With the preseason opener less than one week away, the New York Jets held a scrimmage yesterday at their training camp in Cortland, NY in front of a crowd of approximately 9,500 fans who were in attendance. However the Jets were not all in attendance as offensive line starters, Wayne Hunter, Nick Mangold and Brandon Moore were not present for the scrimmage.
Hunter was nursing a back injury, Mangold is in London supporting his sister, Holley, at the Olympics, and Moore spent the evening in Canton, Ohio, for the Hall of Fame enshrinement of former Jets great Curtis Martin. however with three mainstays in the offensive line missing, it gave opportunities for the younger bench players for the Jets to show head coach Rex Ryan what kind of depth he had. Quarterback, Mark Sanchez commented on his three big guns on the offensive line being missing as he told reporters “It presents a good challenge, but for us it was something these young guys were excited about. You always want to have your starters there to kind of get a look at what kind of team you have, but also you need to know what those guys behind you are all about.â€
In the first half of the scrimmage, the offense could not get anything going against the defense, especially on the ground. Running back Shonn Greene and Joe McKnight were held in check gaining pretty much no positive yards and McKnight also had a fumble. Quarterback and Media darling, Tim Tebow, had an equally, if not worse, time on the ground as he did have some gains for positive yards but that was all for nothing as Tebow fumbled a few snaps. Tebow would end up going 0-3 passing in his performance in the first half.  It was clear that the Jets defense clearly dominated the offense in the first half of the scrimmage. Tebow summarized his performance to reporters by telling them “early on I thought we had some good drives going and weren’t able to capitalize,†Tebow said. “We had a fumble going in there, had a pretty good drive going. I didn’t get too many passes off today. I felt like when I threw them, I threw them pretty accurately. I felt like we made some pretty good plays overall as an offense. We were going against a really good defense, but overall I think it was a good day. We had fun out there.†Tebow said he hopes to improve his rhythm and timing in the passing game during the coming days and weeks.
In the second half the Jets first string offense led by quarterback Mark Sanchez appeared to be able to break through against the defense as early on Sanchez connected with RB Bilal Powell on an 8-yard touchdown that capped off a very impressive drive by the offense. Sanchez did a very solid job as he went 11-16 with 89 yards and one touchdown.
But the man who seemed to garner the most attention was fourth-string quarterback, Matt Simms who entered the scrimmage after Sanchez and third-stringer Greg McElroy. Simms went an impressive 2-of-2 for 44 yards and one touchdown and was praised by head coach Rex Ryan for his performance. Ryan told the media “You get a guy like Matt who has really taken very few reps, all of the sudden you throw him in a live situation, and what’s impressive is not only the physical part jumps out at you, but it’s the mental part and that’s what you look for in some of the guys that are battling for a third spot and all that kind of stuff. That’s exactly what you look for.â€
According to many on the Jets squad the fans who attended the practice were really into it. Tim Tebow commented on the fans by saying “We had a lot of great, passionate fans out here,†Tebow said. “It’s great to be surrounded by great fans. I feel like they just supported all of the New York Jets out here today and we think it’s good for our team.â€
The Jets will have their first preseason game on 8/10 against the Cincinatti Bengals. All that were missing in camp yesterday should be in action for that game. As far as the Tim Tebow vs. Mark Sanchez saga goes it seems as round one clearly goes to Mark Sanchez at this point as it is Sanchez’s job to lose.
Follow Jon Wilhelm on Twitter: @jwilhelm24
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