Transcript of head coach Eric Mangini's news conference with members of the New York Jets media after Tuesday's morning training camp practice:
How's everybody doing? One piece of housekeeping. Brandon Moore was excused from practice today for personal reasons. I would like to take a second to send out my condolences and the organization's condolences to Bill Walsh's family. He was an amazing coach and an amazing person who really changed the game. His innovations, his coaching tree, all of the things he has added will be missed both personally and professionally.
In terms of practice today, our focus was on the scoring area of the field and scoring plays in addition to that. You saw the work we did in the "red area," saw that we moved in to the goal line and the end-of-the-game type plays — those last plays usually when you need a touchdown, five or six seconds left. They don't happen very often, but when they do you just need to be ready to execute that play effectively. If you do, regardless of what happened the other 59 minutes and 54 seconds, that is what the game comes down to. I wanted to start working on that. Pretty physical practice today — I was pleased with that. I was also pleased with Darian Barnes and the physicalness he brings to it. He really does add a tempo-changing element to the offense. It's good to see. With that, I will open it up to questions.
On Darrelle Revis missing practice because of the holdout ...
Every practice is important. Every practice we are either installing information or going over previously installed information and making corrections on that information. There is all the "situational awareness" things that we are doing. Each repetition you miss is an opportunity for someone else to get that rep and for them to show what they can do and how they can help the team win. It's really a great opportunity for those other guys.
On helping Revis make up for lost time once he signs …
Everybody takes a different approach to it. You're always trying to speed the learning up as much as you can, but it takes time. The reps are extremely valuable and the more opportunity you have to practice those plays and understand them and be coached on them, the more effective you're going to be.
On whether Revis' absence affects the installation of plays …
Not one bit. We are moving on and the information is going on to the players that are here and they are doing a really good job in learning it and that's how we are operating.
On TE Joe Kowalewski …
Joe is a great story. We have a rookie camp where we bring in the rookies that we drafted, the undrafted free agents that we have signed, and then another group of tryout guys who just come in for the weekend. I tell the rookies this when they come in: "It doesn't really matter how you got here, you are all in the room and being evaluated the same way. It just matters what you do going forward." Joe was one of those guys who showed that weekend that he really belonged. He belonged more so than one of the guys we signed as an undrafted free agent, so we cut one of those guys. He took that contract and then throughout training camp he did a really nice job. He was able to make his way to the practice squad. He's a grinder. He's got that great tunnel vision. He's constantly focused. It's a really good story in terms of being presented with an opportunity of a weekend. He brought enough clothes to stay, that's all we tell them, and he's had to buy more clothes.
He's got a nice combination of power at the point of attack, a good feel down the field, some good vertical speed and a good feel of route-running, and he's getting better. He's getting more of a sense of how to do it. With Joe, you tell him how to do it and he tries to do it exactly that way. If he doesn't, he gets frustrated and he will keep practicing until he does it exactly that way. We love that attitude.
On LB David Harris' progress …
David works with all the groups. All the linebackers rotate in regular and substituted defenses so they can work with all of the different personnel and get used to communicating with all of the different guys who could be in at any given time. David has done a nice job to this point. He and I had an understanding yesterday about the importance of staying onsides and watching the football. His enthusiasm just needs to be tempered until the ball is snapped. I like the enthusiasm, it just needs to be tempered. He's got the work ethic that we're looking for. He's very bright and he's done a nice job too of picking the brains of the veteran linebackers. He's not afraid to ask a lot of questions and that helps him.
On WR Chansi Stuckey …
He's another guy who is working in multiple spots and doing some positive things. With all these rookies there are some growing pains. We had some adjustments that he missed yesterday that he needs to be more consistent and fluid with. When he is working with Chad [Pennington] or Kellen [Clemens], there are so many different alerts based off of the defensive look that you can't zero in once you come out of the huddle. You have to have the alertness that this can change not just once but twice. With Chad out there, it can change even more than that. He's doing a good job at the line with information. It's that consistent performance that he's working at.
On Pennington's performance …
There's not much that I dislike with Chad. Today he scrambled in the red zone and spiked the ball. He needs to work on his celebration a little bit — that wasn't too impressive. Today, when things weren't going the offense's way, Chad was able to get those guys, refocus them and say, "We're going to change the way this is going. We're going to change the momentum." We talk about that as a team, where game momentum swings and there is a feeling when the momentum swings and you can either be engulfed by that feeling or do something about that feeling to change it. I like today where Chad said, "This is how it's going and it stops right now. I'm going to help make it stop and you guys are coming with me." Which he did.
On making the offense run a lap during practice ...
That was a combination of two or three things. I explained to the team after practice that we have all day to practice. I'm perfectly content to stay out there all day. I enjoy it. And we're going to practice until we get it right. Whether it takes two hours, four hours or whatever the case may be, it is too important to not get it right. At that point, the group needed a reminder of how important it was.
On Clemens' reaction to the penalty lap …
You're always looking for that from quarterbacks. The reaction should always be that it's not OK, that it's not OK to have breakdowns. You can't confuse effort with results because what we are looking for is results. If someone gets agitated and it makes them produce results, then that is positive.
On David Bowens …
We had the benefit of [defensive line coach] Dan Quinn coaching him in Miami and [linebackers coach] Jim Herrmann coaching him at Michigan. We have his college coach and his professional coach and they both like what David brought from a personal level and from a skill-set level. He is working with that outside linebacker/defensive end hybrid group, so he gives us some flexibility there. He's kind of getting his camp legs back. He showed some good quickness yesterday in a couple of the drills I was watching, which was good to see. With David and all those outside linebackers, they play roles on first and second and third down. To transition as to what they are doing, you need to have both of those things. What we liked about David is that he had both of those things.
On Pete Kendall …
I've answered a lot of those questions and really nothing has changed from my perspective.
On whether Kendall has been a distraction to the team …
I addressed that yesterday in terms of the type of locker room that we have and the professionals that we have. Everybody here, myself and the team, is focused on us improving as a group.
On using music during practice …
Communication is one of our core values. If a problem comes up, even if we are in the wrong defense or the wrong offensive play, it can be handled if we just talk it out. Anything can be dealt with if someone is misaligned, whatever the case may be. Where you really get in trouble is when someone is misaligned or if you're in the wrong defense or half the guys are in the wrong defense and nobody says anything, you just assume the person is going to get it fixed. What we're looking for is everybody helping each other to get into the right spot. The music forces communication. It forces you to speak loudly and use hand signals. It prevents the coaches from getting involved with "Line up here and line up there" because you don't have that opportunity during a game. It's usually noisy for one side or the other whether you are home or away and you are going to have to deal with that. The best way to deal with it is at practice and getting used to that.
On Thomas Jones embracing his role as a mentor for Leon Washington …
Anytime you have a veteran player who can share his experiences and help a younger player further his advancement through those experiences, that's a really good situation. Having a good mentor can really help your progress along significantly as opposed to just going through it yourself and having to go through all the hard times.
On whether Bill Parcells had anything to do with the acquisition of Kenyon Coleman …
He and Mike [Tannenbaum] chat regularly and I was able to talk to him as well. We also have [secondary coach] Mike MacIntyre, who was in Dallas with Kenyon. Between those conversations we got a good feel from his head coach and another coach who was on the defense and we checked some other places as well. Those are pretty strong endorsements.
On the third running back competition …
With both Danny [Ware] and Alvin [Banks], there is really good young competition there. They need not just to contribute from an offensive perspective, but they need to carve out a role on special teams. That spot is for a core special teams player a lot of times. That is really what you would like to have, a guy who can give you a lot of plays on special teams and then come in the game after not getting a lot of reps on offense.
On using Ben Graham on kickoffs …
We try to practice guys at different spots, not necessarily to replace the person that is there but should something happen during the course of the game, he has gone through some reps with the first group. This is more of a contingency plan than necessarily changing the structure.
On Andre Dyson's status …
It was an injury and he was out there doing some rehab work and conditioning. He was off to the side.
On whether the offense or defense was more impressive in goal line drills …
I guess it depends whether you are an offensive coach or a defensive coach. I win and lose either way. What I was pleased about is that the offense at that point had not been having a very good practice. We got down to a competitive, live drill, where it was the game, it's the difference between three and seven, And the offense won it, 4-2. They rebounded and won.
