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Florham Park – It’s time for another heaping helping of Website Whispers. The content on his website is entirely different than our monthly magazine.
The Houston Texans have three former Jets playing prominent roles on their offense.
With Owen Daniels out with an injury, Joel Dreessen will start at tight end. He was a sixth round pick of the Jets in 2005 out of Colorado State, but lasted only one season with the Jets. But he’s carved a nice niche for himself in Houston. This is his fourth season with the Texans.
The Texans starting left guard is Wade Smith. He was a backup with the Jets in 2006-2007.
And the backup tailback, who spelling Arian Foster, is Derrick Ward. He was a 2004 seventh round pick of the Jets, but never appeared in a game. The Jets put him on the practice squad and the Giants signed him, and he spent the next five years with Big Blue and earned a Super Bowl ring . . .
The Jets beat the Houston Texans in Rex Ryan’s first game as the team’s head coach, but I get the sense that game isn’t being used much in the Jets preparation. It’s too long ago, and too much has changed since then . . .
Mark Sanchez needs a lot of work on his accuracy. I saw him overthrow Patrick Turner in practice today. Sanchez is having a good season, but needs to improve his completion percentage . . .
With Dwight Lowery out of the lineup this week, expect to see a lot of James Ihedigbo at safety. The guy seems to make a lot happen in a limited role (like his sack last week), so it will be interesting to see what he can do with more playing time . . .
Even though I wrote about the potential of cornerback Will Billingsley in the last issue of Jets Confidential, I’m not surprised he was released from the practice squad. The poor guy was hobbling around the practice field the last few weeks with a surgical knee that wasn’t rehabbed very well, before he got to the Jets . . .
The Jets view the Texans as a very dangerous opponent, their third straight in a must-win game. The Jets barely got by the last two teams, and the Texans are better than Cleveland and Detroit, and have a much more accomplished quarterback.
Matt Schaub is light years ahead of Matt Stafford and Colt McCoy right now, and considering how anemic the Jets pass rush has been recently, I don’t think if the Texans won, it would be a big upset . . .
With all the attention being paid to defensive end Mario Williams, the Jets better not sleep on the other end, Antonio Smith, who really hurt them in the opener last year . . .
The promotion of wide receivert Patrick Turner from the practice squad wasn’t just due to Jerricho Cotchery’s groin injury, but also for special teams. The Jets are down two good special teams cover guys – defensive backs Marquice Cole and Dwight Lowery, so they need another coverage player, and they think Turner has the potential to be good in this area . . .