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Let’s jump into another batch of Jets Website Whispers. Let’s get it started . . .
The craziness coming out of Thursday’s OTA’s continues.
On Friday, a headline in USA Today read – “Is Tim Tebow already falling behind starter Mark Sanchez?”
How can he be falling behind if there really is no competition?
And let’s say there was a competition, what coaching staff would put a guy in the lead based on one rough practice. Not many.
“Great headline in USA Today,” said one source close to the Jets, who has been around the team a long time. “How little football does he know to write a story that implies that after Tim Tebow threw two INTS on two plays he never ran before and Sanchez didn’t throw any, in the third OTA in late May, indoors in the fieldhouse, Tebow is ‘already falling behind Sanchez.’ He may be or may not be, but two May OTA INTs tells you nothing. But then again, as soon as that happened, I knew what the reaction would be.”
To a certain degree, the media blowing the Sanchez-Tebow “battle” out of proportion is by design.
I heard one tabloid sports editor told his writers at Jets camp – “keep writing Tebow.” That tabloid feels Tebow sells papers.
I will never forget something a website writer told me last year.
I forget the game, but he was at a Jets’ game last season that wasn’t a particularly sexy matchup. He’s based out of the South.
I asked him, why would you come up to New Jersey for this game?
He said, “The Jets move the needle.”
These high level websites, like the one he works for, can track what teams, players, and so forth, bring in the most traffic.
And the Jets were one of those teams last year that created website traffic.
If that was the case last year, with Tebow now on the Jets, can you imagine how the Jets are going to “move the needle” this year?
Getting back to USA Today. The newspaper business is in a lot of trouble.
It was announced this week, that the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, is only going to publish three days a week.
So if they have a story that is going to push product, for the print version, or the website, newspapers are going to jump all over it.
Even if there is no legitimate quarterback competition, this Sanchez-Tebow story is a hot one.
And the media is going to play it up as much as possible . . .
The Jets brought in veteran free agent linebacker Rocky McIntosh for a visit this past week.
He was a second round pick of the Washington Redskins in the 2006 draft, and spent the first six years of his career there.
He was a 4-3 outside linebacker the first four years of his career, but moved inside in Jim Haslett’s 3-4 system the last two years.
I asked one Redskins observer what McIntosh’s best position in the 3-4 is.
“Position in 3-4? The bench,” said the writer. “He’s best as a weakside LB in a 4-3. They moved him inside in the 3-4 and he struggled with always knowing which gap to fill and with missing tackles. He had a tough first year with it and I did not expect him to return last season- figured Perry Riley, a rookie in 2010, would start. But because of the lockout, Riley lost a lot of work in the offseason and was not ready when camp started, so they re-signed Rocky. Riley replaced him as a starter around week 9. Rocky actually started out well last season, then his play regressed. just wasn’t reliable inside. not great in coverage. his strength as a weakside linebacker was taking on blockers; and playing physical, but inside he got out of position too much. He was inactive for the finale because he missed curfew.”
McIntosh is probably a player the Jets will sign if somebody gets hurt, but right now, they have plenty of bodies at inside linebacker.
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