The QB controversy is heating up, and it sounds like it was Pennington’s day to work with the first team. Pennington had called heads before the first day of camp on a coin flip and it landed heads. Pennington seemingly always calls heads, and that might actually be the first time it was heads in the many years he’s been with the team.

The AP has the real story, and I have quips in italics.

Clemens: “Well it’s been clearly communicated, there’s a quarterback controversy right now, an awesome competition.”

Did you just say controversy as a Freudian slip? Awesome indeed, sir.

Clemens: “I used the wrong word on that. It’s a competition. It really is. Some people will try to make it a controversy between Chad and I. It’s a friendly competition.”

Maybe for you it is.

Pennington: “Everyone knows there were discussions [about a trade] at the Combine.”

Well, not to split hairs, but NOW everyone knows. The question is, who was having the discussions, the Jets’ Brass or was it just your agent Tom Condon stirring the pot as usual?

Pennington: “You know what? This is the place for me to be. I feel good about my situation.”

You had better since Condon couldn’t get you out.

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The NFL has released a statement after speaking with former Patriots assistant and current Jets QB Coach Brian Daboll for the second time:

“Our security department re-interviewed Brian Daboll on Wednesday and he has no recollection of a conversation with Matt Walsh about the Rams’ walk-through practice.

“Even if such a conversation occurred, it would not be a violation of NFL rules. Matt Walsh was authorized to be in the stadium to perform his job duties along with other members of the Patriots’ video department, members of the Rams’ video department, and other people preparing for the Super Bowl.

“Mr. Walsh told the commissioner that he was wearing Patriots’ attire at the time and did not conduct himself in a clandestine manner. He said that he saw Rams employees while he was there and also was on the sidelines. He stated clearly to the commissioner that nobody from the Patriots requested or directed him to observe or report on the Rams’ walk-through.”

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Erik Boland of Newsday jots down some quotes from Mangini on the subject of disgruntled TE Chris Baker.

“I’ve talked to Chris and one of the things that’s important to Chris and I is that he stay current on the information and that’s what we’ve been focusing on. Chris has been working with the information and will continue to work on the football side of it … we haven’t talked about [June camps] but everybody who is on the team is required to come to the mandatory minicamp and that’s my expectation for Chris.”

I hope his Multi-Level-Marketing based travel agency is tearing it up, because those fines are going to start collecting rather quickly if he doesn’t show up in June. With the same representation as Kendall, he’ll likely show up in June, but loaf through drills.

It’s going to be a blow to the team if Baker isn’t playing for the Jets come September, but let’s face it, it’s not on par with Pete Kendall’s absence. If Baker truly wants to get paid by the Jets, his best chance at getting a new contract is getting back in with the team.

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If there’s one thing we know about our very own D.Rose, it’s that he’ll tell you what he thinks. We can vouch for that fact as we saw him at camp last summer tell Eric Barton “Eric, I’m your only fan!!!” Today, D shares his thoughts on Brady calling the Jets an organization he doesn’t respect. Enjoy.

Dear Tom Brady,

I’m just writing to let you know how much I am sick of your act. You parade around vacillating between with your “aww-shucks” and then holier than thou attitudes using whatever best serves you in the moment. Even so, that smug sense of superiority that has become your trademark. There can be no doubt that you learned from that scumbag you call the HC of the NEP. Charles Barkley once said, “I’m not a role model” and this phrase can certainly be applied to Coach Belichick. Though I am not a parent, I can see that this is the man you would never want your child to emulate. He has had an affair, quit a job via a note, disowned a mentor and a mentee, and now been caught cheating on the field. They say character is what you do when nobody is watching and it’s clear that Belichick and his merry bunch of cheaters clearly have no character.

Read more…

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• Credit Len Berman for trying to get Mangini into some good soundbites during an eight minute interview, he even asked him about the Brady quotes, so hey press guys, you’re not going to surprise him today!
• Scout.com ranks the rookies in a Power Ranking, Gholston ranks #13. Chad Henne starts the list … so … yeah.
• Former Jet receiver Chas Gessner just got a two year deal with the Seahawks.
• Tomase got some ’splaining to do!!
• Specter wants to make a federal case of this stuff?
• Terrell Suggs has forced the creation of a new franchise designation, DE/OLB.
• Totally unrelated, but the Conchords have a new video for Ladies of the World on Youtube involving rollerskating … awesome. (Update: Maybe this is Tom Brady’s theme song??)

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I was just surfing the net for some interesting ideas for my post today, and I came across an interesting tidbit from the guys who believe the way they hear it is the way everyone hears it, Pro Football Weekly. It was just a one paragraph report on what the Jets plan to do with Thomas Jones. Here’s part of it:

Some saw the Jets’ decision not to draft a running back as evidence that the team is willing to give RB Thomas Jonesa mulligan on his uninspiring first season in the Big Apple. The way we hear it, that’s not entirely accurate. Although he may well get a second chance at the starting job, the Jets are, in fact, peeved with Jones’ inability to get on track in ’07 — a season that netted him 1,119 yards on a whopping 310 carries (a dismal 3.6 average) and just a single touchdown — and are quite willing to give diminutive scatback Leon Washington and free-agent acquisition Jesse Chatman larger roles in the offense.

What type of sense does this make (if any at all) to the average Jet fan? Don’t get me wrong, it was a good idea to go after some free agent running backs this year, and we did that by adding Chatman. However, does anyone think he or Washington has a realistic chance to get more carries than Jones this year? Absolutely not. This (in my opinion) is nothing more than just another provocative piece that the writers hope to get readers interested in. Yes, they do go on to say that Jones has solidified the job with the new additions on the offensive line. But those additions didn’t necessarily instill anymore confidence of the Jets brass in Jones as a starter. He was still going to start no matter who was brought in to further solidify the o-line.

I’m quite used to PFW reporting these types of baseless speculations. If you remember back when I started here, there was a report by PFW that the Jets may have been looking to trade Bryan Thomas in the draft. It couldn’t have been a worse assumption on the part of PFW. And the story’s the same here.

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Although Goodell told the world yesterday that he didn’t know where else to turn at this point, the Star-Ledger reports that there’s at least one more interview on the horizon for him, and it’s with Jets’ Quarterbacks Coach Brian Daboll, who released a statement via the Jets yesterday that he was summoned to speak with Goodell again.

Walsh told Goodell that Daboll approached him later, said NFL attorney Gregg Levy, who attended yesterday’s meeting. Walsh said he told the coach that running back Marshall Faulk was returning kicks and described the Rams’ use of tight ends in their formations. Daboll did not mention the conversation when he was interviewed by NFL officials about the walk-through, Levy said.

Listening to the radio up here in Boston yesterday, one of WEEI’s mid-day hosts Dale Arnold was sneering at the thought that Brian Daboll would be interested in whatever Walsh would have learned from a walkthrough. He asked on air why Daboll a Patriots coach would care what Walsh thought? Let’s remember some pertinent details about Daboll, shall we Dale?

• Daboll joined the team in 2000, Walsh 2001.
• Daboll came on high recommendations from Belichick’s buddy Nick Saban.
• Daboll’s job in 2000 & 2001 was to break down defensive tape and do charting for Belichick and other coaches.
• Read more about Daboll’s role with the Pats here or on the Patriots own website.
• It not a large logical leap to assume that Walsh and Daboll, who both spent time dealing with tape, would have known each other.
• It’s also not a large leap to assume that information from Walsh that he might have obtained from watching the Rams walkthrough could have filtered it’s way up via Daboll to other coaches.

It was the Rams job to kick Walsh out of the practice, they didn’t, so that’s on them. The problem that Daboll seems to be facing is that he didn’t tell Goodell about his interaction with Walsh when they first spoke a few months back. It’s unclear what could come of this, but with the lack of a smoking gun, I can’t imagine that this will lead anywhere.

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In light of the recent debate over whether or not and to what extent Vernon Gholston can make an instant impact, I may have stumbled upon a pretty useful projection device.

This particular device is called “Gaines Adams” and, while there are certainly differences, which I will come to, I think there are enough similarities that we can compare the two.

Naturally, this will probably not prove the most exhaustive comparison possible, so if you can point out further similarities or differences to strengthen or dispel the conclusions reached here, then please do. I do not set out to prove or disprove anything, but by finding a similar case and identifying the impact of any differences between the two, it may give some indication as to how much and when we can expect Vernon to start dominating (if at all).

Prepare for a long article after the jump, with no puns or sics.

Guaranteed.

Read more…

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