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Morris County – Jets have a tough dilemma this week with . . .
. . . cornerback Mo Claiborne.
Claiborne is dealing with a foot injury. He did practice today and did get reps with starters, but keep in mind, this was the case leading up to the Tampa Bay game. He started that game, but shortly into that contest, he was limping around the field, and had to come out.
So Todd Bowles is going to have a tough decision entering this game.
While Claiborne might look okay in practice, if he starts the game, but comes up hobbling again, and has to come out, you play the game short a cornerback, because you deactivated another corner, which was the case in Tampa Bay, when Robert Nelson was deactivated.
I asked Todd Bowles today how he will deal with this quandary.
“We have to trust him,” Bowles said. “He has to tell us the truth. We have to evaluate him on our own and we’ll go from there.”
So that is the key – “he has to tell us the truth.”
Only Claiborne truly know how his foot feels. And this is the dangerous part of the situation for the Jets – Claiborne knows he has a reputation of being injury-prone, and he’s playing for his next contract (he’s on a one-year deal with the Jets), so if he misses a bunch of games this year, it could be hard for him to get a contract next year.
So the Jets need to be really careful with this situation.
The Jets certainly need Claiborne, who is their best cornerback, but they don’t need him if he will have to exit the game early, which was the case in Tampa Bay . . .
Somebody got to Kony Ealy.
Remember when he wrote about Ealy saying on the NFL Network, early this week, that he was looking for “revenge” against Carolina.
He wasn’t going there today in his first meeting with the Jets’ press this week, and essentially said nothing, and shot down all questions about “revenge.” He was bland as heck – New England-like.
This is fine, but maybe somebody should have talked to him before he went on the NFL Network.
The horse is already out of the barn . . .
On the day before Thanksgiving, you always have TV reporters asking players “what they are thankful for.”
When a CBS local reporter asked Leonard Williams this question, he responded, “Playing for a great team so united all year.”
Leonard is a very upbeat guy, a true team player, and it really bothered him how splintered and dysfunctional the 2016 Jets were.
He took leadership classes in the off-season to help improve the situation.
And Jets management helped with changing the complexion of the roster – more hungry, younger players, and less independent contractors.
While the Jets still have some work to do to improve their roster, they have done a 180 as far as football culture.
And Williams quote today speaks volumes about how much better the Jets’ clubhouse is this year.
November 22, 2017
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