Content available exclusively for subscribers
Madison, New Jersey – Dan checks in from the town next to Florham Park, home of Neil O’Donnell, with some nuggets on the Jets . . .
With Stephen Hill’s knee injury making him a long-shot to play on Sunday, and perhaps jeopardizing the rest of the season, look for the Jets to elevate Salim Hakim from their practice squad.
The brother of former St. Louis Rams WR Az Hakim, Salim has world class speed, having been clocked at under 4.3.
He played in the now-defunct UFL for Las Vegas and head coach Jim Fassel.
Watching him run in practice, you can’t help but go – “wow.” Speed like this is rare.
He can help the Jets not only at receiver, but in the kick return game . . .
I know Rex Ryan believes in freedom of speech, but how do the comments of Santonio Holmes help his team’s cause entering the Carolina game?
Holmes was asked about the Carolina defense today, and gave an answer that had to make some in the building cringe.
“We do know, and not to call these guys out, but their defense, their secondary is probably their weakest link on their defense,” Holmes said. “But, their front seven are guys that (are) really going to get after the ball. They have really great pass rushers.”
Why go there?
Why motivate give a defense, already playing on a high level, and with great intensity, with bulletin board fodder. It makes no sense.
I know somebody will probably accuse the press of taking him out of context, but that doesn’t seem to the case here.
When asked a follow-up question about his comment regarding the secondary, Holmes said, “Just from the numbers perspective, guys in their position. Nothing from my judgment that puts those guys in that category. It’s the way they’ve been ranked throughout the NFL, it’s not my perspective.”
I’m sorry, that isn’t going to cut it as a caveat.
The cat is already out of the bag, and these cats, the Panthers, are going to use this as a rallying cry.
And honesty, do you want to provide extra fire to a secondary facing a rookie quarterback, who has thrown one touchdown pass in the last six games, and has thrown 20 picks on the season, and tends to telegraph passes?
I don’t get it.
The Belichick’s and Parcell’s of the world would read a player the riot act for giving the opponent this kind of fuel.
But nothing is likely going to happen here because people tend to walk on egg shells around this player.
The bottom line is it’s a big mistake to make a comment like this before a game – there is no way around that . . .
Geno Smith made the following comment and it got a lot of press –
“I was playing like a robot,” Smith said. “Everything is not ideal on the field. Sometimes you’ve got to improvise,” Smith said. “I think I kind of got into this zone where I just tried to be way too perfect. And that’s almost impossible to do at any level, especially as a rookie. There were times where I was so caught up in running the play and executing it to perfection that I didn’t allow my natural ability to take over.”
Perhaps, but let’s see what happens in Carolina.
I have a hard to believing that a rookie quarterback changed his stripes based on one win over a bad Raiders team?
Perhaps he took off running more in the Raider game, which he had some success with, so that worked out well.
But he still had a major issue with telegraphing passes, throwing a near pick to S Charles Woodson, and then a pick on the very next play to LB Kevin Burnett.
And then after the Ed Reed pick in the red zone, Smith almost gave the ball right back on a telegraphed pass that LB Nick Roach almost picked off.
This season has been ridiculous from a narrative standpoint.
One week Geno has arrived, the next week he’s a bust, then he’s arrived again, and then he’s a bust.
It makes your head spin.
We will see in the next three games whether Geno has moved on from his supposed robot stage.
December 11, 2013
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Friday.