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Florham Park – Dan Leberfeld delivers another heaping helping of Website Whispers from Jets training camp . . .
The one player sidelined today in camp (aside from Brandon Moore who had off-season surgery) and that is guard Trevor Canfield, who has a left knee injury. Rex was asked about the injury in his press conference, but didn’t know much about it, or the player’s name . . .
Keep an eye on cornerback Ellis Lankster for the final cornerback spot. With Drew Coleman now in Jacksonville, and Marquice Cole on personal leave dealing with a family tragedy, there might be a spot available. One of the spots will go to Donald Strickland (FA-San Diego). Lankster, a former West Virginia star and Buffalo Bills draft pick has flashed. He had two impressive PD’s on deep passes in Monday’s practice . . .
Mark Brunell threw a pretty pass deep down the right seem to TE Jeff Cumberland. The Jets consider Cumberland their secret weapon. He’s a 6-4 260-pounder who legitimately runs under 4.5. He still needs work on his blocking, but he’s got an amazing ability to get way down field for his size. He’s a freak . . .
Another real nice pass by Brunell was a deep out on the left side to TE Matt Mulligan. The deep out is one of the most difficult throws in the NFL, and this one was perfect. It has a lot of velocity on it. Like I said yesterday, the 41-year-old can still spin it . . .
Kyle Wilson gave up a couple of completions to Santonio Holmes . . .
Mark Sanchez didn’t have a particularly good practice. He rolled right and attempted to hit Dustin Keller with Jamaal Westerman in front of the tight end, and Jim Leonhard in back of him. There was more than enough room to fit the ball in there, but Sanchez was way off target. There were quite a few other bad throws, but there is no point in documenting them all. Training camp is only one week old, and there was no off-season. The defenses are way ahead of the offenses. I’m not going to be overly-critical of the quarterback at this stage. That would be unfair.
But on a positive note – in a drill early in practice, Sanchez threw high on a crossing route to Plaxico Burress, and the wide out reached up high, and made a one-handed catch. Burress with his 6-5 frame, huge wingspan, and leaping ability is going to be such a boost to Sanchez, who often struggles with accuracy.
As Burress said (not about Sanchez, but in general) – “The quarterback doesn’t have to be accurate with me.” . . .
Temple WR Michael Campbell continues to have a very nice camp and will likely end up on the practice squad. He had a pretty one-handed catch on the right sideline . . .
South Alabama WR Courtney Smith is really struggling. He jumped off-sides, and was pulled out on the next play. He’s very, very raw . . .
By the way, once again there were a myriad of off-sides penalties, including one by Mo Wilkerson . . .
Perhaps to cut down on the collisions for his surgical leg, the Jets are playing Jim Leonhard a lot, way down field, in a single-high safety role . . .