COURTESY OF NEW YORK JETS COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT
Opening Statement… Alex Lewis, he was out today with a shoulder; Jeff Smith, shoulder; (Breshad) Perriman, knee; (La’Mical) Perine, ankle; (Marcus) Maye, calf; (Tarell) Basham with the ankle, but you guys saw him out there. He was running around, kind of hitting those final stages. Jabari (Zuniga) with the quad; (Braxton) Berrios with the low back; and then (Cameron) Clark left practice with a knee, we’ll evaluate him further.
Brian Costello, New York Post: How good was it to see Denzel (Mims) out there today even though he’s not doing everything yet? It was good, it’s the first time I’ve seen him get to run routes live. It was good to see him moving around, he looked like he was running well. I know we didn’t do anything crazy, but just moving around and hitting the routes we hit in individual, that was good to see.
Brian Costello, New York Post: What’s the progression for (Mims) now? Just kind of getting him some reps in practice and seeing how far we can take him as fast as possible. The fact that he’s been doing as much cardio as he’s been doing and trying to make sure he’s in the kind of shape we need him in – we’re going to have to build it up, but we need him to put things on fast-forward mentally.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: With Alex (Lewis) and his shoulder issue, is that week-to-week, day-to-day? Where do you kind of stand with him? We’ll see how he feels tomorrow. It was kind of one of those deals where he collided with one of our D-lineman pretty good and we’ll kind of see how bad it is. I don’t think there’s any structural damage. I think he’s really sore.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: You don’t sound overly concerned with it. I don’t want to go either way on this, because it doesn’t sound like we should be worried, it’s just you never know.
Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: Can you talk a little bit about what you’re seeing from Ashtyn (Davis) this summer so far, and how valuable is this little period now with Marcus (Maye) out a little bit where he’s running with the ones? I think he’s doing exactly what he we’d hoped he would do when we drafted him, being able to play multiple spots. You can tell the guy is super sharp, makes a ton of plays, it seems like the ball finds him. The guy has just got – he’s like the Energizer bunny out there. He never stops, and it’s really impressive. I’ve been impressed by his maturity for a rookie and kind of how he operates from day to day, I’ve been impressed.
Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: Just in terms of the fact that (Davis) has been running with the ones, how valuable is that? He has been, like we’ve had certain times where he’s been out there. So, I guess I didn’t even look at it as today was any different than almost all the other days.
Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: And just one follow on that, how excited is (Brant) Boyer to have him in his units there with all the things he could probably do there right off the bat? I’m sure he’s excited. I’m sure he gets a little anxious when he sees him rolling out there with the ones because it might be one of those guys where we’re saying, ‘Ahh, he’s playing defense.’ So, we’ll kind of see how it all plays out. I think we’ve got really good players at that a safety spot.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: Adam, you’re getting down to the nitty gritty in terms of cutting down the roster, so what areas are going to be the toughest decisions and how does it compare to last year in terms of filling out a 53-man roster? It’s unusual, right, because you’ve got so many guys that are going to be on the practice squad this year. So, it’ll be interesting when we kind of get to those (decisions), because I’m sure that it’s going to end up being we’ll have about five really tough decisions to make. Those active roster (decisions), but on the practice squad and then kind of holding your breath to see if anybody gets claimed. It’ll be interesting kind of heading towards the end of this week. Rich Cimini, ESPN: What’s going to happen with (Joe) Flacco? That’s a discussion I’ll have with Joe Douglas when we get together here on Friday. I have an idea, I just don’t want to say anything when we haven’t finalized anything.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: I just want to add one more follow on that, you mentioned – it was probably months ago or weeks ago – about a quote-unquote quarantine quarterback, something that you guys said you would think about. Where is that now? It’s funny because I mean we keep talking about, ‘Alright, what’s the best way to go about this,’ and you don’t want to be lulled to sleep of how many positive (tests) have there been around the league, and you start looking, but you want to be smart because you’re not really sure where this is going to go. We’re going to start traveling to road games, staying in a hotel, coming back. This is another step that we’re going to have to take, which we haven’t done yet, and there’s some unknown here. So, that’s the tough part, we’ve got to try to figure all this out here in the next couple of days.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: So, it sounds like that’s still on the table, something you would consider? Yeah, I think right now there’s a lot on the table as far as trying to maneuver through all this.
Brian Costello, New York Post: Adam, when do you start focusing on the Bills? When do you kind of shift your mind from training camp to, okay, now I’m thinking about Buffalo? I mean it’s close. The majority of guys have been working on Buffalo for a long time, it’s just about introducing it to the players. We’ll see when that happens. We’ll be smart about that this year.
Al Iannazzone, Newsday: What have you seen from the offensive line the way it’s meshed so far and how important was it to address that position for you guys? Anytime the kind of numbers tell us we struggled last year overall as an offense, it all starts up front. I think it makes a big difference when your GM is a former lineman. That’s going to be one position that he is not going to want to be lacking in, he knows how important it is. And I thought our front office did a great job of going out there and putting together the right group of guys, drafting the right guys, and I feel like the chemistry is coming together. I know Alex and GVR (Greg Van Roten) both kind of have been nicked up a little bit here, but hopefully we can get them healthier before this first game and those guys can keep growing. This season is going to be different than anything that any of us have ever experienced where it’s all going to be about a work in progress, who keeps getting better throughout the season, who can stay healthy throughout the season, and we’ve just got to do everything we can to keep working to get better.
Brian Costello, New York Post: Adam, I assume everything came back clean on (Chris) Herndon, because he was out there today? Yeah.
Brian Costello, New York Post: Is that something you have to monitor or is he 100% fine? I don’t want to say 100% fine, I don’t know if anybody’s 100% fine right now, but it was good to see him out there and he seemed okay.
Al Iannazzone, Newsday: Is Perriman close because I remember you said you thought he would play over the weekend? I mean we’ll, we’ll kind of kind of see what happens here over the next few days I know he’s making quick progress. I mean it’s probably nice when you’re 22 years old and you have an injury and young guys seem to bounce back pretty quick. It was about as ugly as – you watching on film, it looks worse than what it ended up being and I think we got really lucky and the day he’s out there, it’ll be a good day for us because he was having a great camp.
Al Iannazzone, Newsday: Maybe you didn’t hear me, I said Perriman, Breshad. Oh, I thought you said (La’Mical) Perine, that’s why I got to be careful talking about the this with you guys, I get a little messed up. (joking) I mean, I was way off on that, I really thought he was going to be back. We’re just trying to make sure that he feels good, I mean, every time he goes out and runs, it’s certain things he feels good with and then we’ll have just one cut or something where he’s like, “Ahh.” We just got to keep the swelling down and we just got to get him feeling right. And we’re probably being a little precautious anyways. He was doing a really good job, really have confidence in his knowledge of the offense, he was a quick study, he really did a great job over the spring in the summer and coming out here and executing. We just got to make sure it stays in shape and can keep doing what we’re doing and then getting him back on the field.
Charles McDonald, New York Daily News: Adam, health permitting, you’ll have three rookies (Mekhi) Becton, (Denzel) Mims and (Ashytn) Davis playing a big role on the team this year, do you view this as like an evaluation year for them or do you still have high expectations for all three? Once you go out on Week One in the NFL nobody really cares. I mean you’re out here to do one thing and that’s go win. It doesn’t matter if you’re a rookie, 10th year player, 15th year player, nobody cares, it’s all about what are you going to do to contribute. And we’re going to try to find the 11 guys that can go out there and contribute on each side of the ball, each phase, and expectations are always going to be high.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: Adam, just clearing up some stuff on Perriman. When you are saying he’s still trying to run some routes and then he’ll feel something, is that when the injury first happened or is that current day? He’ll have some days if his knee swells up on him, then we’re trying to figure out why that happened or what do we got to do different.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: So, the swelling and stuff is still happening? Yeah, I mean it’s not every day, but that’s why it’s hard for me to, like I’ve said it before, I’m not a doctor, it’s hard for me to explain stuff, I just go off of what I’m being told. And when I talk to him, he seems like he feels good some days and we just got to figure out what that sweet spot is and once we get in the season the amount of pain tolerance these guys go through is more than anybody would ever know. These guys are as tough as they come and that’s what makes NFL players NFL players, they fight through a lot.
Andy Vasquez, The Record: Adam, going back to the offensive line, last year you had a lot of new pieces and it was kind of a struggle getting them all to mesh together. Did you guys learn anything from that or what’s the biggest takeaway you had from that you can kind of apply to this year? Yeah I think this year we’ve at least had the whole training camp where we were kind of playing as a group, where we kind of made some changes there towards the end. So, I think, we just didn’t have the chemistry that we needed. I feel like right now, it’s such a different feel because of the group we have. That room is really tight, which is really cool to see. I just think this is a different group of guys.
Dennis Waszak Jr., Associated Press: How did (Donte) Moncrief look out there? I saw he and Sam (Darnold) hooked up. He’s come in a short period of time and absorbed a lot of information, has been able to go out there and execute, make some plays. I know it can’t be easy, especially as a wideout when you’re thrown into this thing really quick and all of a sudden you got a few days to show what you have. So, I mean I think he’s done a really good job in that area.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: On the offensive line chemistry, how important is it to have that center, just being there, day after day because last year there was a lot of uncertainty at center, a couple of moving parts, but it seems like (Connor) McGovern’s there. How has he galvanized that unit? I feel like he’s done a great job. You can tell he’s played a lot of football and he has a great way to can control the line there and him and Sam (Darnold) seem to work together, those guys do a great job of communicating, every conversations happening, I’ve really enjoyed watching those guys work as a unit.
Dennis Waszak Jr., The Associated Press: Adam, (Jabari) Zuniga practiced a little bit today right? Is that the first time he’s been out there? Yeah, we’re kind of getting those progressions of where, when (Tarell) Basham was out there, when you hear, “Hey, they’re going to be running on the side and stuff,” and I turn around and Basham is in full gear. When that happens that throws me off a little bit too, where I’m going, ‘Alright how much are we doing today?’ When these guys come out, you can tell they’re anxious to get out there, they want to do something, but a lot of these guys were doing the running on the side and things like that to where it’s part of the progression.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: One quick follow up and last question I’ve got on Perriman, Adam, did he happen to have without all the medical and doctor terminology, did he get an MRI and did that come back clear, or did it show you guys something that you’re going to have to monitor throughout the season. No, I mean it did not sound like there was anything we needed to worry about.