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New Jersey – It’s time for a heaping helping of Dan Leberfeld’s Website Whispers live from Florham Park, New Jersey. Let’s go . . .
Geno Smith was asked today how tough it would it would be to adjust to a new receiver mid-season.
“It is not really hard to adjust because that is our job,” Smith said.
If it was only that simple.
Of course it takes time to adjust.
Why do you think that quarterbacks and receivers work for months in the off-season to get on the same page?
Look at how much chemistry Tom Brady had with Wes Welker, and now with Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski.
Look at Peyton Manning with Demaryius and Julius Thomas. That takes endless work together in practice and games.
When you watch Phillip Rivers and Antonio Gates work together, they know what they other is thinking, and this leads to a lot of big plays.
So it’s not nearly as easy as Smith said in that answer. Not even close.
The Harvin-experiment isn’t going to be easy on Smith.
And what the Jets have to avoid with Harvin, who has anger management issues, is him blowing his stack because Smith is off-target on number of occasions. These two players have no chemistry right now.
That doesn’t mean they won’t have some success along the way. Of course they will. Harvin is a dynamic talent, and plus the Jets schedule begins to lighten up starting this Sunday.
But this could be ugly at times. QB and WR chemistry doesn’t happen by snapping your fingers . . .
To the Jets’ credit, it doesn’t look like are going to overload Harvin with too much this week. Being around the team, I sense his role is going to be very limited. They aren’t going to make him the offensive centerpiece a little over a week after he joined the team . . .
The Buffalo Bills offensive line is struggling, and it looks like rookie guard Cyril Richardson is going to be benched this week in favor of Kraig Urbik. The Bills also have a rookie seventh round pick starting at right tackle in Seantrel Henderson.
Expect the Jets’ talented defensive line to have a field day against these guys. The Bills know what a huge challenge this game is going to be for them upfront.
“IT’s a hard challenge,” said Sammy Watkins. “They have a great defensive line and linebackers. They fly around, they blitz a lot and they don’t give you enough time to throw the ball.”
Urbik is the kind of guard Sheldon Richardson gives fits to because he’s not that mobile and likes to play in a phone booth. These kind of players really struggle with Richardson’s quickness.
As for Henderson, look for the Jets to exploit him. He’s a major work-in-progress not a lot of scouts thought would start a as a rookie. This could be a long Sunday for the former Miami Hurricane . . .
With both Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller out, the Jets expect Anthony “Boobie” Dixon to be the main ballcarrier for the Bills, with Bryce Brown coming in on third down.
Don’t sleep on either one of these guys. To the Bills credit, they entered the season with perhaps the deepest running back depth chart in the NFL. Dixon and Brown both have starting traits, even though they were third and fourth on the depth chart.
The Jets view Dixon has a big back who will run you over, but who also has underrated quickness to make you miss . . .
One Jets player told me htat after limiting the packages for new starter Kyle Orton early on, the Bills have really opened their playbook for him the last two weeks . . .
October 22, 2014
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