It may not be real football, but Jets fans are still excited (as they should be) to get any morsel of Jets football they can on the first day of the team’s first full team OTA of the off-season.
A few notes we gathered from the twitterverse with some commentary of our own:
According to Rich Cimini of ESPN New York, rookie quarterback Sam Darnold had a rough day, completing just two of 10 passes during team periods to go along with a couple of sacks. <insert snarky “don’t panic” line here>
Cimini also said that free agent addition Teddy Bridgewater moved well during team drills and looked sharp throwing the ball. A positive development for what many believe is a future trade chip.
Knowing that this team has gone from John Idzik’s QB depth chart of Geno Smith, Mike Vick and Matt Simms to Darnold, Bridgewater, Josh McCown and (for now) Christian Hackenberg brings a smile to our collective faces. More on that here.
The biggest addition of this off-season outside of Darnold was cornerback Trumaine Johnson, who apparently made his presence known early on.
This note from Dennis Waszak Jr. of the associated press is positive in that the money given to linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis wasn’t crazy (2 yrs/$6 million) until you see he’s an edge defender who has never registered a single sack in four pro seasons. That’s a lot of money for a guy who will only play on special teams, so you have to imagine the Jets have a larger role in mind for the former Chief.
If undrafted free agent linebacker Anthony Wint turns out to be any good, Jets fans should offer a tip of the cap to Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. Mehta has singled out Wint as an impressive player during rookie OTA’s and now again today. No other writer has made mention of Wint thus far, but he’s clearly a Mehta favorite.
Second-year receiver Chad Hansen is hoping to see a bigger chunk of playing time this season and it looks as if he may be off to a good start in opening a few eyes.
Another second-year player who is looking to get attention for reasons other than on-field performance is linebacker Dylan Donahue who has had multiple DUI’s since being drafted by Gang Green. Donahue has apparently reached out to former Jets TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins who had some alcohol issues of his own. Lip service or the real deal? Only time will tell.
It looks like rookie tight end Chris Herndon made a great catch from Bridgewater, showing some of the traits that led the Jets to take him in round four of the draft.
Along the defensive line, the team rotated out rookie lineman Nathan Shepherd and newly acquired Henry Anderson during team periods.
Keep an eye on one of the many Jets beat writers for live updates from Florham park, or follow one of the many fans or bloggers who will re-word those same tweets while pretending to be there themselves.