- 23 minutes ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Mike Schoep here. Bulldog is off this week with me now. Old friend, frequent guest of ours, and we're grateful
00:06for that.
00:07Dan Leberfeld joining me on the Western Hotline at Jets Whispers on Twitter.
00:14Dan, how are you enjoying life, Twitter, Jets Camp, and whatever else?
00:18Yes, I am. And it's always great to be on Western New York Sports Giant.
00:23Yes. I never really have to have a first question for you, really.
00:27I just sort of say your name, and you're going to come at me with something that you just heard
00:31in the last 60 seconds.
00:34Well, at least I didn't do the Western Hotline, which I've overused that, though I support that business, but overplayed
00:40that one a little bit.
00:41Of course, yes. What's new this year with the Jets? I mean, Geno Smith is new, although also old, but
00:48same coach.
00:49How different is this year from last year so far?
00:53Well, it's definitely different, and I think a big reason why is Frank Reich, who you guys know very well
01:00in your neck of the woods.
01:01He's really helped change the vibe, helped change the narrative, because not only can he come in and help revive
01:10this offense, which was not very good last year,
01:13but also he's like an assistant head coach, almost like a bench coach in baseball, who the head coach, Aaron
01:21Glenn, who had a rough first year,
01:23he'd be the first to admit it, can bounce things off of all the time.
01:27You guys know what a great guy Frank is. He doesn't really have any hidden agendas here.
01:32A lot of people say, well, if Aaron gets off to a bad start, Frank's the interim coach in waiting.
01:37And maybe, maybe not, but I don't think Frank has that agenda. I think Frank truly wants to help Aaron.
01:44So I think one of the best offseason moves, aside from some of the draft picks and free agent additions,
01:50was the addition of Frank Reich for more reasons than one.
01:53What do you know or do you think he wants to change about their offense, other than the general, let's
02:00improve?
02:00Are there certain things he wants, or you're seeing, that you think he might want to do more of or
02:05less?
02:06Well, I would say more play action, because if you look at Geno Smith's history, you look at the analytics,
02:15he's best when he's able to sell play action and create separation between the defenders and the wide receivers.
02:23If you look at his years in Seattle, he was best when they had play action.
02:27And then they went to a college coordinator during Mike McDonald's first year with the Seahawks,
02:32a guy who's not there anymore, he's actually back in college with the University of Alabama.
02:37But under that coordinator, Geno wasn't as good.
02:40It was that shotgun, read option, RPO, you know all that stuff, Mike.
02:45And Geno wasn't as good as before that college coordinator came in, and they were playing a lot of play
02:50action.
02:51So I think play action fakes, and I know you heard Zach Jones' update.
02:56We can get into this a little bit.
02:57And Brees Hall got hurt today.
02:59But they intend to run the ball a lot, sell the play action, make life a little bit easier for
03:04Geno,
03:05where he can have separation in that secondary to throw to easier targets than you would under the shotgun.
03:13Are you optimistic for Geno Smith, Dan?
03:17Well, I think that when you look at Geno, obviously he's not an elite quarterback.
03:21He's not an upper-tier quarterback.
03:23But if you have a good defense, good special teams, and you can run the ball, he can be a
03:28game manager for you.
03:29He's proved that in his past.
03:30And I always point to this stat.
03:32If you look at Geno's three years as the starter in Seattle, his record is very similar to Baker Mayfield
03:40the last three years in Tampa Bay.
03:42And the Jets are paying Geno Smith $3 million of their own money this year.
03:46The rest of his salary is coming from the Vegas Raiders.
03:49So for $3 million, actually $3.3 million this year, if he can manage the game, that's a heck of
03:56a bargain for Darren Mugee and the Jets' front office to have Geno go in there.
04:02They've got a lot of weapons in the passing game now, and just complement the offense without having to put
04:09the offense on his back, get the ball into the hands of the playmakers, be a good point guard.
04:16I think Geno can do that.
04:18Let's fill that out with a look at who these weapons are.
04:22I mean, we'll get to Brees Hall and his news today, but, you know, he's outstanding, and he's proven that.
04:28Garrett Wilson is great, just hasn't been in the right kind of climate yet to get maybe more attention.
04:33I feel like he's underrated.
04:34And then after that, you've got a couple of draft picks here.
04:39Size that up, Dan.
04:40Like, so if he wants to be somebody, Geno Smith this is, if he wants to be somebody that can
04:45get the ball to different guys, you know, the point guard point you made, how deep do they run?
04:51Yeah, they have a lot of weapons when you look at Garrett Wilson as the number one.
04:57And Garrett Wilson has not had a prolific training camp necessarily, and I don't say that in a negative way.
05:04And I give Geno Smith credit for this.
05:07Unlike last year where they were forcing the ball to Garrett Wilson, and I think it contributed to getting hurt
05:12because they were just forcing it to him whether he was open or not.
05:15And he's not the biggest guy, and he took a lot of hits and ended up hurting his knee.
05:19But he's back at 100% now.
05:21But what's going on in camp is you're seeing guys like Adenoy Mitchell, the former Colt, who's the second receiver,
05:27really having a good camp because they're bracketing Garrett,
05:32and Mitchell's getting favorable coverages, and Geno's taking advantage of that.
05:36Same with the slot receiver.
05:39Now, when you look at Omar Cooper, he's eventually going to be the slot receiver, but right now it's Isaiah
05:43Williams, who was the team MVP last year as a slot receiver and returner.
05:49He's having a very good camp, once again, because Garrett Wilson is getting bracket coverage, and Geno's throwing to Mitchell,
05:56and he's throwing to Williams, taking advantage of single coverage.
06:00The same with throwing a brief fall out of the backfield, and also Omar Cooper is very involved.
06:06He just is a guy that's still learning the offense, still getting comfortable.
06:09He has more of a route tree than he had at Indiana last year.
06:14So he's done some things, and the tight end room is excellent.
06:17Even though Kenyon Sadiq is out with a groin injury, when you look at that room, Mason Taylor in his
06:22second year at LSU, the son of Jason Taylor, he's having a very good camp.
06:27They've got a sleeper in the tight end room named Jelani Woods, a 6'7", 250-pound tight end who
06:34runs 4-6-1.
06:35He's had a good camp, so plenty of weapons for Geno Smith to throw to him.
06:40So if he just plays that point guard role, he can be a solid game manager for them.
06:45You know, Dan, is it interesting to you, the point you're making about bracket coverage here in training camp, how
06:51coaches can manipulate that, right?
06:54I mean, I wonder, sometimes there might be like a lot of thought that goes into that, where you're trying
06:58to build someone's confidence, or you're trying to, you know, establish someone else, be that Mitchell or someone else in
07:04the receiving core.
07:05You could do that either way.
07:07And, you know, certain teams like New England with Gonzalez or somebody, where if they have, I'm not sure the
07:13Jets have this, but somebody that's elite as like a lockdown corner, shutdown corner, then, you know, you might have
07:20interesting thoughts about how to run a practice.
07:23Like, I think it was New England we were talking about last week, where Gonzalez, who I guess has missed
07:29time, but how A.J. Brown, you know, he's sort of locking up A.J. Brown and how a quarterback
07:34has to, you know, pivot accordingly.
07:36That's an interesting little sort of a maybe more subtle strategy for a coach to have to ponder.
07:42Yeah, I give Frank Wright credit.
07:45I give Geno Smith credit.
07:46I never understood this in all my years covering the league, and we go way back covering this league, going
07:52back to your days when you covered the Bills, and, you know, my company's in Rochester, and I saw you
07:58a lot there when you worked for Shout Magazine.
08:01All these years, and I'm sure it's baffled you, too, where you have play callers and quarterbacks who insist on
08:08forcing the ball to the number one receiver, whether he's open or not.
08:12I never understood, just throw to the open guy, and if they're double covering your number one, throw to the
08:18slot guy 20 times if he's open.
08:20I don't get the logic, but I do think some organizations will have the mindset, hey, we're paying that guy
08:26a lot of money, and it's almost like they want to appease the owner, like, to get his money's worth
08:31or something.
08:31Or in the case of, like, A.J. Brown in Philly, you mentioned him.
08:35I think there were times because of all the chatter about him not being happy with his targets, sometimes they
08:42force the ball to him.
08:43Mike, it's never made any sense to me.
08:45I understand some of these receivers get nervous about the Hall of Fame or leading the league in receiving.
08:51No way to run an offense, no way to run a team.
08:54Throw to the open guy.
08:55It's not rocket science, and what the Jets are doing this summer under Reich and Geno Smith is throwing to
09:02the open guy, and Garrett's not complaining.
09:04He got paid.
09:05I'm not saying Garrett's a money-hungry guy, but he got his big contract, and I think when you look
09:11at Garrett Wilson, he's a team guy.
09:12He came from Ohio State where they had a lot of good receivers.
09:15We know how many high draft picks come out of that receiver room, so I don't think Garrett is upset.
09:19I see Garrett running down the field congratulating some long-shot receiver or an A.D. Mitchell or Isaiah Williams
09:29getting the ball, and Garrett's happy.
09:32So is it rocket science?
09:34And I know you're close to being a rocket scientist, Mike.
09:38Thank you, yes.
09:38I know with your intellect.
09:40One class short.
09:41Yeah, I don't get the forcing to the number one receiver come hell or high water.
09:46It's never made sense to me.
09:47Well, I think it can really, not that it should necessarily, Dan, but come down to, you know, a guy
09:56like A.J. Brown has a lot of clout, you know, and Wilson has some.
10:01If I'm Wilson, all I want to do now is just be on a good team for once, right?
10:05So there might be just different dynamics like that for a coach to have to figure out and just sort
10:11of deal with.
10:12It's not always so easy to me, but Brown is an interesting one while we're talking about him because, like,
10:20I can make this sound pretty easy, I guess.
10:23Philadelphia did so much winning, and he still was, like, you know, miserable, it seemed, like reading a book on
10:29the sideline during a game and all that drama with the Eagles.
10:33So maybe that's sort of, like, the inverse of the Jets, where, I don't know, was he bored?
10:37Like, you just, you know, you have personality conflicts, sure.
10:40But, yeah, like, the Jets are a team where you'd like to think everybody would just sort of be up
10:46for whatever makes them good.
10:48Exactly, and the other day I was watching a press conference with Stephen Jones.
10:54It wasn't a press conference, it was actually on SiriusXM during their training camp tour,
10:59and he said, Quinn and Williams, who the Jets traded in the middle of last year to Dallas and got
11:05a King's ransom in return,
11:07he was talking, Stephen Jones, after he and Jerry gave an extension to Quinn and Williams about what a great
11:14leader he is,
11:15how hungry he is to win.
11:16And I know sometimes that is just cliche, but it's really true with Quinn and because covering this team a
11:22long time,
11:24you'd talk to Quinn and after another loss, and he'd have to look in his eye like, you know what,
11:29I came from Alabama under Nick Saban, I'm just tired of all this losing.
11:33Sauce Gardner had a lot of success in college, University of Cincinnati, and Garrett Wilson, too.
11:38They run out of answers after games.
11:40You probably saw that during some of the lean years in Buffalo, some of their core players, like,
11:44what do you want me to say, guys, after yet the fifth straight loss or another, you know, 3-13
11:50or 3-14 season?
11:51You know, like, what do you want me to say?
11:53So I felt like Quinn had reached that point, so he is so happy in Dallas, not just because he
11:58got a new contract,
11:59but that looks like a very good team and he's excited to win.
12:02And I think there's no question Garrett Wilson has that mind set right now, like, you know what,
12:08the catches are fine, but I want to win.
12:10But the problem with some of these receivers is they're thinking legacy, they're thinking Hall of Fame,
12:16they're thinking next contract.
12:17And if you have a season where you have 60 catches, Hurts Hall of Fame, Hurts Legacy, Hurts Contract.
12:23So there's kind of a mixed agenda there.
12:26I mean, I'm sure A.J. Brown wants to win, but he's also thinking about Canton.
12:30Yep.
12:30And some of these guys end up, I mean, they're thinking of Sammy Watkins,
12:33who never came close to a Hall of Fame career, but, of course, started in Buffalo,
12:37and he's on a different team all the time, you know.
12:40Also, I think, just for that point, the longer you can stick with one organization, the better for you.
12:46So now Brown is on his third team with New England.
12:50With Dan Leberfeld, I'm Mike Shope.
12:52Bulldog is off today.
12:53This is WGR.
12:54So, I mean, we'll get to it here finally.
12:57Brees Hall went down today.
12:59Were you there?
13:00What did it look like?
13:02You know, it's one of those situations where you're happy.
13:06Training camp is open, the whole practice, from a journalistic standpoint, from a reporting standpoint.
13:11You never want a player to get hurt, but the Jets have their practice field set up a way when
13:16they practice on field one.
13:19Field one is a grass field, and when we're covering on field one, you could pick anywhere along the 100
13:26-yard field
13:27to place yourself and watch the practice, the whole practice.
13:30Field three, not to get into the weeds too much, we're on a roof overlooking the field,
13:35so it's not really picking your spot along the 100-yard field, so that vantage point is good too.
13:41So, on field one, I'm sitting there down the sideline in the red zone watching practice.
13:46There are no other reporters there, and I'm not saying that because I did anything brilliant.
13:50It was the luck of the draw.
13:52Once again, not happy a player got hurt, but I was literally right there where Brees Hall got hurt,
13:58like right in front of me to the point that after he got hurt, I moved away a little bit
14:02because I didn't want to be that close to a player being treated for an injury.
14:06So, he runs a route out of the backfield, and Geno Smith hits him in the left flat,
14:12and he runs down the sideline, and when he attempts to cut, he goes down,
14:17and he was cursing a little bit because he was frustrated because he clearly pulled a groin muscle
14:24or strained a groin muscle, and he went down.
14:26He was holding his right groin.
14:28One thing I've learned over the years, not from being an athlete, Mike,
14:31is you've got the left and you've got the right groin.
14:34Well, this looked like a right groin injury, and he was holding it,
14:38and they got up and they walked him to the medical tent, and we didn't see him again.
14:41I would suspect that you're not going to see him anymore this summer.
14:45He's not going to be in any more training camp practices,
14:48and he's not going to be in any more preseason games.
14:50But if it's just a strain, that's usually a one- to three-week injury.
14:54If it's just a strain, as Aaron Glenn said it was today,
14:57I would think he'd be ready for the opener at Tennessee.
14:59I just don't think we're going to see any more of him in camp or in the preseason.
15:05Well, Dan, I mean, that's going to make drafting in fantasy tough
15:07because we're going to have to guess a little bit.
15:10I guess maybe there'll be a little bit of a dip,
15:12and you can get Breesall cheaper now that there is this injury.
15:16Do you think or even know if the Jets were prepared on –
15:20like how big of a workload were we talking about for him?
15:22There are a couple of interesting other backs there.
15:25Like, is Breesall – was he slated to be a three-down running back this year?
15:31There's no question about it.
15:33First of all, they paid him, and I'm not saying that dictates it,
15:35but they just gave him, you know, his big second contract.
15:39Though it's a weird contract situation,
15:41and I was talking about this with Vic Carucci on SiriusXM the other day
15:45because you look at the gap.
15:47This could be an interesting thing for you to break down
15:50as far as these running back numbers with James Cook up next year.
15:54The James Cooks of the world and the Brees Halls and A-Chan and A-Chan,
15:59not the same spelling, they all got around $28, $29 million guaranteed.
16:04And then you saw the situation down in Atlanta and the situation in Detroit
16:10where their franchise running backs, B. John Robinson and Jameer Gibbs,
16:14got $51 million guaranteed.
16:15Mike, I've never seen an off-season where you had really good running backs
16:20got paid like Kenneth Walker in Kansas City
16:26and then A-Chan and A-Chan in New Orleans and with Miami,
16:33and they get around $28, $29 million guaranteed, and Brees Hall as well.
16:37And then you have running backs like Robinson and Gibbs
16:41literally getting $51 million guaranteed, $23 million more than the other
16:46running backs in the off-season.
16:47That is a weird gap in a free agent off-season.
16:50But I digress there.
16:52I just think that Brees Hall is a three-down back.
16:55He isn't just a really good running back.
16:57He literally has wide receiver skills as a receiver out of the backfield.
17:01The way he tracks the ball downfield, you would think he was a receiver.
17:05So, yeah, Frank Reich was going to use him a lot on all three downs.
17:09So, you make a good point about fantasy drafts as far as whether you pick him
17:14early because Aaron Glenn, let me just say this.
17:17Aaron Glenn is an optimist, glass half full.
17:19When he talks about injuries, Mike,
17:21Mike, if you're looking for a primary care physician out of New Jersey,
17:25I'd go to Aaron Glenn because every injury he's glass half full,
17:29it doesn't look that bad.
17:30Every injury that's traded camp.
17:32And I'm not making fun of him, and I have a lot of respect for him.
17:35But, man, every injury they suffer, he won't be out long.
17:39So, I have no idea.
17:41You know, with a groin, those could be tricky.
17:43But if it's just a strain, generally it's one to three weeks.
17:45But from a fantasy standpoint, I'd be careful.
17:48But his backup, Braylon Allen, people are buying him as far as fantasy.
17:52This guy, he is 245, 250 pounds without an ounce of fat.
17:58Like, he is a freak man.
17:59He had a really nice touchdown run.
18:01I'm sure you saw that, Mike, on the highlights in the preseason week one
18:06against Tampa Bay.
18:07He is a stud, man.
18:08So, he's not the same kind of back as Brie Saul, but he's very good.
18:13Oh, the thighs.
18:14Raylon Allen, the thighs.
18:15Did Aaron Glenn get that from Pete Carroll?
18:18Because Pete Carroll was famous for that.
18:20Just like, remember Chris Carson?
18:23Oh, you know, no biggie.
18:24And then he was, like, basically retired because of his injuries.
18:28You know, he's like that.
18:29He's very optimistic.
18:30He's very supportive of his guys.
18:32But sometimes you've got to be careful of that because if you put a short
18:34timeline on it and then the players come back, sometimes the player in his age
18:38will get mad because, like, the timeline expectation puts him in a rough spot.
18:43Like, one of the big stories this summer, to me,
18:45there's a really big story that hasn't received a lot of coverage,
18:49is Kenyon Sadiq, the rookie tight end, 16th pick overall out of Oregon,
18:54a tight end who ran a freakish 4-3-9 at the Combine.
18:57He came to the Jets after having a sports hernia situation last year at Oregon.
19:04But the Jets and the player and his agent decided not to have surgery,
19:08thought maybe time would heal it.
19:10And then in the rookie minicamp, he had a setback.
19:13He had a surgery from the famous sports hernia doctor in Philly that everybody goes to.
19:19I think his name is Myers.
19:21You go in that waiting room in Philadelphia, Mike,
19:24it's a who's who of NFL players getting sports hernia surgeries.
19:27Everybody goes to that doctor in Philly.
19:29He has it fixed.
19:30He rehabs in the spring.
19:32And then early in camp, he has a setback.
19:35And he's been on the sideline ever since.
19:38To me, you know, my journalistic chops, that's a big story, isn't it?
19:42Sports hernia in college, comes in, they do the surgery,
19:46has a setback in training camp.
19:47I think he's going to be fine in time, Mike, but to me, that's a big story.
19:52I don't know when he's going to be back, but that's a similar injury to Brees.
19:56So with these sports hernia or groin surgeries or groin injuries,
20:00you've got to be very careful because we know darn well you can have a setback real easy.
20:05No particular incentive for coaches to be specific when it comes to that.
20:09They really don't need to be, as you're talking about here.
20:12Another former Jet coach, Todd Bowles, is kind of funny to me in this area too.
20:16He's had two this offseason or summer already.
20:20With Bucky Irving earlier in the offseason, he said he'll be back in the summer or fall.
20:25We all went, well, that's kind of a big difference.
20:28If you're trying to put a timeline on it, maybe you've got to be a little bit better than that.
20:33And then with Abuka, who's got maybe a turf toe now, Dan, he said day-to-day, week-to-week.
20:38Usually it's one or the other, right?
20:40It's either day-to-day or it's week-to-week.
20:42But Bowles is covering all his bases, I guess.
20:45Oh, I love Todd.
20:46They had that joint practice last week, which turned into the Royal Rumble.
20:50And I saw the Abuka injury, and it was just one of those cutting things on a field, and he
20:56limped off, and it was the turf toe.
20:58But Todd, I love Todd.
20:59I covered him.
21:00You ever see those T-shirts?
21:02I don't know if you know anyone like this.
21:03And the show I remember it from, remember that show, Pawn Stars, P-O-W-N?
21:10And there was an old man on the show who owned the shop, and he always had the same face
21:15expression for anything.
21:17Happy, sad, angry.
21:19Todd Bowles is like that.
21:21Every type of emotion, it's the same expression.
21:24I wouldn't want to play poker against Todd Bowles.
21:27Dan, last thing for you.
21:29What's a good season for the Jets?
21:31What's a realistic good season?
21:32Will a 500 season or close to that be like, I mean, record-wise it is.
21:38It's not a playoff year either, though.
21:39What are the goals?
21:42Yeah, I would say around 500.
21:45They would be very happy.
21:47They haven't had a winning season.
21:48I believe the last one was in 2016, that year you remember well from the Jets, because that was the
21:54game where they went into Buffalo and had a win, and they had that costly interception in the end zone.
22:00That was their last winning season.
22:02So I think they would love, you know, if they could, you have to get my mind recalculated to the
22:0717-game season.
22:08If they went 9-8, here's the biggest thing.
22:12Last year under Aaron Glenn, they kind of regressed as the season progressed, and to me, when you have a
22:19rookie head coach, first-year head coach, you're not looking as an owner for a Super Bowl necessarily, but you
22:25want to see progress as the guy installs his systems and his culture and incremental progress as the season went
22:34along.
22:34That wasn't the case last year with the Jets.
22:38They were regressing, and I think that's why Todd Bowles made a lot of changes entering year two.
22:43I'll never forget that game in Buffalo at the end of the year where the Jets were like, I understand
22:49they were playing a backup quarterback, but the Bills were playing a lot of backups, and the Bills just dominated.
22:55I'll give you a perfect example of what I'm talking about.
22:57The run defense in that game, right?
23:00Ray Davis of the Bills, not the Kinks.
23:03Ray Davis ran for like 150 yards with an offensive line that had four backups in there because McDermott was
23:12resting the starters, and they still ran all over the Jets.
23:15That's a really bad sign in week 17 or 18, whatever you call it at the end.
23:19So I think around 500 and making progress as the season goes along, that would be considered a good season.
23:27I'll tell you what, I'll make a prediction.
23:29They will intercept a pass in week one against the Titans, which will top their total from last year.
23:34Boom.
23:35There it is.
23:35There's progress.
23:36I think that's a good prediction.
23:37You know, Minka Fitzpatrick looks like the ball hawk they desperately needed last year in the secondary.
23:43And Cam Ward, you know, he's a little inconsistent, growing pains right now.
23:47So I think that's a very good prediction, Mike.
23:50Get that goose egg out of here.
23:51We don't want to have that over our heads again this year.
23:55Dan, thanks for your time as always.
23:56It's a pleasure to have you on.
23:59Always great to be on.
24:00Is Bulldog Parker on tour with his band right now?
24:03I don't know.
24:06He went to see the Red Sox play the Pirates this weekend.
24:09I believe that was the plan.
24:10So I don't think he's still there, but he's gotten out a little bit.
24:16That's good, because, you know, I'm a big fan of not just the host, but the guitarist.
24:20Yes.
24:21Yeah.
24:21Not the kinks Ray Davis.
24:23I appreciate that clarification.
24:26Thanks, Dan.
24:27See you next time.
24:28All right.
24:28Anytime.
24:29Dan Leberfeld at Jets Whisper.
Comments