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A heaping helping of Richmond notes . . .
Brian Winters wasn’t at practice today. Todd Bowles was getting treatment.
Remember, he’s coming of a sports hernia which he needed surgery for.
Yesterday when I was walking on to the practice field, I saw him getting extra stretching from a trainer.
When I walked by, I was thinking – “Is his groin okay – why does he need this extra stretching?”
This was the kind of extra stretching I saw him getting last year during the season after suffering The groin injury.
I don’t want to guess at what is going on here, but more so want to get into who was starting for him – Jonotthan Harrison.
The Jets really seem to like this guy – he’s powerful, tough and smart. And if he has to start, he should do fine.
And I have mentioned before, it was a major mystery why the Jets elected to play Winters on one leg (as he put it), when they had Harrison, Dakota Dozier and Brent Qvale in reserve, all capable guards.
Think about it – the Jets re-signed all three players this off-season – Harrison, Dozier and Qvale. All had contracts that needed to be renewed and the Jets liked all three enough to bring them all back. So why couldn’t any of them take over for a hobbling Winters who was far from 100 percent? A head-scratcher.
Hot day in Richmond today, and toward’s the end of practice, I saw CB Rashard Robinson fall to the ground on the sideline – his left leg cramped and he couldn’t walk on. After a few minutes of treatment he was fine.
A teammate suggested he use mustard. I didn’t know this, but mustard can help with cramps . . .
Chad Hansen got slammed out of bounds on a deep out, and was on the ground for a few minutes grabbing his left thigh. He eventually returned, but we will monitor this . . .
I asked Trumaine Johnson today if he was happy with how the first-team secondary has practiced against the Redskins in Richmond, and he said, “We can definitely get better.
The Jets continue to struggle covering WR Paul Richardson, who has world-class speed . . .
Sam Darnold continues to look very good for a rookie, but still needs some work on his deep ball. Haven’t seen enough connections way down field. I’m sure this will fix itself this in time. He’s still developing chemistry with the Jets wide receiver.
One of Darnold’s better passes today was a strike over the middle to Hansen in tight coverage on a crossing route. He thread the needle . . .
One thing that has been pretty apparent here in Richmond is the Jets edge-rush is still pedestrian. The Redskins quarterbacks haven’t been under a lot of pressure. Todd Bowles was asked about his edge-rushing outside linebackers.
“Well we don’t have the name guy,” Bowles said. “We don’t have the Lawrence Taylor, so to speak, but we have guys that work hard and are very tough at the point of attack. You don’t need a name guy, you just need a guy with production and the production will make the name.”
That answer sounds like they don’t have a difference-making edge-rusher. Of course setting the edge (against the run) is important, but when you talk about the great edge-rushers like Von Miller and Justin Houston, do you hear people raving about how they set the edge? No it’s their ability to get to the quarterback?
The regular names we’ve heard around here the last couple of years are probably not going to emerge as special guy, but perhaps it will be Frankie Luvu or Brandon Copeland or maybe in a trade this summer. It look like Luvu is a diamond-in-the-rough.
August 13, 2018
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