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One surprise captain choice and one surprising non-choice
Some people might be surprised that offensive tackle George Fant is one of the Jets’ 2020 captains.
It actually isn’t a surprise when you realize how involved he is with the Player’s Coalition and social justice issues. He’s at the tip of the spear with that stuff, which is very important to many players right now, so his election as a captain is not a surprise.
The only slight surprise is that guard Alex Lewis isn’t a captain. Joe Douglas loves his leadership. Lewis gave some real fiery speeches to teammates. He always plays hurt. But the players went with the newly-arrived Fant over Lewis.
The other captains are Steve McLendon, Sam Darnold, Marcus Maye and Mattias Farley.
McLendon is the leader of the team, Darnold is the quarterback, Maye is the new leader of the secondary and Farley is a special team’s stalwart, including calling the signals for the punter (personal protector) . . .
Maye was wearing a sleeve on his lower right calf in practice today. He is dealing with a calf strain. Maye staying healthy is obviously very imporant for the Jets this year. He managed to stay healthy last year after injury issues his first two seasons, but now he’s playing closer to the line, as opposed to centerfield, so the job is a little more physically demanding, which is something to keep him mind considering his health history . . .
We wrote extensively yesterday about the challenges of the Jets’ new offensive line coming together, especially early in the season. But one thing that will help them in Buffalo is not having fans in the stadium. That place gets really loud, making it tough for opposing offenses to communicate on the line. That place can be tough on lines that have been together a while, can you imagine how tough it would have been for line just thrown together, in their first game? Obviously that issue is out the window this week . . .
The Jets issues with the Daily News continue. The Jets pulled Manish Mehta’s credential for the time-being (they feel they have just cause), and now his replacement has taken the baton from Mehta, and is continuing his scorched earth approach. Check out this exchange today:
Charles McDonald, New York Daily News: Adam, if the team finishes with a losing record for the second straight year, do you think it’s fair for Jets fans want a new head coach after the season?
Adam Gase: Well, let’s get to Week One. Let’s get to Week One and see what happens. I love your positivity. I’m glad that you are worried about Week 16 already. Let’s get to Week One.
Wow, that is quite a pointed question.
Not only is McDonald filling in for Mehta, he’s clearly asking a lot of questions on his behalf as well.
Crazy situation . . .
We all know about the extensive COVID-19 testing for NFL players and coaches, but what about NFL game officials?
Well, the plan there is to test them where they live on Wednesday, and then on Saturday, at their hotel near the stadium, they will be tested again. The Wednesday test will get a 24 hour result, and the Saturday test will come back in just two hours.
The officials are going to assigned regionally, closer to where they live, to cut down on travel. And if they get a positive test result on Saturday, the NFL will call in a replacement from that region of the country . . .
Players have be directed: “Don’t share towels, water bottles, food or clothing.” . . .
September 9, 2020
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