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The other day . . .
On Wednesday, I wrote about the Tuesday practice:
“Mekhi Becton isn’t practicing. He still seems to be rehabbing his surgical knee. He is still wearing a bulky brace on his surgical knee. Here is what I don’t get: While they might want to hold him out of drills, why wasn’t he with the offensive linemen during their drills, listening to the teaching of the team’s new offensive line coach, Keith Carter.”
Well fast-forward to Friday. Becton came out from rehab to watch some of the offensive line drills and then the scrimmage part of practice. Good for him. Mental reps are just as important as physical reps this time of year . . .
As you know by now, Jets coach Robert Saleh canceled next week’s mandatory minicamp.
“With the Hall of Fame game, we’re reporting a week earlier than everybody else and guys need to get away,” Saleh said. “We’ve been here, they’ve put in a really good off-season, all the guys have since April, so April, May, June. Just to give the guys an extra week to go take their break.”
I get what he’s saying. The Jets will be reporting earlier than most teams since they are playing in the Hall-of-Fame game against the Cleveland Browns on August 3. But I’m old-school. The off-season programs are so limited now thanks to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, that I’m not giving anything back.
We have not seen Al Woods or Quinton Jefferson around. You know they would have been in town for that.
Once again, I understand his rationale, but the union forced the league to cut back so much in the spring (and summer), I’m not giving anything that was approved in the new CBA back.
And Zach Wilson certainly could have used the minicamp work for his mechanical reboot.
But after seeing C.J. Uzomah go down today with some kind of upper leg injury, that kind of stuff will make the argument for the other side of this argument.
The Jets leave the spring with some injury issues at tight end. Tyler C0nklin has been on the rehab field the last few weeks. Kenny Yaboah has a walking boot on his right foot, and now Uzomah is banged up. It’s hard to tell what Uzomah’s injury is because Saleh spoke before practice and wasn’t available after, but it looked like perhaps a quad or hamstring based on what he was holding while limping.
Saw Saleh and Joe Douglas huddling with trainer David Zuffelato after the injury . . .
Another interesting conversation that you wish you were a fly on the wall for was Jets cap man Dave Socie, talking to Jets defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton.
Have no idea what they were talking about, but some might guess Quinnen Williams,.
To me, the Ed Oliver deal in Buffalo makes sense for Williams, but I’m sure he wouldn’t accept that. But they are both undersized interior linemen who can beat offensive linemen with quickness into gaps, but can get engulfed against the run. I might be in the minority, but to me, run defense matters at DT . . .
Rookie offensive tackle Carter Warren was bouncing between right and left tackle today.
It’s going to be fascinating to see if he can handle left tackle on the NFL level. He looks like he could be a very good right tackle, but often guys who were able to get by at left tackle in college, have to move to the right side on the NFL due to athletic limitations. No saying he can’t play left tackle, but I’m sure most scouts probably looked at him as a right tackle/guard prospect . . .
Zach Kuntz had a couple of rough plays in practice today with a dropped pass and getting stripped after a catch leading to a fumble.
Yes, Kuntz flashed at the combine running 4.55 at 6-8, 255 pounds, but he has a lot to work on. He knows it and the Jets know it. He could probably use an NFL redshirt year . . .
June 8, 2023
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