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Trevor Reilly blew out his knee late as a junior, and then was hobbled as a senior, after off-season surgery.
And then he had a scope after his senior season, and this made him slip in the draft.
But now, after dealing with his issue for almost two year, he seems to be out of the woods.
Not only is he running smoothly, but he’s wearing absolutely no brace or tape on his surgical knee.
One thing I’ve noticed early in camp is the 6-5 OLB gets his hands on a lot passes – he has a knack . . .
You have to give Jason Babin credit.
On just his second day with the team, he was working before practice with IK Enemkpali and Reilly on pass rush moves.
Talk about jumping into a leadership role quickly.
And they can learn a lot from this guy, who knows all the tricks in the book . . .
Brian Winters has looked good in camp so far. He had a couple of really nice plays today pulling in front of runners and clearing the way . . .
The trial-by-fire the Jets put him through last year seemed to pay off.
There is a lot of talk, and Rex got some questions about this today, regarding some kind of competition between Winters and Oday Aboushi.
That isn’t happening.
When Willie Colon comes back, Winters and Colon are the guards.
End of story . . .
Just like last summer, Troy Davis is making himself very hard to cut. The second year linebacker from UCF is constantly around the ball.
Rex Ryan praised him after practice and to the media today . . .
Now that the Jets have Chris Johnson to go along with Chris Ivory in the backfield, from what I see, Bilal Powell is going to have to play on special teams.
He earned praise today from the new special team’s coach on how he covered a kick.
It’s not that Powell isn’t going to be part of the running back rotation. He is. It’s just that as the third running back, you need to play on special teams, and it looks like he’s going to do just that . . .
Both quarterbacks did good things in today’s practice.
One area that Vick clearly has an edge is going through his progressions, which is understandable. He’s been in the league much longer.
Vick smoothly goes through his reads, moving his head slowing and calmly from one read to the next, and Smith is a little more herky-jerky, and like a lot of young quarterbacks, falls in love with the first read.
But just to re-iterate, they both looked good today . . .
I’m not going to make a big deal out of one plays, but as many of you heard by now, Smith threw a deep completion down the left sideline to Clyde Gates, who beat Dee Milliner. Milliner was also beat on a deep out late in practice by Eric Decker from Smith.
Like a prominent scout once told me, and I’ve used the quote here before, “Milliner is a #2 cornerback.”
And there is nothing wrong with that.
You need two starting corners.
But Rex continues to talk him up.
As we know the coach thinks that if he is confident in a player, it will elevate his games.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Just to re-iterate, I’m not hating on Milliner, just saying he’s more of a #2, and last time I checked, you need two good starters . . .
Late in practice, Vick rolled left and hit Jace Amaro, and the 270-pound tight end (and that is his current weight), took off down the left side line like a runaway locomotive.
Amaro is a beast running after the catch, looking to pancake anybody in his way . . .
Keep an eye on this fullback competition between Tommy Bohanon and Chad Young.
Bohanon dropped a pass today, and Young had two nice blocks on running plays, including a lead block on Troy Davis off left tackle, clearing the way for a nice run by Powell . ..
There were concerns about Calvin Pryor’s durability on the next level based on his no-fear, hell-bent hitting style for a 5-10, 207 pound player. Wow, it didn’t take long for that concern to rear it’s head, as he suffered what looks like a concussion in the team’s first padded practice, during a punting drill.
Perhaps this is a good sign for Pryor and the Jets that I saw him being carted BACK to the practice field following getting checked prior to the injury.
Now, he didn’t return to practice, but the fact that he was healthy enough to go watch practice would seem to be a positive sign. If a guy was really messed up with a concussions, he’s staying in the trainer’s room.
July 26, 2014
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