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DJ Reed has been wearing some kind of compression sleeve or cloth brace on his right arm for a couple of weeks.
He seems to be business as usual with it, but it’s a perfect example of the NFL’s 100 percent injury rate.
Everybody has something . . .
The Jets might have the tallest and shortest NFL offensive linemen both on their practice squad with 6-10 offensive tackle Ryan Swoboda and 6-0 5⁄8 guard Jason Poe.
Poe, who went to 1-AA Mercer, is incredibly smart, getting a master degree in Information Technology with a 4.0 GBA. He is already a software technology consultant . . .
Robert Saleh responded today to D.J. Reed’s quote about the Jets having the potential to be like the ’85 Bears defense.
“I think when you look at D.J.’s quote, he answered the question just like any team in football and any player in football will talk about what they think can be,” Saleh said.
I had a long philosophical question today with another reporter about this.
The other reporter, who works in television, was saying what hypocrites some of us can be – we rip most players for saying nothing, but then when somebody says something like Reed said, he gets ripped for that.
There is certainly some credence to what the other reporters said.
However, I look at it in two ways.
Quotes like the one from Reed are great for reporters. No complaints at all about that kind of candor.
But from a team standpoint, from a football standpoint, it’s perhaps best to stay away from rhetoric like that, which puts a target on your back.
And some teams instruct their players to stay away from saying things like that.
So I’m not sure this response would come from “any player in football.”
Not sure it would come out of Alabama or New England.
You can be confident as heck, and not say that. Perhaps one has nothing to do with the other.
Reed is a great guy and a terrific player, and to attack him for the quote isn’t necessary.
This is just a philosophical debate.
I have always felt that no matter what somebody asks, you ultimately control everything that comes out of your mouth in response.
Nobody is waterboarding you to say what they want.
So many questions are weak sauce these days, dealing with hype, expectations, comparisons and so forth.
There are very few nuts and bolts football questions.
Reed was being asked a question like “How good can the defense be?”
I would have said, “How the hell should I know, I don’t have a freakin crystal ball.”
The press conferences have slipped.
How about asking defensive players about the challenge of covering the Buffalo Bills tight end duo of Dawson Knox and Dalton Kincaid?
Knox has given the Jets trouble in the past, and now they add the speedy Kincaid in the first round of the 2023 draft.
How’s the rookie guard O’Cyrus Torrance looking?
How about more meat and potatoes football questions, and less tedious hype/expectation questions?
September 7, 2023
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