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Before practice today . . .
Jets special team’s leader Justin Hardee gave a fiery speech to the team . . .
During practice today, rookie defensive end Jermaine Johnson was doing physical therapy on a distant field. He is coming off a ankle sprain suffered against Miami, and might still be a week away.
The Jets can afford to take their time with him thanks to quality depth at defensive end. Two reserve defensive ends – Bryce Huff and Jacob Martin – both flashed last week during the Jets in Green Bay. And they also have Vinny Curry . . .
NFL Network’s Tom Pellisaro announced that Russell Wilson sustained what could be a “fairly significant” hamstring injury against the Los Angeles Chargers in a loss on Monday Night Football. Wilson’s agent is Mark Rodgers.
You combine that with the shoulder injury he suffered recently (partially torn lat), and the veteran QB is quite banged up.
Pellisaro also announced recently that Wilson flew to Los Angeles to get an injection to relieve his shoulder pain.
But you think about those two injuries, and what they can do to his style of play. He likes to run around and launch deep shots. Bad hamstring and bad shoulder could certainly take away from that significant part of his skill set . . .
This isn’t to take anything away from the impressive performance of the Jets’ defense in Green Bay. Still, the Packers played that game without Christian and Sammy Watson, two of their top receivers, and then lost another top receiver, Randall Cobb, early in the third quarter. So this made it very hard for Aaron Rodgers to stage a second-half comeback in this game.
But, hat-tip to the Jets for shutting down the Packers nonetheless. You can’t control who the other team has or doesn’t have.
However, the assignment this week, for the Jets’ pass defense, will be a lot more challenging with the Broncos’ talented trio of receivers Jerry Jeudy, K.J. Hamler and Courtland Sutton. That will be more of a challenge than what they faced in Green Bay. Jeudy and Hamler have world-class speed . . .
Jacob Martin is the brother of former Jets linebacker Josh Martin. They are from Denver, and Jacob will have a lot of friends and family at the game.
I was wondering what happened to Josh Martin, a Columbia graduate. Figured he would be doing something interesting post-football.
Josh owns a few Smoothie Kings franchises in the Denver area . . .
It’s amazing how fast this player’s story with the Jets changed.
One of the big surprises of Jets camp this summer was tight end Lawrence Cager. A former wide receiver, the Jets moved him to tight end in the spring, and he seemed to really take to the position this summer, looking good in training camp and the preseason.
He was so good in camp, he actually made the team. When they started the project, most probably thought he’d be on the practice squad, but he actually made the team, and played some in the first half against Baltimore. He had a holding call on a run, and fell down on a pass thrown to him, and that was the last we saw of him. Perhaps he was rushed into action at a new position.
He was inactive for every game after that, and was released last week.
Well now he’s a member of the Giants’ practice squad. Never saw this coming. Thought the Jets had a diamond in the rough who could help them, but now he’s gone.
Obviously the two tight free agents given good money – Tyler Conklin and C.J Uzomah – were going to be in front of him. That is understandable.
But the thing that doesn’t make a ton of sense was putting Jeremy Ruckert, who clearly isn’t 100 percent, in front of him. This seemed a little unfair, considering Ruckert clearly isn’t healthy. Ruckert is a heck of a prospect, but every time you see the guy he’s limping. He’s coming off a serious foot injury from the spring.
Not sure why the Ruckert story ended this way, but I’m not going to lie, I never say it coming . . .
Watching Quincy Williams practice today, he looked like he was still hobbling a little bit on his high ankle sprain, which makes his 14-tackle game on Sunday even more remarkable.
He should be okay to play this week, but he’s still fighting through this a little. It’s rare for a high ankle sprain to truly heal in three weeks.
October 19, 2022
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