this league who can match the

quickness of Alijah More. Just watching those guys from the press box angle the other night, and I'm gonna including Corey Davis in this one. Wow, those guys really make some sharp breaks on ropes. Corey Davis is another player who I think maybe had a quiet first week. And since he's just he's hitting doubles all the time, he's not hitting singles and he's not in hitting home runs. He's just always there when you need him to be.

And whether that's a red zone fade from Zack Wilson with a nice little toe tap on the end zone, whether that's third down on the outside, something over the middle, I think he's really come on strong. And this is he's really a solid player. You you just watch four watch him play and play out. Yeah, he's so solid. And I think Wilson a good point there, I think, and would you say this is fair? I think Wilson is camp has progressed, is looking in his direct action more.

I definitely agree with that. I think he might be he could become the go to guy, like in a pinch or whenever you need to play. Even though I think Elijah Moore and the start of camp has really been like the big play guy, Corey Davis feels like maybe the the security blanket so far. He knows where the sticks are. He's a very good route runner. He's a big body, so he can box guys out and get to that ball first. He explodes at the top

of his routes. Um, he's got very good hands. But those two have a ways to go to and I'm sure they would both tell you this is that Wilson targeted him a lot of times on Saturday night and they only connected on like three of them. I think, yeah, Saturday night was wasn't the offense's best night for all. But it also depends on what kind of lends you want to look at it through, because on the flip side, you could talk about how well the defense played, and

I think the defense has been very impress said. Also, you have to take into account that Robert Salis aid, at this point in training camp, the defense should have the upper hand as training camp goes on, in the offense finishes it's installed, which happened a couple of days ago. Now the offense has a chance to catch up. Then you're on the level playing field, and that's when you probably want to see a little more give and take between both units. And the defensive line has just been

really good. So when they're buzzing around the tower like that, which they often are. The quarterbacks clock has too, It's got to speed up because you've got to get rid of the football all. We talked about Carl Lawson so many times, but we haven't talked about him enough because he's just been awesome. And then you have full and runs of Fadakasi and Sheldon Rankins and Nathan Shepard in the middle. We haven't even seen Quinn and Williams at

John Franklin Myers has been very good. Jeff Albrick loves Bryce off. I'll tell you that one right now. He talked to the media about that he raved about his work ethic when I had an opportunity to talk to him. So you have a lot of guys up front, and hopefully you get Vinny Curry back maybe we two of the regular season. Kyle Phelps still bang up. But Williams is a guy you know we're targeting next week because you bring him back into the equation. So what is

the defensive line ceiling? I think the defensive line should have Jets fans extremely excited. And to wrap up this episode of the pod, I know it's preseason, so he can't really take a whole lot out of it. Right, it's not a regular season game. Having He's kind of vanilla in terms of scheme. Not tip your hand, but is there a position or are there a player or two that you're looking forward to seeing putting the pads on against the Giants or even against the Packers next

week and joint practices. I think quickly I would go to the cornerbacks. I mean, we're gonna have our eyes on the cornerbacks every game because who's able to take their play to another level when you're facing another team. And that's not only outside, but that's inside as well. The young line of backers I'm constantly watching and whether it be Nasrel Dene or Sherwood. Sherwood is the backup

mike and he's an awfully heavy ball player. And then on the other side of the ball, how about the offensive line, because each and every day we're talking about how great the Jets defensive line is. I'm not knocking any other teams, but if I'm not, I'm a Jets off it's a lineman and I'm going against these guys

every day, especially when Quentin Williams gets back. I'm thinking to myself Okay, I'm prepared to face any defensive line in the NFL, so I especially want to see how that first unit offensive line does not only gets the Giants because we're gonna have to see how many series as they play, but against the Packers throughout that week. Yeah, I definitely agree with you. I agree with both positions, corner and offensive line, but I'm really about the offensive

line in particular. To me, it's like, well, I understand, you have to get better, you have to be aggressive in practice, but it's not like it's a not like the defenders are tackling the offensive player. So how much do you really want to snap off the ball and start trying to bury your own teammate. I mean, I'm sure that that happens throughout the league, but I wonder if when the Jets play the Giant Saturday or against

the Packers, if they really fire off the ball. I want to see what that looks like as a unit. And I think outside of corner, uh yeah, I probably say corner. I just feel like we've talked about so many different guys and there's all these uh I know what they're gonna say running back, because there's some guys there where they've each flashed Kevin Coleman, Michael Carter, Austin Walter,

Josh Adams, p Ryan by missing somebody, Ty Johnson. So Austin wal there's like the overlook guy that continues to make plays. I know, but I just I want to see what they look like in a game setting. And we've seen Michael p Ryan now run over to Jets defenders. He's got a little pop to him, right, Everyone's got a different flavor. I'd like to see what the running

game as a whole looks like. Yeah, yeah, And we'll get a better read on Wilson because of that, because everything is gonna be predicated on what the Jets can do running the football, and we're gonna get early indications into that here this summer. Again, you're not gonna use your best stuff, but you just want to see these guys winning one on one on one battles inside the trenches and see if they get some good push. Because Wilson is good with bald reception, He's also very good

in terms of moving we all know that. And he's comfortable with on the ball on the run, and La Fleur likes to use that run to set up the

play action stuff down the field. One thing on Wilson that I found interesting Daniel Jeremiah was here at Jets camp and he said, the one thing about Zack Wilson that you can't see practicing is what a lot of people fell in love with in the pre draft process was him being a gamer and some of the magic that he can create off script in a game setting, and he can't really do that here when you're on

third and fifteen practice periods and specific scripted periods. As you get in the game, you can do stuff what you said, where maybe his ball deception is further along where a normal rookie is, and that allows, you know, that makes the defender collapse on the run. Now he's open or and he has room to run and roam and he can hit somebody downfield. I think that those are the types of things that you want to look for. Is what listen When he's been decisive, he's been good.

Uh it's clear when you see him going back and he feels comfortable with it and he lets it rip. He's been good. He's gonna have his moments. He's still gonna have his moments along the way. But I say enjoy the ride right now. And I think this is a very good offense for a rookie quarterback to come into because you're hoping you get that really good push from the offensive line. You have multiple running backs who can do different things. You are not going to go

away from that. And you have an interesting group of targets. Now Alije More comes in. You got the savvy veteran and Jamison Crowder Corey Davis is so solid um and there are other guys in that mix as well. Don't forget about Denzel Mims. He popped today at practice. Denzel Mimms is an interesting case and in social media right now because a lot of fans want to see stuff from him. Some fans think that he's not gonna even make the team, but look, Denjel Limbs, I think has

been ascending. I was very impressed with his green and white catch, the one when he came back and plucked it from the corner. You really saw the aggression. He's a player to me that plays better impads because he is a tall, physical receiver and when he can get on you, and he's a very good run blocker. So I think that he's somebody that will benefit from the pad being on, and we'll see how he performs against the Giants, as we'll see for the entire New York

Jets team. And that's all we have here on this episode of the Official Jets Podcast.