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Florham Park – Another wild day at One Jets Drive, including a rather unusual press briefing with Jets offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo. Let’s get it started . . .
I’m sure you all heard about this Dave DeGuglielmo press “conference” today.
The Jets offensive line coach came into the press room looking for a fight.
It was great theater.
He was ticked off about a few things, and leading the list is a complaint sent to the league about him avoiding the media.
This avoidance could have lead to a fine for “Guge.”
Coordinators are required to speak once a week, but not position coaches. They are just required to speak three times a year.
DeGuglielmo claims he was available during the bye-week, but nobody showed up.
That was around the time of the hurricane, and there was some kind of misunderstanding between PR and the beat writers.
So in order to not get fined, he agreed to come to the press room today, but he clearly didn’t want to be there.
But once he was done giving one or two word answers, we got him going.
A few things are pretty clear.
He thinks the offensive line problems go way beyond the offensive line. Sacks come in many forms, he intimated that there were other guys involved in a number of sacks (like RB’s, TE’s, QB’s and so forth).
I have brought this up many times. Sometimes, when there is one free unblocked blitzer – that player is the responsibility of the quarterback, and he must get rid of the ball to a hot read to deal with this. Sanchez has not be great at this.
Also, clearly, the Jets miss LaDainian Tomlinson’s blocking at tailback. None of the Jets’ current tailbacks picks up the blitz as well as LT did.
I asked “Guge” how the left guard platoon is going, and he made it clearly he’s not into it, and people above him are forcing him to do it.
And there is no way it’s Tony Sparano – it’s clearly above Tony.
You get the sense it’s Mike Tannenbaum.
Also, “Guge,” who is fond of Wayne Hunter, clearly doesn’t think that Austin Howard is an upgrade. He wasn’t dissing Howard, but made it clear this wasn’t an upgrade.
“Everyone was complaining about Wayne Hunter, is [Howard] doing better than Wayne Hunter?” said DeGuglielmo. “I don’t know. Look at the stats.”
Howard is on pace to give up as many sacks as Hunter did last year.
I will have more on “Guge” in the coming days, but his presser was quite an experience.
And for those reporters that are complaining he was rude, get over yourselves. The media (including me) have been ripping this team all year, and when somebody fires back, they get their feeling’s hurt. Spare me . . .
Bart Scott addressed the media today about his commentary on the fans on Wednesday. The first reporter to deliver Scott’s feeling on some fans he feels are rude, was Neil F. Best of Newsday, pictured above.
First of all, Bruce Speight had to twist Bart’s arm to speak to the media today, and then when the briefing started, Scott looked miserable. He had a pissed off look on his face.
Scott did the interview, but it wasn’t like he was looking to clarify what he said.
Scott is a smart guy. He knew exactly what he was saying on Wednesday.
He addressed the media today because Bruce asked him to, not because he felt he owed people a big apology.
November 29, 2012
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