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Florham Park – The Jets are back in bucolic Florham Park, and Dan checks in with a heaping helping of practice notes from Monday . . .
Saalim Hakim was running a crossing route and pulled up a little bit as he was crossing.
Why?
Guess who was right in front of him, and lining him up?
You got it. Calvin Pryor.
And as his reputation continues to grow as a menacing hitter, expect a lot of receivers to react the same way when they see him in front of them . . .
Speaking of Pryor, I saw him line up over wide receiver Quincy Enunwa on one play today in practice.
Pryor, who runs under 4.6, has the ability to cover some wide receivers, and could help the Jets as they deal with injuries at cornerback . . .
Jets tight end coach Steve Hagen has done a great job of developing Zach Sudfeld over the last year. He has taken a quantum leap as a blocker and a route runner. The Jets have big plans for Sudfeld this year.
The 6-7 Sudfeld has quite the wingspan, and that was on display today when he reached way down and hauled in a low Mike Vick pass over the middle . . .
Geno Smith threw a deep pass down the left sideline to Chris Johnson that was incomplete.
It wasn’t a bad throw.
Johnson, who hasn’t run a lot of deep routes in his career, seems to have issues tracking deep balls, which can be very difficult.
He had issues in Cortland tracking deep passes.
If he can get this fixed, he could be quite a weapon for the Jets, catching defenses off guard going deep with his great speed . . .
Jets had Calvin Pace and Jason Babin as their starting outside linebackers in practice today.
That is a lot of age out there.
Rex Ryan talked today like Babin has the team made, like it’s a lock. Maybe they should evaluate what they have first.
Perhaps this signing will work out well for the Jets, but watching the Jacksonville-Chicago game last week, the Jaguars didn’t generate much of a pass rusher. Jay Cutler had all day to throw.
They need another pass rusher, but they got rid of Babin.
Like I’ve said before, I don’t see a player with same burst off the edge he used to have, but perhaps he can make up for that with his bag of tricks as a pass rusher . . .
The Jets started today’s practice with their first-team offense against the second team defense.
That is somewhat apropos, since that is when they took over the game in Cincinnati . . .
Geno Smith was checking down to running backs a lot today.
Expect a lot of that this year. It’s clear that after 21 picks last year, he wants to cut down on interceptions, so he’s not going to take a lot of chances.
On one check down, Eric Decker (picture above) was running a deep route.
I think Decker will help the Jets, but for you fantasy players out there, I could see him catching around
50 passes this year. He just doesn’t catch a lot of passes in practice.
There was a deep out from Smith to Decker today that sailed way over his head . . .
IK Enemkpali had some kind of issue with his left knee. It was heavily wrapped . . .
Tajh Boyd had accuracy issues against today, throwing behind Jacoby Ford and over the head of Chris Pantale.
It’s almost like the poor kid is a golfer with the yips. He’s a great kid. For his sake, hopefully he can get this fixed . . .
August 18, 2014
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