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Time for helping of Jets practice Whispers from Florham Park . . .
Watching practice today, it looks like cornerback Jeremy Clark was moved to safety. Hey, it could be an experiment, but that is where he lined up today. Moving him to safety certainly makes sense. He’s 6-3, 220, so he certainly has the size for it. And watching him in coverage at cornerback, I think he has issues keeping up with smaller, quicker targets in space if there isn’t a good pass rush. It’s hard for a cornerback built like Clark, at 6-3, with long legs, and average speed, to cut sharply with quick wide receivers. I think safety is a better place for him . . .
OLB Obum Gwacham had a very good practice today. He tipped two passes, including one on Sam Darnold that was picked off by Mo Claiborne. He’s 6-5, 250 pounds with the wingspan of an aircraft carrier. He’s a major threat to tip passes at any time. He also flashed as a pass rusher . . .
The Jets’ defense was kind of sluggish early in practice, and Steve McLendon called them together for a mid-practice speech, and read the them riot act because he felt there was no excuse to practice that way after having the day off.
Speaking of guys getting read the riot act, Jets defensive coordinator Kacy Rodgers ripped into rookie defensive lineman Foley Fatukasi for jumping off-sides and pulled him out of the lineup for a few plays . . .
On a run up the middle early in practice, Deon Simon was taken to the ground by a lineman and Bilal Powell ran into the hole for a nice gain.
I also saw Simon late in practice with a wrap on his lower right leg.
Simon is a terrific guy, but I think he’s on thin ice here, especially with the drafting of Nate Shepherd and Fatukasi.
Simon flashes at times, but needs to be more consistent, and needs to play with a lower pad level . . .
ILB Kevin Minter is a very good run defender, but struggles in space, in coverage, but I think we knew that when the Jets signed him . . .
Sam Darnold wasn’t very good today, but to me, that is totally expected and not a big deal. His accuracy was up-and-down. He has a lot of work to do.
Late in practice, he threw a pick down the left sideline to CB Derrick Jones on a pass intended for WR Andre Roberts. You can’t throw deep out routes late, and that is what he did here.
It’s never good for a quarterback to throw a pass late in the NFL.
“If you wait, you are late,” as Rich Gannon once said.
But Darnold especially can’t be late due to his long, windy motion which gives defensive backs an extra, split second to jump routes . . .
Jets center Spencer Long had some issues on a few plays with snaps to Josh McCown. This has happened in other practices.
This is one of the issues with having a three-way QB competition; it makes it tough on the starting center (especially a new one) to work on the center-QB exchange with one guy.
Long is snapping to three different guys . . .
August 1, 2018
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