AFC East Chat on RantSports Recap
This morning I participated in an AFC East chat with RantSports.com NFL lead content editor Dan Parzych and it was a blast.
We covered many topics, including whether or not I think Darrelle Revis will sign before the season opener, how I think the AFC East will shape up, who are some contenders for Offensive Rookie of the Year, and more.
You can find the transcript here on Rant Sports or click after the jump to find the full-length transcript.
Jets Depth Chart for Season Opener Leaked Via Hard Knocks
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Did the Jets accidentally give the world a sneak peek of their depth chart two weeks or so before the season opener?
Last night on week three of Hard Knocks, there were a few scenes that showed Rex Ryan, Mike Tannenbaum, and a few coaches looking over a massive bulletin board that had a master depth chart of all the remaining players in camp.
While the cameras didn’t exactly pore over the depth chart extensively, there was enough shown for those with a good eye and a DVR to read into what the Jets are leaning towards doing when the regular season begins.
Tim Graham of ESPN.com was certainly paying attention, as he blogged about the Jets internal depth chart being leaked on Hard Knocks last night.
Next to the team’s official depth chart, Tannenbaum scrawled out the number of players they plan to keep at each position, with the caveat they can adjust for special teams.
Offense (25 players):
- Three quarterbacks
- Five running backs
- Five wide receivers (including Santonio Holmes)
- Four tight ends
- Eight offensive linemen
Defense (23 players):
- Six defensive linemen
- Four outside linebackers
- Four inside linebackers
- Five cornerbacks (I think because I couldn’t decipher the abbreviation)
- Four safeties (I think for the same reason)
Add a kicker, punter and long-snapper, and that’s 51 players, leaving two special-teams spots for everybody else to fight over.
Erik Manassy of JetsTwit.com was able to get some screen grabs of the chart, for those of us who weren’t able to get a good look at it, and he posted a few screenshots on flickr.
In one shot you can make out the tight end depth chart, which shows Dustin Keller at the top with reliable blocker Ben Hartsock behind him. From that screenshot it appears that Matthew Mulligan has the edge for the third spot over Jeff Cumberland.
With the addition of Mark Brunell, the Jets have five quarterbacks and likely will keep only three of them. Here you can see that the two Marks are firmly entrenched at the top of the depth chart and Kellen Clemens has the edge for the third spot over Kevin O’Connell. Erik Ainge likely will be an ex-Jet by the time the season starts.
The cornerback depth is scary if Darrelle Revis doesn’t play. Note that for the defense, the depth chart goes bottom to top. Also keep in mind that this isn’t the entire CB depth chart, rather just the defensive left cornerbacks. Antonio Cromartie and Kyle Wilson will likely shift over and pick up some of Revis’s slack.
Finally we have the shot that reveals the general notion of how the Jets plan to fill out their roster. You can see the positions scribbled down and the numbers of each one that Mike Tannenbaum was writing.
Very interesting stuff to see ahead of time who may or may not make the team. Of course, lots of things can still change before the season starts, so let’s not assume this is the final roster.
As Season Without Darrelle Revis Looms Closer, Warren Sapp Puts his Two Cents in
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Everyone’s got an opinion on Darrelle Revis’s long hold-out from the Jets, from general managers, to teammates, to the coaches, to journalists and aspiring ones such as myself, but Warren Sapp has a unique perspective that few do not.
Sapp, a seven-time Pro Bowler whose style of play and talkative nature would’ve been perfect for a Rex Ryan defense, is never one to hold back when he says what’s on his mind.
When people like Sapp talk, people tend to listen, and for good reason. He was one of the great players of his generation, and he talked to AOL Fanhouse about what he thinks about Darrelle Revis’s holdout and the shenanigans of Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth.
“I played 13 years. Never renegotiated [my contract]. Never bailed. Nothing. Contract signed, contract honored,” he told AOL FanHouse, “I’m coming to work, boss! There’s no reason for this foolishness.”
He even used a baseball analogy to emphasize that Revis’s insistence to be the highest paid cornerback, even by 50 cents over Nnamdi Asomugha, is essentially irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
“I tell everybody, ‘You have a situation in the NFL, unless you’re Peyton Manning or that pretty boy in Boston, Tom Brady, you’re not hitting a home run. Take the triple,’” Sapp said. “Take the stand-up triple. It has to be the perfect pitch in the perfect situation and that doesn’t happen for all of us. There’s two, three guys in the history of the game who will get that.”
At the end of the day, Sapp believes Revis has a commitment to the Jets because he has three years left on his contract, a contract that Revis held out for three years ago, and the Jets don’t owe him any favors by ripping that contract up for essentially no reason.
“The Jets aren’t caving,” he said. “They can’t!”
“You’re playing a kids’ game, getting paid a king’s ransom,” he said. “What are you bitching about again? I missed it.”
Leave it to Warren Sapp for telling it like it is. If only Revis and his agent saw it that way. A season without Darrelle Revis will do more harm to Revis than it will the Jets, and that’s the bottom line. The Jets can adjust their scheme to compensate somewhat for not having Revis, but if he sits out the season, he will never get that year in his prime back.
Eric Smith Impressing Coaching Staff with his Work Ethic and Determination
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Jets safety Eric Smith has quietly become an important part of Rex Ryan and defensive coordinator Mike Pettine’s aggressive defense, and his role is set to expand in 2010.
It’s a far cry from where he was in terms of the depth chart and on the coaches’ radar a few years ago, to say the least.
Around the NFL, Smith is far from a household name. His biggest claim to fame is being the guy who laid a vicious hit on then Cardinals receiver Anquan Boldin in 2008 that left Boldin with fractures in his skull near his nasal cavity that somehow only cost him two games that year.
As you can see in the clip, Boldin was shoved in the back by Kerry Rhodes, leading to the accidental helmet-to-helmet collision with Smith. Smith ended up unconscious with a concussion himself, as well as a $50,000 fine and a one-game suspension.
Ironically enough, with Boldin now traded to the Baltimore Ravens, Smith and Boldin will be reunited in week one’s Monday Night Football matchup at New Meadowlands Stadium.
For Smith, it’s an interesting subplot that’s easily overlooked, especially since not many people believed Smith would still be on the Jets roster, much less an integral part of the defense in 2010.
Jane McManus of ESPN New York had a fantastic read about the fifth-year safety out of Michigan State, and how his mental makeup impressed coach Ryan when Ryan was hired prior to the 2009 season.
A year and a half ago, when Rex Ryan got to the Jets, Smith was a safety on the roster, but Ryan had his safety and that guy was Jim Leonhard. Who was Eric Smith? Some guy about to be cut.
“Eh,” Ryan remembered thinking. “Probably move on from this guy.”
Said Smith: “[Ryan] wanted to get his guys in here and for a while it was a little nerve-racking. I felt like I had to change his opinion of me. I knew I wasn’t the guy that he thought I was.”
It didn’t take long for Ryan to see why Smith, who could figure out a season’s worth of offensive schemes in less time than it takes for dinner and a movie, was his kind of player.
“When he decided he was going to show us what kind of player he was, that’s what turned my head,” Ryan said.
Smith’s grasp of the defense was evident midway through last season when the Jets boldly benched Kerry Rhodes in favor of Smith, and now in 2010, Rhodes was shipped out of town in favor of Eric Smith and free agent addition Brodney Pool.
Eric Smith’s determination to get better every day has gotten him from roster fodder to key member of the NFL’s best defense.
Smith’s defensive versatility was on full display once he got his opportunity to play last year. He ended up taking snaps at nickel corner, outside linebacker and inside linebacker, along with his primary position of safety.
This year he’s a special teams captain as well, having blocked a punt in the preseason opener against the giants. Last year he also caught a pass off a fake punt on a throw from fellow special teams ace Brad Smith, no relation.
His climb up the depth chart and his versatility is not lost on Rex Ryan, who is now a full fledged supporter of Smith.
“He’s smart, he’s instinctive and he’s got great hands for interceptions,” Ryan said this week. “He’ll hit you. He does all those things and, by the way, he’s one of the premier special-teams guys in this league. He is a very valuable player for us.”
Rex Ryan Hints that Two Fullbacks Will Make the Team
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On the first episode of Hard Knocks, there was a feature on the three fullbacks battling for roster spots on this year’s team.
The wily veteran Tony Richardson, the rookie sensation John Conner, and the young upstart caught in the middle, Jason Davis.
Rex Ryan is clearly enamored with John Conner, the Terminator as he’s called, for his crushing blocks and his ability to pick up the offense quickly.
Because of this, there were rumblings that the ageless one Tony Richardson may not make the team in favor of the younger, cheaper Conner. After all, the Jets have proven this offseason that they have no problem cutting locker room leaders like Thomas Jones and Alan Faneca in favor of younger players.
However, unlike Jones and Faneca, the Jets believe that Richardson is still capable of high performance from his fullback position, and his locker room leadership and mentoring of Conner are invaluable.
Rich Cimini of ESPN.com got the scoop today when he got a quote from Ryan about those two fullbacks. Ryan was quoted as saying that he’d be “shocked if those two aren’t on the opening-day roster.”
What does that mean for Jason Davis? Well, he’ll likely latch on to another team before it’s all said and done. As Ryan noted on Hard Knocks, all three of these fullbacks have the ability to start at this level, and any team that needs a fullback will be looking at the New York Jets.
