Holmes Leaves OTAs Early

Santonio Holmes made news again today for limping off the field early, tossing his helmet, and feeling that he was being overworked.

Wide receiver Holmes was scheduled for 35 practice reps but pulled himself out early, saying that he wasn’t in top shape because he’d been gone awhile and insisting that he wasn’t injured (in spite of his limping).  Earlier this week, Holmes was on a USO sponsored to U.S. Air Force base in Germany and missed a few OTA sessions.

While the Jets are playing down the incident – head coach Rex Ryan said he was fine with a veteran coming off the field if the player felt he was vulnerable to injury – it was reminiscent of Holmes coming off the field back in January as the Jets melted down and missed the playoffs.  To be fair, Holmes didn’t pull himself out of that last game, he was benched by then offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer after nearly getting into a fight on the field with right tackle Wayne Hunter.

While a Holmes drama this early on would be a really bad sign, especially since Holmes is currently the only proven receiver the Jets have, both Holmes and the Jets are saying Holmes took himself out because he wasn’t in the physical condition to continue. If it was August this would be bigger cause for alarm, but it’s only June, and just yesterday Holmes tweeted he was going to Jets West (which he missed last year due to free agency). Along with all the reports of how happy all the Jets players are right now, it’s probably safe to assume that this was just a bump in the road, not the beginning of a train wreck.

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Kristine Gammer

I'm a 27 year old native New Yorker, currently writing about about my beloved New York Jets for JetNation.com, usually with dark humor and sometimes with good insight. Jets fan since childhood - thanks (for nothing?) Dad!

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