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Morris County – Time for a heaping helping of Jets Whispers . . .
If Mo Claiborne can’t play on Thursday, the Jets could be in trouble. He’s by far the Jets cornerback.
He didn’t practice today, but that was probably for precautionary reasons. He has a chance to play, and they really need him.
If Claiborne can’t play, Buster Skrine, if he clears the concussion protocol, would be the Jets #1 cornerback. That isn’t a great role for him. He’s more of a nickel or dime back than a #1 cornerback.
But then again, if there were a game the Jets could overcome being short corners, it’s this one. The Bills aren’t loaded with scary receivers, and are a run-first team.
They also have a quarterback who doesn’t take a lot of chances.
I really liked what I saw from rookie Derrick Jones in training camp – he’s tall, fast, jumps out of the gym and has good ball skills.
But the big question is whether he has the Jets’ system down. You can’t just throw rookies out there before they know what they are doing with your playbook. The Jets did that last year with Darron Lee, and the results weren’t great. Lee said in a radio interview this summer he wasn’t comfortable with the system last year. He said it himself.
So I asked Bowles today is Jones is now comfortable in the Jets’ system.
Q)Where is Derrick Jones in his development?
Bowles: He’s practicing, he’s working hard. He’s learning every day, he’s getting better. His time will come.
Q)How is Jones doing picking up the system?
Bowles: He’s learning a lot.
Q)Are you comfortable with Jones’ playing?
Bowles: He’ll get to that point. He’s close to playing.
This guy can really help the Jets. He’s got a lot of natural ability . . .
Bowles was asked today about Matt Forte’s comments in the post-game somewhat critical of the Jets’ abandoning the run.
“It’s a waste of my time to even talk about it,” Bowles said.
Not sure what to make of Bowles reaction.
It’s never a good idea for a player to call out a coach, in this case Jets offensive coordinator John Morton, for his game-plan or play-calling.
Can you imagine a player doing this in New England? They’d have a bus ticket out of town.
But to Bowles, it doesn’t seem like a big deal.
Perhaps Bowles feels he has enough issues to deal with, so why kick over ant hill and make a big deal about this . . .
I know the Jets’ pass defense is a little inconsistent, but that first Atlanta scoring drive didn’t pass the smell test.
It’s not that the Falcons scored that was so surprising, It was that their tight ends were basically wide open on four plays – three passes to Austin Hooper and one to Levine Toilolo. The Jets made these guys look like the second coming of former Falcon Tony Gonzalez.
I asked Todd Bowles today what happened on that drive, and he was totally frank, and said the Jets’ communication system broke down (perhaps due to the downpour), and they stayed in the same defense basically the whole series.
Like I said, what we saw on that drive was odd, and now we know why – they couldn’t make adjustments . . .
Jets center Wesley Johnson and right tackle Brandon Shell, both look like they have a good chance of playing on Thursday . . .
It looks like Bills starting cornerback E.J. Gaines is a long-shot to play on Thursday. Starting safety Jordan Poyer also might not play. This should bode well for the Jets’ passing attack.