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New Jersey – A few observations I want to share from last week’s practice that I didn’t get around to . . .
Bryce Petty has improved, but he still needs a lot of work, which is understandable, coming out of Baylor offense that was very, very simple, and doesn’t translate to the NFL. In other words, one year on ice with the Jets wasn’t enough. He probably needs another one.
He seems to like to take off running. On one particular play, I saw his first read wasn’t open, and he took off scrambling. Remember at Baylor, it was a one-read offense. It so hard for these college quarterbacks from these one-read college systems to get used to getting past that first read and forcing themselves to go through their progressions. They didn’t have to do that in college.
I will give Petty credit for his cadence. He got Jets defenders to jump off-sides on more than one occasion . . .
Speaking of Petty, he was picked off by CB Kevin Short on a deep pass to rookie WR Robbie Anderson.
This was a really nice play by Short, who is a guy we need to keep an eye on this summer in camp.
He’s kind of a mystery man.
He was a JUCO star who transferred to Kansas, but never played there. It’s unclear why he didn’t play, but Kansas was a dysfunctional mess at the time towards the end of the Charlie Weis regime.
But even though he didn’t play at Kansas, the Chiefs signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2015, and was released on the final cut, and immediately signed to the Seattle Seahawks practice squad, where he was for two months. When the Seahawks released him because they needed the space, the Jets jumped on him, and he spent the last six weeks of last season on their practice squad.
The fact that he made it to the final cut in KC after not playing football in 2014 was impressive. Also, he showed enough for the Seahawks, who certain know how to judge secondary talent, to jump on him. And then the Jets grabbed him the second Seattle needed to make a roster move.
He’s a tall corner at 6-2, 190 who has good ball skills and does a nice job of high-pointing the ball.
I would not be shocked if he makes it.
I liked what I saw from him in practice late last season, and he continues to impress.
I’ve said this before, and I will say it again, I think the Jets cornerback situation will actually be better this year than last year. There is no shortage of talent in that room . . .
Erin Henderson is going to bring a lot of energy to the Jets defense.
Now that he’s starting, he’s come out of his shell a little bit, and was talking trash in Jets practice constantly, firing guys up.
I know some people don’t like this, but I think it’s somewhat necessary in football, which is so violent and physically taxing, it’s good to have a guy out there who gets the guys fired up, pepped up.
On one play, he was chirping, and a young QB and a young center messed up the snap. I’m not going to name them because we aren’t supposed to do that.
But after the snap was messed up, Henderson yelled, “I’m in his head, coach. Don’t get nervous kid – it’s just football.”
You know what, the young center and young QB are going to face a lot worse from opponents, so this was a good experience for them . . .
Henderson had a nice PD on a pass over the middle to Matt Forte. Henderson has looser hips than DeMario Davis in coverage, so this helps him change directions easier, which he did on this play.
June 6, 2016
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