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Extra, Extra! Get your Jets’ Whispers here. You don’t want to miss it. Tonight we get into a few nuggets on Kerley, Hill, Shockey, Sanchez and more . . .
Late in the first half of the Jets-San Francisco game, Mark Sanchez hit Jeremy Kerley over the middle, he got crushed by safety Donte Whitner. He was rocked. Amazingly, he held on, and kept running. It showed amazing toughness. I think he got hit so hard, he started to run the wrong way.
I know this play only gained four yards, but it showed a lot about this football player.
With all due respect to man he’s replacing, but I don’t see him holding on to this football.
Kerley’s only 5-9, but he’s tough as nails. He’s an ascending player.
Remember last year, Kerley got his helmet got knocked off returning a punt, and he kept running, attempting to break tackles, with no helmet. He’s Texas tough.
Kerley is also terrific at running after the catch – making people miss in the open. His ability in this department is tantamount to man he’s replacing.
Maybe I’m alone on this one, and it’s not a popular position to take, but I truly don’t see a big drop-off from #10 to Kerley.
And this kid won’t say a word, won’t complain about “boo,” he will just go out and do his job.
I think one thing that is going to happen in the Jets’ passing game moving forward, is that Mark Sanchez will not feel the pressure to appease any target. He can just throw to the open man.
One person compared this situation a little bit to the New York Football Giants when Jeremy Shockey departed, and Eli Manning improved as a quarterback.
People around the Giants feel the Shockey departure allowed Eli to not worry about appeasement any more, but just about throwing to the open man.
I will never forget, in Miami last year, after #10 was tossed from the huddle, Mark Sanchez marched the team right down the field.
The Jets still lost, but this was one of Mark’s best drives of the year – boom, boom, boom, right down the field.
So maybe this unfortunate injury to Holmes, will lead to a Shockey-effect in the passing game.
With this in mind, Mike Tannenbaum did the right thing signing free agent wide receiver Jason Hill, and not Plaxico Burress, Terrell Owens or Chad Johnson.
The last thing the Jets needed to do was sign a primadonna receiver who would get in Mark’s head.
Hill is a guy who will just do his job, not chirp about ball distribution. Who knows, maybe he can turn into a Laurent Robinson-type addition?
Last year the Dallas Cowboys added Robinson on September 20. Two weeks later, he caught seven passes for 116 yards against Detroit. From Week 8-12, he caught 24 passes for 321 yards and seven touchdowns.
Like Hill, Robinson was a journeyman before landing in Dallas. The Cowboys were his fourth team. The Jets are Hill’s fourth team.
I think Hill is going to surprise. One thing that has hurt him in his career thus far is weak quarterback play. It was hard for any receiver to shine in Jacksonville last year.
The guy has 4.32 speed, and definitely has ability. He was very highly-regarded coming out of Washington State in 2007.
And just as important, he knows this is might be his last chance, so the Jets are going to get everything he’s got.
October 6, 2012
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