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Some tidbits from Florham Park
With so much talk about who will start at right tackle, it’s not crazy to wonder who might start at left tackle as well.
After all, Mekhi Becton had a rough camp while getting used to the new zone blocking scheme. It’s well-documented he struggled blocking end Carl Lawson, before Lawson blew out his achilles on August 21. And remember, Becton missed some time recently with a concussion.
So the kid might need some time to get his sea legs back.
George Fant is a left tackle by trade. That is the position he played in Seattle.
Considering the Jets are starting a prized rookie at QB, picked second overall, the idea of starting veteran bookends to start off the season might not be that far-fetched to give the Jets a little more piece of mind at this point.
This has nothing to do with Becton’s potential, which is enormous, but perhaps the best decision for this week in the season opener . . .
During the media part of practice, Jets GM Joe Douglas was spending a lot of time around the offensive line drills, which he often does. He’s a very keen of observer of offensive linemen, and former college OT, so he can give great insight to the coaches about the big decisions they have to make this week on the offensive line . . .
Keelan Cole was added to the injury report with a knee issue. He was in great spirits in the early part of the practice the media gets to watch, and was doing sprints with teammates, so this must have happened late in practice, the part the media can’t watch. If he can’t go, the Jets have great depth at receiver, so they should be fine . . .
Earlier this week I wrote about the edge Jeff Ulbrich has in preparing the Jets’ defense for Carolina, and Joe Brady’s offense, because he faced them twice last year while coaching in Atlanta. I asked him about that today, and while he agreed with the premise, he did say Week 1 sometimes negates this kind of advantage because of the element of surprise.
“it’s funny, game one, especially I think for a young coordinator like Joe Brady, he’s a guy that he’s not scared of thinking outside the box, so I think although they’ve got their staples and they’ve got their basic fundamentals and the stuff that they do, I can image we’re going to see quite a bit of unscouted looks and stuff that he’s never put on tape,” said Ulbrich, pictured above. “So, I think in a normal year, it would have been probably more advantageous. The fact that this is game one, we’ll see. Hopefully it helps but, he could definitely go in a lot of different directions.”
A family friend has RB Tevin Coleman on his fantasy football team and asked me what I thought.
Now I never played fantasy football, and don’t know all the rules, but obviously you need offensive weapons who put up big numbers to be successful.
Based on watching the Jets all summer, I told him that the Jets are going to rotate a lot of backs, and Coleman will be in the mix, and get carries, but like won’t be the bell cow. There probably won’t be one.
Kyle Shanahan, and guys from his coaching tree, like LaFleur, want their running backs to be very, very physical and really pound the defense. Some might think this offense is finesse, but it’s nothing of the sort. So since they want their running back to be super-violent, they will rotate a bunch of them to avoid wearing them out. So expect Coleman, Ty Johnson, La’Mical Perine and so forth to all see action, but that might mean none of them will break 1,000 yards, but that isn’t the point – it’s a group effort.
September 9, 2021
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