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A heaping helping of Friday Whispers . . .
Daryl Roberts seemed to be hobbling around a little bit with an ankle issue, and needed to get some extra tape put on one of his ankles during practice. This isn’t an injury that will keep him out. Most defensive backs need extra ankle taping this time of year with all the cutting they do.
The Jets other cornerback Trumaine Johnson will miss the game with injuries to both ankles.
Looking at him in the locker room yesterday, I was trying to see what his limp was like with two ankle injuries. I could not tell which ankle he was favoring.
Maybe if you have two sprained ankles, you don’t limp as much, because they balance each other off.
Like I said the other day, the Johnson signing, so far, is not only one of the worst free agent signings in Jets history, but NFL history. Yes, NFL history. He got $45 million guaranteed and has played like a journeyman. What a historically poor decision by the former regime . . .
Look, I know the media only watches a small part of the practice, but watching the linebacker drills, Neville Hewitt (knee, neck) certainly looked good to me, but he’s clearly not going to play. They could have used him with the injuries to Avery Williamson, C.J. Mosley and Blake Cashman at inside linebacker.
James Burgess will definitely start at one of the inside linebacker spots, but the question is who will start next to him. The candidates are Brandon Copeland, Harvey Langi and Franki Luvu, who all got work at inside linebacker at practice this week.
Burgess will be fine. He’s not a downgrade from Cashman AT ALL. He started for Williams in Cleveland, so he is very comfortable in Williams’ system, as is newly signed B.J. Bello, who arrived on Tuesday, and played for Williams his rookie year in Cleveland. Bello said Burgess, who he played with in Cleveland, was a big help to him this week getting up to speed on some of the changes in Williams playbook from Cleveland to now . . .
Did not see Ryan Kalil on the practice field, so Jon Harrison will start at center. When the media went into the locker room after practice, as the players were taking their uniforms off, Kalil wasn’t even in uniform, he was in street clothes . . .
Who will start at left tackle? Kelvin Beachum had his helmet on and was practicing on Friday, but that decision is still a little up in the air. Chuma Edoga didn’t have a good game in Jacksonville, but keep in mind he was facing one of the NFL’s premier pass rushers, Yannick Ngakoue, who is hard on veteran tackles, let alone a rookie. If Edoga has to start this week, he should fair a little better since Miami has nobody close to Ngakoue as a pass rusher . . .
You get the sense Henry Anderson is going to return this week. If this was last year, I would say that would be a big boost for the Jets, but since he’s often lining up over offensive tackles this year, I’m not so sure. He’s much better over guards than tackles, and that is why he’s had a pedestrian season this year. To use him like a 4-3 end, playing him over tackles, isn’t the best utilization of his talent. Perhaps they will fix this with some time to think about it during his absence . . .
Jamal Adams talked to the media again today. He said he’s still not ready to talk to Joe Douglas and Adam Gase over the trade talks with Dallas. What did Gase do? He doesn’t run the personnel department, so why is Adams not talking to him?
“Maybe he doesn’t know how the Jets are structured,” said one long-time scribe.
October 1, 2019
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