I'll be out at Jets rookie mini-camp tomorrow and will update on that. However, I had the great pleasure of attending the Westchester Family Services Star Gala tonight honoring Brandon and Mara Steiner. You know Brandon - he and his brother Jim run Steiner Sports.
Brandon and Mara have done some great work on behalf of this agency which helps families in Westchester County through a wide variety of services.
Jets greats Marty Lyons and Joe Klecko were there along with a bunch of Giants including Carl Banks, Lawrence Taylor, Joe Morris and Otis Anderson. On a personal note I met my hero Bucky Dent, but that's another story. (And I grew up a Mets fan!)
A separate honoree was Ray Rice formerly of New Rochelle High School and Rutgers and who of course now plays for the Ravens. He was honored with the Spirit Award for his work and gave a terrific speech, which he spoke without having written anything down. Very impressive.
I also met a few kids who play for New Rochelle High School, many of whom are going on to play in college, hoping to follow in Rice's footsteps. I listened as one of them, David Thomas, who plays running back, was given a a lot of great advice by none other than Joe Morris. How about that experience for a high school football player?
A live auction was held and one of those items was a pair of seats from Yankee Stadium. You can still buy a ton of these and other mementos by going to www.steinersports.com.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Getting Ready for Rookie Mini-Camp
The Jets announced their list of undrafted free agents today. These players will join the 2010 Draft picks at this weekend's Rookie Mini Camp. In addition, another group of tryout players will also be on hand. Forgive the formatting, I'm having issues figuring out how to get it to work correctly.
Undrafted Free Agents:
Kevin Basped LB 6-4 254 Nevada Sacramento, CA
Keith Buckman OG 6-5 321 North Dakota State Belfield, ND
Jeff Cumberland TE 6-4 249 Illinois Columbus, OH
Brian Jackson CB 6-0 198 Oklahoma De Soto, TX
Jason Lamb DE 6-4 284 Baylor Richardson, TX
Broderick Stewart LB 6-4 232 Vanderbilt Newnan, GA
Matt Stommes OT 6-6 311 Minnesota Richmond, MN
Charlie Tanner OG 6-3 305 Texas Austin, TX
Don Warren S 5-11 195 Michigan Long Beach, CA
Ernest Williams DT 6-0 281 Pittsburgh Monessen, PA
Tryout Players:
Alex Brink QB 6-2 211 Washington State Eugene, OR
Marcus Burton LB 5-11 258 Colorado Channelview, TX
Mickey Dean RB 5-9 225 Arkansas-Pine Bluff Little Rock, AR
Marcus Ezeff S 5-11 196 California Santa Rosa, CA
Philip Kirkland WR 5-10 190 Bethune Cookman Quincy, FL
Marlon Lucky RB 5-11 216 Nebraska Dallas, TX
Wesley Lyons WR 6-8 233 West Virginia Pittsburgh, PA
Donye McCleskey S 5-11 209 Indiana State Dayton, OH
Damon McDaniel WR 5-10 201 Hampton Virginia Beach, VA
Michael Owen TE 6-2 249 Syracuse Riverhead, NY
Erik Pedersen LB 6-0 230 Portland State Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
Mark Petro PK 5-9 180 Hillsdale Rocky River, OH
Jesse Rack TE 6-3 238 Buffalo Maspeth, NY
Cory Reamer LB 6-3 231 Alabama Hoover, AL
Brooks Rossman PK 6-1 175 Kansas State San Diego, CA
Brashton Satele LB 6-0 241 Hawaii Mililani, HI
Albert Toeaina OT 6-5 329 Tennessee San Francisco, CA
Simi Toeaina NT 6-2 307 Oregon San Francisco, CA
Eric Ward QB 6-1 215 Richmond Atlanta, GA
Anthony Wiseman CB 5-9 186 Maryland Silver Hill, MD
FYI - The Toeainas are cousins, not brothers.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Jets Draft Food Festival
I'm not sure if the Jets are trying to kill us or are just showing off, but our third meal of the day has just arrived. This one is a compilation of hot hors d'0euvres including three chicken wing selections (plain, Buffalo and BBQ), some dumplings and fried mushrooms. Those are accompanied by a fruit plate, brownies, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate-covered strawberries.
Lunch was a full hot dog bar with four or five topping choices. AND we had breakfast with several entree selections, bagels and pastries.
Last night we had mussels in marinara and home made pizza. Thursday night was some Italian entrees followed by mozzarella sticks, a cheese platter, fruit platter, vegetables and chocolate chip cookies. I am also fairly certain I am forgetting something significant.
GM Mike Tannenbaum joked on Thursday that it was a 2,000 calorie night. 2,000? I think that's probably the tip of the iceberg.
Lunch was a full hot dog bar with four or five topping choices. AND we had breakfast with several entree selections, bagels and pastries.
Last night we had mussels in marinara and home made pizza. Thursday night was some Italian entrees followed by mozzarella sticks, a cheese platter, fruit platter, vegetables and chocolate chip cookies. I am also fairly certain I am forgetting something significant.
GM Mike Tannenbaum joked on Thursday that it was a 2,000 calorie night. 2,000? I think that's probably the tip of the iceberg.
Lots of changes
I don't generally get a lot of satisfaction out of saying "I told you so," and even less so in this case. As one of my sources told me might happen over a month ago, the Jets have released Alan Faneca.
That in itself is interesting, but additionally, it says no one else in the league was willing to put up the money it would have cost to take over his contract, given his advancing age.
While Faneca has not been the player he was earlier in his career, he served as a strong component to the Jets offensive line and was a terrific resource for the younger linemen. He is enormously well-liked and respected by the locker room as a whole and his fellow linemen in particular.
To add insult to injury if you're a Jets fan, the team traded Leon Washington to the Seahawks for what amounts to a fifth-round pick, which they used to draft RB/FB John Conner from Kentucky.
Washington is a huge loss for the team. I guess they were too nervous about his recovery from his broken leg. However, I wouldn't bet against the guy.
On a lighter note - I texted one of the team's starters shortly after all of the above activity asking if he had time to talk. His response, "Am I still a Jet?"
That in itself is interesting, but additionally, it says no one else in the league was willing to put up the money it would have cost to take over his contract, given his advancing age.
While Faneca has not been the player he was earlier in his career, he served as a strong component to the Jets offensive line and was a terrific resource for the younger linemen. He is enormously well-liked and respected by the locker room as a whole and his fellow linemen in particular.
To add insult to injury if you're a Jets fan, the team traded Leon Washington to the Seahawks for what amounts to a fifth-round pick, which they used to draft RB/FB John Conner from Kentucky.
Washington is a huge loss for the team. I guess they were too nervous about his recovery from his broken leg. However, I wouldn't bet against the guy.
On a lighter note - I texted one of the team's starters shortly after all of the above activity asking if he had time to talk. His response, "Am I still a Jet?"
Friday, April 23, 2010
Round two - Vladimir Ducasse
Day two is in the books. Have you heard that one enough yet? Quiet Draft so far for the Jets, and by quiet I mean GM Mike Tannenbaum has not made a trade. Must be losing his mind. He and VP of Scouting Joey Clinkscales were quite anxious to get out of tonight's presser quickly in order to run back up to the War Room in an attempt to make something happen - it didn't.
So, after grabbing CB Kyle Wilson last night, the team went back to offense, selecting lineman Vladimir Ducasse out of the University of Massachusetts. Ducasse is an interesting story. He's originally from Haiti, arrive in the United States as a sophomore in high school after his father sent he and his brother to stay with relatives in Connecticut.
Ducasse attended Stamford High School in Connecticut and although he knew absolutely nothing about football in Haiti (he played basketball there) he approached football coach Kevin Jones and said in broken English, "I want to play."
He slowly made a name for himself and was recruited by several colleges before settling on UMass. It was then in his junior year there that he started attracting interest from NFL scouts and realized a pro career might be in his future.
The most interesting part of this selection (and this truly qualifies as burying the lede) is Clinkscales said in tonight's press conference that Ducasse would be competing for "the" starting job with Rob Turner and Matt Slauson. Uh, what starting job would that be exactly? One has to think the handwriting is on the wall signaling Alan Faneca's departure.
See you tomorrow.
So, after grabbing CB Kyle Wilson last night, the team went back to offense, selecting lineman Vladimir Ducasse out of the University of Massachusetts. Ducasse is an interesting story. He's originally from Haiti, arrive in the United States as a sophomore in high school after his father sent he and his brother to stay with relatives in Connecticut.
Ducasse attended Stamford High School in Connecticut and although he knew absolutely nothing about football in Haiti (he played basketball there) he approached football coach Kevin Jones and said in broken English, "I want to play."
He slowly made a name for himself and was recruited by several colleges before settling on UMass. It was then in his junior year there that he started attracting interest from NFL scouts and realized a pro career might be in his future.
The most interesting part of this selection (and this truly qualifies as burying the lede) is Clinkscales said in tonight's press conference that Ducasse would be competing for "the" starting job with Rob Turner and Matt Slauson. Uh, what starting job would that be exactly? One has to think the handwriting is on the wall signaling Alan Faneca's departure.
See you tomorrow.
Some first round anecdotes
Due to pilot error last night (and we'll just leave it at that) I was unable to blog. I'm back now. So, three hours in, the Jets got their man. One can only imagine the scene in the War Room when it was confirmed that Rex Ryan would add yet another standout corner, Kyle Wilson from Boise State, to his roster.
Of course GM Mike Tannenbaum had to do his due diligence so as the clock ticked down during their allotted time, he still fielded a few calls from other teams. Tannenbaum described the scene. "Rex was breathing down my neck, 'would you just turn the card in already?' So we had a little drama there."
You can just picture it.
Both Tannenbaum and Ryan, along with VP of College Scouting Joey Clinkscales, had a spring in their step as they walked into the press room to address the assembled media. Although a slightly wild-eyed Tannenbaum looked around and said, "Does anyone know the last few picks?" Alas, since we had all scrambled to our computers after the Jets pick, no one was able to help him out.
For Wilson, this is coming home. The 22-year-old is from Piscataway, NJ, a 30-minute drive from the Jets facility in Florham Park. In fact, Wilson took the call from Rex Ryan sitting in his family's home in Piscataway.
Interestingly, shortly before the call from the Jets came in, Wilson was on the phone with the Vikings. "I don't know if they were trying to hold me on the line, but I got a call and then somehow the phone hung up. Then, I got another call and I ended up talking to Rex Ryan and it was a whirlwind at that point."
Now it's onto rounds two and three. With last night being a bit of a lightning round, we can only hope the same for tonight.
My hunch is the Jets still add another couple of defensive players - it would seem a pass rusher might be coming soon.
Completely unrelated - huge kudos on the food spread provided last night. The Jets truly outdid themselves. Am watching tonight's selection making its way in. Excellent.
Of course GM Mike Tannenbaum had to do his due diligence so as the clock ticked down during their allotted time, he still fielded a few calls from other teams. Tannenbaum described the scene. "Rex was breathing down my neck, 'would you just turn the card in already?' So we had a little drama there."
You can just picture it.
Both Tannenbaum and Ryan, along with VP of College Scouting Joey Clinkscales, had a spring in their step as they walked into the press room to address the assembled media. Although a slightly wild-eyed Tannenbaum looked around and said, "Does anyone know the last few picks?" Alas, since we had all scrambled to our computers after the Jets pick, no one was able to help him out.
For Wilson, this is coming home. The 22-year-old is from Piscataway, NJ, a 30-minute drive from the Jets facility in Florham Park. In fact, Wilson took the call from Rex Ryan sitting in his family's home in Piscataway.
Interestingly, shortly before the call from the Jets came in, Wilson was on the phone with the Vikings. "I don't know if they were trying to hold me on the line, but I got a call and then somehow the phone hung up. Then, I got another call and I ended up talking to Rex Ryan and it was a whirlwind at that point."
Now it's onto rounds two and three. With last night being a bit of a lightning round, we can only hope the same for tonight.
My hunch is the Jets still add another couple of defensive players - it would seem a pass rusher might be coming soon.
Completely unrelated - huge kudos on the food spread provided last night. The Jets truly outdid themselves. Am watching tonight's selection making its way in. Excellent.
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