There were several reports today stating that the Jets defense was ahead of the offense in the OTA on Thursday. This is to be expected, the defense is already in place and the offense is brand new. Public Service Reminder: Brian Schottenheimer can’t hurt you anymore Jets fans.
On the topic of defense, the best person to give an update on that is Rex Ryan. Here is what he had to say today:
On if LaRon Landry was the only player to miss all voluntary workouts…
He was actually in attendance for a few of them. Yes, he was. There were players, where there were a couple of things that came up that caused them to miss a workout. There were some, they actually even came back and tried to make up things. I know one player missed one workout. These are all of the things we still had 99% attendance. Again, I am confident that Landry is going to be ready to roll. I think he is doing what he thinks is in his best interest for him, I am confident of that. Again, these are voluntary. The fact that 99% of these workouts were attended by our team here, I would challenge any other team to have these numbers. I don’t believe that happened anywhere else in the league. I think that is a real positive that the Jets are heading back in a good direction. Again, how many games this is going to affect us on the field? We will find out. I like to quote a guy that I really think a lot of is Channing Crowder (laughter), he crowned us, and I do like Channing, but he crowned us the OTA champs. Going into this, I wanted to be the OTA champs. Clearly, our goal I want to be Super Bowl Champs like the Giants were, no doubt. But this is a step in the right direction, all we can affect in the off-season is to win this. The facts are whatever. You guys can dig them up on any other team in the league, I have a funny feeling that no team will approach this. Again, these are voluntary type things and I am proud of this, there is no doubt. When we say this is going to be a close football team, I think these are strides that you make that way, guys working out in the off-season together, all that. When you get up to Cortland, these are all things that I think will bring this team closer. Now will it give us more wins on the field? We will find out when the season kicks off. I feel good about this right now.
On practice today…
Obviously, I think the defense was pretty impressive, there is no doubt. Do we need to fix a few things? Probably. We missed a high throw, guys come in and it looks like a sack. There are some things like that. We have had some hamstring issues at wide out. That is really the only spot that we have had some. Tone (Santonio Holmes) just getting back, was a little limited when put in those situations in that team period. But again, I think this defense, I know Mr. Johnson talked about this defense, he thinks it is going to be special and so do I. I always think this defense is going to be special. We believe that. I think we have so much depth on defense right now. This might be the deepest that we have been. We can stack up a lot of good football players. The depth we have at linebacker is crazy. We have five or six inside backers that can play. We have got guys, our young D-Line looks impressive. Some of the young guys are really making strides, so I really like the depth of our defense in particular.
On the change in Bart Scott’s demeanor since last season…
You guys see it. Bart is back. Bart is back to being the guy that we brought in here. I had somebody say “Can we turn Bart down?” and I am like ‘No. This is exactly the guy we brought in.’ That is what we want as a football team. We want guys to be themselves, enjoy practice with better tempo and all that kind of stuff and Bart brings that to the table. It is hard to have a bad practice when Bart Scott is on the field because he is just energized like that and he stays that way. That is when you know he is really playing. I have said it before, I don’t know if this isn’t the best Bart Scott we have had since I have been here with the Jets. I think he is better now than the first year we brought him in here. He is running great, he is in super shape, he is smart, he is really leading. I think that was what we needed. Last year, for whatever reason, I think part of it was our plan for Bart wasn’t what it should have been, maybe like hit this number I am going to be a little bigger. Well no, let’s be faster and I think he has taken it upon himself to get in unbelievable shape and he looks great. He ran with a wheel route the other day by Joe McKnight and he was staying on top. It was a veteran move. He saw the thing and started heading deep. There are very few linebackers in the league that can run with Joe McKnight. I am not saying Bart can, but he did.
On whether Bryan Thomas and Matt Slauson’s will participate in mini-camp…
I expect them to be able to do some things. They’ll probably still be limited. Both of them are coming off of surgeries. They’re both itching to go. We probably won’t use them a whole lot. They will be limited.
On whether Landry will play at mini-camp…
We’ll see what John (Mellody) tells me. I know for a fact Bryan Thomas and Slauson will be limited. I haven’t seen the updated injury list and probably won’t until Monday.
On whether he plans on using more 46 defense…
We think we can use it. There’s no doubt we can use it. I think we’re built for it. That was a specific period of the offense going against a 46 look. That’s where there was some kind of version it every snap, whether it was 46 or something very similar to it. It’s obviously a defense I think we can play more of based on the personnel we have.