Content available exclusively for subscribers
Florham Park – A number of things to get into in today’s Premium Jets Whispers . . .
The Jets have two defensive linemen dealing with shoulder issues (Mo Wilkerson and Kony Ealy), and Leonard Williams (wrist) and Steve McLendon (hamstring) are also a little dinged, so the Jets signed former Arizona Cardinal defensive lineman Ed Stinson today.
This signing makes a lot of sense. Aside from the Jets being banged up on the defensive line, this guy knows Todd Bowles system. Bowles had him for one season (2014) in Arizona, and after Bowles left, his replacement as defensive coordinator, James Bettcher, kept Bowles system. So this guy comes in knowing what Bowles wants.
And he’s a pure 3-4 end, the position he played at Alabama and Arizona. So he is well-versed on the techniques required at that position.
His issue isn’t talent, but health, he missed a lot of games in Arizona due to injuries, and Bruce Arians ran out of patience. Arians was asked a few weeks ago if Stinson lived up the expectations they had for him.
“Yeah, when he’s healthy,” Arians answered. “He’s just never healthy. That’s been his main problem.”
He suffered a hamstring injury early in training camp this year that he never came back from. He started the season on IR, but was released from IR on September 12.
So over the last month, he’s got his hamstring healthy.
As a rookie in 2014, he ended the season on IR with a toe injury. His second season he stayed healthy. Last year, he was limited by hip and toe issues. Then he had the hamstring this summer.
If he can finally stay healthy, he can absolutely health the Jets. He started games in Arizona. He’s worth the gamble. He is a powerful man who is stout at the point of attack . . .
As I mentioned, Ealy has a shoulder issue.
He was joking around with Leonard Williams, and Leonard playfully patted him on the left shoulder, and Ealy said, “Be careful bro.”
Ealy certainly seems like a guy who will play at Cleveland. He didn’t have anything on his shoulder – no brace or wrap . . .
Jets special team’s coach Brant Boyer was stressing over and over again today to his players what a big challenge Cleveland returner Jabril Peppers presents. He could not stress it enough . . .
I have no idea if this means anything, but Jets QB Josh McCown was very low-key and subdued at his press conference today. Once again, I’m not saying there is anything wrong, but he seemed a little off today. He took a beating against Jacksonville, so you have to wonder how he feels this week . . .
The Jets had 10 penalties in each of the last two games. Obviously, they need to do something about this. Buster Skrine had a potentially costly 15-yard pass interference penalty in overtime against Jacksonville.
I asked Bowles if Skrine is too penalty-prone. Remember, the Jets play the Browns this week, and while Skrine was in Cleveland, he had major penalty issues.
“Buster doesn’t have any history this year, and the penalty (against Jacksonville) was knick-knack,” Bowles said. “Depending on where the ref stands and gets the view of it, he can make or not make the call. We don’t have a problem with Buster here. I know he had one in Cleveland, but here he’s fine.”
Well last year with the Jets he had 10 penalties called against him.
He can be too grabby at times.
The Jets have benefited the last two games by playing suspect quarterbacks. Once they get into the harder part of their schedule, and face “cubes” like Matt Ryan and Tom Brady, their inconsistent cornerback play could bite them, like it did last year when they faced Brady and Andrew Luck.
The elite quarterbacks will take advantage of holes in coverage. Jets need better cornerback play moving forward.
October 4, 2017
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Thursday.