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Florham Park – Time for a heaping helping of Jets Whispers, including notes on Christopher Johnson and Todd Bowles . . .
Christopher Johnson addressed the media for the first time today. He did a solid job for his first press conference.
I think a lot of people were under the impression that while Christopher Johnson became the de facto when Woody Johnson became the US Ambassador to Great Britain, Woody would still be pulling the strings from England.
Christopher made it clear in this press conference, on more than one occasion, this isn’t true.
Q)How often are you in contact with Woody regarding the team?
Christopher Johnson: Not at all. I’m in touch with him constantly, but none of it is about football – other than he said he heard from somebody that I was doing a good job.
Q)What is the dynamic with you and Woody regarding important football decisions?
Christopher Johnson: He really has a full-time job over there. We are not discussing football. He’s out of it.
Q)So Woody will not be involved?
Christopher Johnson: He said I’m stepping away from football. (Ambassador) is his full-time job. It’s a huge job.
Q)Will Woody be involved in evaluating Bowles and Maccagnan after the season?
Christopher Johnson: Woody isn’t involved in that at all.
So you get the idea. He wanted to make it absolutely clear he’s not his brother’s puppet.
Nor should he be.
Remember, Woody, Christopher and their mother equally own the Jets. This has always been the case. Woody never had more of an ownership stake than his brother or mother, he was just the front man of the ownership group . . .
After the New England Patriots got blown out by Kansas City in their opener, an awful performance by their defense, Bill Belichick benched two starters against New Orleans – CB Malcolm Butler and DT Alan Branch. They ended up playing some, but didn’t start the game, and both played less reps than they usually do.
To me, that is what you do when a unit is struggling. You make some lineup change.
I asked Coach Bowles today, “Why he are you not considering any defensive lineup changes?”
Bowles: Because I have my starters.
So did Belichick when he started the season. So the Super Bowl Champs can make lineup changes, but the Jets won’t?
What’s up with that?
Rich Cimini and I both pressed Bowles about Darron Lee’s issues in run support do his size (not his fault), which is really hurting the Jets defense, leaving gaping holes.
Bowles clearly isn’t seeing the same thing that Rich and I are seeing.
Coach Bowles thinks that it’s just a matter of improving technique and staying in your gaps.
Sometimes it’s not that simple.
Lee’s backup, Julian Stanford is jacked-up, and has the body armor to stack-and-shed offensive linemen. Lee doesn’t have that body armor, and he’s getting rag-dolled.
That is a fact.
If the Jets want to ignore this inconvenient truth, that is a little naive.
I’m not saying Lee shouldn’t play, but he should probably be utilized on clear passing downs, and they should get Stanford some work on obvious running downs . . .
Observing today, It’s pretty obvious Jeremy Kerley is going to be the Jets’ punt returner. Like I said yesterday, it’s not that he’s a great punt returner. It’s more about that he’s a very consistent catcher. And while it was probably unfair to release punt returner Kalif Raymond after one fumbled return, we all know that play came at a terrible time for the Jets, and changed the complexion of the game. It was late in the first half, and the Jets were only down 14-10, and they were getting the ball back. The muffed punt gave the Raiders the ball deep in Jets territory and they took it in a few plays later, making it 21-10, deflating Gang Green. The Jets know they are so little margin of error, so they have to avoid plays like this . . .
The Dolphins have linebacker issues, so look for Austin Seferian-Jenkins (above) to come out of the gate (coming off a suspension) with a bang.
September 20, 2017
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