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Cortland – Dan checks in from SUNY-Cortland with a lot of good stuff, including some Whispers on Dee Milliner, Antonio Allen and Dakota Dozier . . .
Ellis Lankster is a terrific special team’s player, super-tough, and can help a team as a dime back, but starting him might be a reach.
He’s just not consistent enough with his assignments.
I’ve seen this in games and practices.
Today, Jeff Cumberland was wide open crossing from right to left for a long completion.
After the play, Lankster and DeMario Davis had a chat about what just happened. There was mass confusion.
Now Lankster did have a nice PD deep down the right sideline on Stephen Hill.
Lankster is much better when it’s just a straight coverage situation, but when there are complexities, combination routes and so forth, there can be problems.
He’s best utilized as a role player . . .
Antonio Allen got beat deep by Stephen Hill, but the pass was incomplete. Hill couldn’t hold on. A lot of rain and wind during Jets practice today.
But what you saw on this play was the downside of Allen at cornerback. He runs 4.6 and Hill runs 4.3. Speed receivers will be a problem for him.
But on the flip-side, there is one thing he can do better than any other cornerback on the Jets’ roster.
He mauls receivers at the line. We know darn well this wasn’t going on last year with the Jets’ corners, especially with Antonio Cromartie, who was often gave receivers a free release.
Allen will absolutely beat you up at the line, the approach that the Seattle corners had so much success with last year, and keep in mind that guys like Richard Sherman and Brandon Browner, both run around 4.6. They aren’t speedsters.
So if Allen can continue his impressive press coverage skills with receivers at the line, which is allowed with the five-yard chuck rule, that will help him a great deal in his new role . . .
During Jets practice today, I saw cornerback Dee Milliner walking in back of the end zone towards the locker room.
And he had no boot on his injured left ankle. He was in a walking boot on Monday.
In fact, he had nothing special on it.
And he was walking on it, with a slight limp, but he was putting weight on it.
From what I saw, it certainly looks like nothing is broken.
I still stand by my guesstimate that we are looking at a month, perhaps a Week Two return. Nothing against Oakland, but that isn’t a game to rush him back for. They don’t look like a great passing team. The Week Two game is another story when the Jets travel to Green Bay. They could certainly use him for that contest . . .
A reader asked me for an update on Dakota Dozier, one of the Jets’ fourth round picks this year.
Dozier, a college left tackle, is playing on the Jets’ second-string offensive line as a left guard.
He’s slowing, but surely, making progress at his new position.
I saw one of his better plays of camp yesterday, when he pancaked OLB Trevor Reilly, and Bilal Powell ran behind him for a nice gain.
I think he will make the active roster, but be inactive a lot, because the Jets will want a backup swing player active, who can back up all three interior positions. Dozier can’t do that now. I think it will be Dalton Freeman.
Dozier looks like he could contend for a starting job in 2015 . . .
I saw Ras-I Dowling working with trainers today with the big rubber-band around his legs, doing some kind of stretching.
What a shame, he finally has a chance to get some quality reps, and now he’s sidelined.
Dowling has to prove he’s not a china doll if he wants to stick around.
August 12, 2104
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