Joint Practice: A Good Test

Good morning 🇨🇭☕

I’m going to need to keep it short and sweet today as I don’t have a huge amount of time, we move on from Zurich tomorrow so today is packed. If you’ve never been to Zurich I’d highly recommend it, beautiful scenery and the suburbs are beautiful, situated right on the lake.

ESPN continue to make cuts and the latest to go is former Jets tackle Damien Woody who was an outstanding analyst in my opinion. Woody was honest, logical and extremely accurate in most of his assessment. Which is probably why ESPN decided to let him go. Unfortunately that network continues to pander to the Pat McAfee crowd and good analysts are being let go so they can offer up a ridiculous salary to Pat and others like him.

Joint sessions are designed to provide a test and Tampa are a very good team. The Jets had some wins over the last two days but you would be hard pressed to find anyone who believed the Jets “won” those sessions.

There were a few more fights yesterday with different culprits, Tim Patrick, Dylan Parham (who I’d completely forgotten about), Jelani Woods all in the mix.

Geno in particular has looked exactly like the Geno of the past two years, some outstanding throws coupled with interceptions and accuracy issues in move the ball periods. Cade Klubnik has looked exactly as you’d expect a talented rookie to look. He uncorked a beautiful 50 yard strike to Arian Smith for a TD and then threw a poor interception.

Armand Membou won more reps than he lost, and the same can be said for David Bailey who had multiple sacks on Baker Mayfield, the last of which caused some verbal diarrhoea from the Tampa QB, apparently he wasn’t happy about how hard Bailey slapped him on the back, or some other Prima Donna reaction reserved for quarterbacks and receivers.

I never get overly concerned about the offense struggling, as Ron mentioned yesterday it’s not uncommon for the defense to be ahead of the offense at this stage. Especially when said offense has a new play-caller and new QB. We also can’t be shocked that Geno seems to throw an INT in pretty much every session. He’s thrown 32 of them over the last two years, being surprised he’s throwing INT’s is like touching water and being surprised it’s wet.

It’s certainly OK to question some things however.

I’ve found myself wondering a few things over the last couple of days, namely where has AD Mitchell gone during these sessions? He’s barely had a single mention. For all the praise being heaped on David Bailey, Omar Cooper Jr seems to be having a quiet summer. Not a bad one by most accounts, but he’s certainly being outplayed by Isaiah Williams. Each rookie develops at their own pace, and again it’s not a concern, it’s more a passing thought.

So while the offense as a whole hasn’t clicked in these sessions, especially in the move the ball periods yesterday where Sanders was forced into a 60+ yard FG attempt ( he missed badly) because the offense couldn’t well…move the ball. This was caused by drops, accuracy issues, penalties…basically everything we’ve become accustomed to from the Jets offense.

Practice is one thing, game situations are another.

I’m very much looking forward to tomorrow nights pre-season opener, especially seeing David Bailey in action for the first time in a live action situation.

Who will grab the starting safety role opposite Minkah? Will Cade put the seal on the QB2 conversation? How will Cooper Jr look in this offense? How well do the backup lineman play? Who’s going to be the pre-season superstar. Lots of questions that need answering.

• Aaron Glenn confirmed that Qwan’Tez Stiggers is at home resting after being taken to hospital. The Jets CB passed out on the sidelines earlier this week but is believed to be absolutely fine. The Jets will give him time and Glenn confirmed he’s in the concussion protocol.

• Glenn also confirmed that the expectation is that D’Angelo Ponds will be able to start doing some work next week. He did say they weren’t going to push him, but if he starts ramping up next week he should be good for the start of the season.

• Joseph Ossai was moved to the active roster and will now start working towards getting back on the field in team drills. He’ll need to work his conditioning up first.

• Kenyon Sadiq was out running on a side field yesterday, which is good news as he recovers from his setback following hernia surgery. All in all it was a good day for injury news.

Breece with that pretty spin move to avoid a TFL.

AZ Thomas with the PBU in the back of the end-zone to prevent a TD.

Jeremy Ruckert plucking one out of the air from Geno Smith

Cade Klubnik to Arian Smith