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It’s time for more Website Whispers from JC publisher Dan Leberfeld. With camp coming up, this a great time to sign-up. Enjoy.
Damien Woody feels it’s 50-50 he’s on the team for the opener.
First of all, he’s not 100 percent healed yet from the achilles injury.
Secondly, the Jets need to see how Vlad Ducasse does in camp and in some preseason action.
Thirdly, its’ unclear whether the NFL and NFLPA are going to have the old rule in place where veterans on the roster in Week One have their salaries guaranteed the entire year. If that rule is back, the odds are definitely against Woody being a Jet in Week One. Perhaps Week Two is a possibility, but not Week One.
If he had his drothers, he really doesn’t want to play anywhere else but with the Jets . . .
Once the NFL is open for business, along with a mad chase for free agents starting, the teams will be scrambling to sign undrafted free agents.
And the Jets will be very active on this front with Rex being a huge selling point. He’s a rock star now. If he gets on the phone with BC’s Mark Herzlich, or any of the top undrafted players, it certainly helps the Jets chances.
I bring up Herzlich because the Jets didn’t draft any outside linebackers, so they will be a good spot for a few of the top guys to land.
The 6-4, 244 Herzlich is a good fit for the 3-4 OLB spot.
He went undrafted likely due to his cancer scare in college.
Also keep an eye on Jonathan Freeny out of Rutgers, another prime undrafted free agent at the outside linebacker spot. He’s 6-2, 250 and runs in the 4.7 area.
Other top undrafted free agent pass rushing OLB’s include Oklahoma State’s Ugo Chinasi, Nebraska’s Pierre Allen, Southern Connecticut’s Daniel Allen and Kentucky’s DeQuin Evans.
The Jets landed a quality undrafted free agent outside linebacker in Rex’s first year with Jamaal Westerman, who they have big plans for this season. He’s entering his third year.
It takes a while for these kind of prospects to emerge because 95 percent of them were defensive ends in college, and spent little time in space.
And this year is going to be brutal for undrafted free agents due to the lockout. Very few are going to make teams. They got no spring work, and will have little time to learn the system. While that is true for the draft picks also, the drafted players are going to get more attention than these guys. That goes without saying, with so little time to prepare for the season.
So if the Jets sign a couple of these kind of prospects, unless they set the world on fire this summer, they are practice squad candidates . . .
Very sad time at Jets camp for many right now with the passing of Billy Hampton Jr. late last week.
He is the son of long-time Jets equipment man Bill Hampton, Sr.
Junior was just 51, and died in a taxi traveling to the airport in Los Angeles.
Billy Jr., who hasn’t worked for the Jets for several years, was a beloved figure around the Jets, and around the NFL. He grew up around the Jets, and then worked for them.
He had one of those larger than life personalities. Everyone loved him. When he passed, he was working as an executive for Under Armour.
His brother is Clay Hampton, the Jets director of operations.
So while where the Jets hold training camp isn’t very important compared to this tragedy, it would have been very tough for Clay to organize the logistical challenge of moving the operation to Cortland, starting likely later this week.
The family is pretty shook-up.
RIP Billy Jr., you were one of a kind . . .
The NYC stakeout by Sal Pal and Mort (pictured above)Â should be over by the middle of this week, with the end of the lockout in sight.
