Transcript of Jets head coach Eric Mangini's news conference before Thursday's midday practice:
Today we're following the normal format, no real change there. We'll put a lot of emphasis on third down. That's something we can improve on both sides of the ball, especially our third-and-shorter offense and defensive production. That will be the concentration. We'll be able to review what we did yesterday. There really is no major deviation in terms of the format.
On OL Damien Woody getting sick Wednesday...
Yeah, a cold. I think it's like a lot of parents. Kids go to school, they bring something home and you get sick. It happens a lot more now that the kids are in school, for me, than it ever did before.
On how long Woody will be out…
It doesn't seem like it's going to be something long-term. We'll see how it goes.
On if his wife, Julie, is close to giving birth…
Yeah, I think it's going to happen tomorrow at 6 a.m.
On if the birth is scheduled to occur Friday morning…
Yeah.
On how the birth will affect his work schedule…
We'll work through it.
On if the birth is "fourth down"…
Yeah [laughter], I'll bring the baby in and have him watch tape.
On what time he will arrive at work Friday…
I'm not sure yet. We have to work that. We have not fine-tuned it yet, but kickoff is at 6. We'll arrive at the stadium [hospital] at 4, kickoff is at 6.
On if he will arrive at the hospital at 4 a.m.…
Yes.
On if his wife thinks the football analogies are cute…
At this point in her pregnancy, not much that I do is cute.
On if he has any more good stories about Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis…
I like the Washington story. That whole year [1996] was pretty interesting. I forget what game, it might have been the New England game where we were going up in the elevator at halftime and the elevator got stuck with both staffs inside. The firemen came in and we had to climb out the top.
In retrospect, we probably should have stayed in because we were winning until we got back in the booth and lost it after that. It was that kind of year, stuff like that all the time. It was a great year in terms of the people we were working with and stuff that happened, but 3-13 makes it a little tough.
On what Lewis was like in the elevator…
None of us were really that happy. Only one guy, he had a pocketful of those nuts you get on the airplane. That's all we had foodwise, so if we were there for a long period of time, who knows what would have happened?
On if the elevators getting stuck occurred in the old Foxboro Stadium…
No, at the old Memorial Stadium. It was our first year with the Ravens. It was the last year in Memorial Stadium. It was fun to be able to play there, but it was a little beat up at that point.
On what would happen if the Jets coaches and the Patriots coaches got stuck in an elevator…
I'm sure it would be a good time. There are pretty funny guys on that staff. I guess it just depends on who is up in the booth then.
On if CB Justin Miller is close to returning…
Yeah, he's been able to practice and move forward. We go through the whole week because we just don't know. We have a bunch of reps today and a bunch of reps tomorrow. We just want to see how it looks over the course of the week.
On RB Jesse Chatman's return to the field…
He's done a really good job. He worked out a bunch when he was not here and you can tell that. The first day he was back he had a ton of reps and wasn't really fazed by it. So he had obviously been doing a lot of work, not just in the weightroom but in terms of conditioning, and there really hasn't been much of a dropoff or anything like that.
On if Chatman will be active on Sunday…
It comes down to those last few decisions there. Jesse does do a good job on special teams, which is definitely a consideration and usually that's the determining factor in that group. We have two more days here, two more phases of teams. We'll see how that goes and try to make a decision later.
On S Abram Elam…
What I really like about Abe and what I liked about him last year is his personality both on and off the field. He's a high-energy guy. He works at the communication. That was something that was dramatic right when he got here, his approach and his demeanor. Each day he'd go out and he'd make plays both on the scout team and on the reps that he got. At that point, I thought it was the right time to give him a chance.
Not that he didn't do a good job during the summer. He did. I just thought that Eric [Smith] did a nice job as well, and made that decision. It wasn't really a poor reflection on Abe, I just thought that Eric, at that point, had won the job.
On how comfortable he is with Elam starting…
I'm completely comfortable with it. He does have that experience. He has those games. This was his first start last year: Cincinnati. So here we are.
On using CB David Barrett instead of Elam against San Diego…
It was more just because with Antonio Gates, when they're in 21 personnel, two backs, one tight end and two receivers, with Gates it's really like 20. He's easily another receiver. Instead of having to go with a nickel defense and take a linebacker out to put in the corner at safety, then you have the ability to play some man-to-man and things like that without having to substitute in the front.
On reasons for drafting Darrelle Revis...
He was very complete on tape. He had ideal height and ideal weight. He was physical at the line of scrimmage, but yet he could run with any of the receivers. He had good change of direction. He had good ball skills. He returned punts at that point and showed some ability there, which I thought would be an asset.
I know he hasn't done it here, but you really look at those things for a couple of reasons. You look at it from one perspective in how they can contribute on special teams, but it also shows athletic ability, the ability to make people miss whether you have the ball in your hands or you're defending someone who has the ball in their hands. You can see a lot of things through plays like that.
Then, in talking with people at Pitt, he couldn't get higher recommendations in terms of what he did in the classroom, his work ethic on the field, his approach. And then meeting him personally, all that stuff was confirmed. It was pretty easy for me. He was the guy.
On if he has an assessment of how good an NFL punt returner Revis could be…
He hasn't had a lot of opportunities there. I just really like Leon [Washington] in any of those roles, anytime you can get him the ball in space. He's developed especially as a punt returner over the course of the time that he's been here. Leon does such a good job of narrowing on those things. I just really like where he is going. It's not a knock on Darrelle. I just think that Leon improves each year there, he's very good at it, and he'll get better.
On if he has seen Revis "come out of his shell"…
He's come out of his shell a little bit, still very serious when he's in the building but you definitely see his personality as he gets more comfortable. That's the case with all these guys. They're like churchmice for the first six months, then there's this personality explosion that happens. It's like "There you are." Sometimes you want to put it back in the box but you can't.
He has a great demeanor and great personality. He gets along well with everybody. What I like about Darrelle is he doesn't want people to catch the ball on him in practice. Some DBs who are good DBs will go out and go through the motions of practice and think, "I'll get that in the game." He's just inherently competitive. He doesn't like people catching the ball whether it's 1-on-1, 7-on-7, against another DB.
And that, to me, when I have been around players that have really grown, that's a quality that they have. When you talk about competitiveness as a core characteristic, that's what I mean. They don't want to lose at anything — dominos, tiddlywinks, pickup basketball games with their dad or their son. They don't want to lose. When they do, it bothers them. Those guys usually keep growing.
On if TE Dustin Keller has selected veterans to seek advice from…
Yeah. On the flip side, the veterans have done a really good job taking him under their wing. He has an excellent group with Bubba [Franks] and Bake [Chris Baker], both those guys, there's no sense of trying to hoard information, trying to hoard the things they know. Both of those guys are pros and they like being able to help Dustin and any of those guys that he asks questions are happy to help him. That's true anytime you see someone who is trying to improve. You really want to help that guy get to where he'd like to go.
On if he sees a correlation between success and the kind of players Keller seeks out for advice…
Yeah, anytime you can find a really good mentor or mentors, that goes a long ways. Some guys, they come into the league and they find the wrong mentor. It stunts their growth. They go down completely the wrong path. It's hard to get those guys back because that's how they were trained as puppies. You want the older veteran pros and you want them to gravitate towards those guys, not the other group.
On if it's a coincidence that Keller's and FB Tony Richardson's lockers are next to each other…
It happens. It's a good thing [smiles].
On if T D'Brickashaw Ferguson has found a mentor…
Brick made — not that he hadn't been working hard — a conscious decision as to how this year was going to go. He was in the weightroom within a week of the season ending. He's done so many things that you love to see from a player. He consistently does extra lifts. He's really done a good job of identifying areas of weakness that he wanted to work on. He's been consistent at working at those areas.
I think that's part of growth and maturity, too. He identified what had to be done. He saw the way to continue to grow and then he made the decision as to "This is who I'm going to be, this is how it's going to be," and he's followed up on that decision pretty much every day. Now, having a group like he has, with the wealth of knowledge that they have, that helps too. He's always been a willing learner. He's always been very open to that stuff. Now they've embraced him and he's embraced them.
On if his growth is personal motivation…
He's always been a motivated guy. He's always worked hard. Everybody comes to a point where you make decisions and you make decisions as to how it's going to go. I really believe that you can completely control things. He's completely taken control of those things. You're always going to have programs for guys, you're always going to try to help them with their growth and lead them along a path. But at some point, once they make that decision that that's where they're going, things accelerate.
On giving up 83 points in the last two games…
That's not fun. I'm never happy when we give up points. It was two very good offenses. I really respected Arizona's offense going in. They hung 38 on Miami, they hung 41 on Buffalo and put up 35 against us. They've been very explosive. We did a really good job in that first half. There was a lot of good things defensively, but we need to be able to stem that tide when Kurt Warner gets hot, which he did. There is nothing more important than points.
On the defense…
I think some of it is a function of us having to play better complementary football. We've had the worst starting field position in the NFL defensively. That makes it harder when you're starting on a short field. It makes it harder when there's sudden changes. But that being said, short fields and sudden changes are things that you're going to have to deal with. How many? You don't know, but the ability to come in after a momentum shift, after being put in a difficult position, and stop that opponent, it's critical.
On if he has noticed a trend with the third-down difficulties…
There's a combination of things. There's been a lot of situations where we've had the player covered, we had a hat for a hat, and haven't been able to execute the play, whether it's the slant pass against San Diego there on third-and-short late in the game or the deep ball we were pressuring in that situation or some of the routes against San Diego and Arizona, where you had sort of a combination coverage and we had an inside player but the receiver was still able to cross that player's face.
I'm not looking at it saying there's been a ton of mental errors where we've failed to execute. It's more a function of we're in the right spot, now how can we execute this better? How can we maintain the leverage position that we've had? That's been part of the process over the bye, looking at that, adjusting to things, anticipating things. I think it can help as well. It's complementary there. Each section can do a better job.
On LB Vernon Gholston…
One of the real positives coming out of Arizona was the Special Teams Player of the Week. That's an area that he's never really been a key part of throughout his college career, but he's had a lot of growth there here and to win that award, Mike [Westhoff]'s tough. We go through a process of selecting that guy. Those aren't gimmes. You've got to earn that and he did. I was proud of that fact especially in an area he's not familiar with.
Now defensively we need to see that continued growth as well. He is transitioning from being a down guy to an up guy. Being able to spend time with guys like Bryan Thomas, who have made that transition, Calvin Pace, who have made that transition, going through that process of "What was the most difficult thing for you? What helped you the most?"
I'm always looking for these guys to have a plan in place for their individual development each day. Go home, write down the things that you did, keep track of that stuff, revise it the following week and get what's right for you, what's the best thing for your development. Sometimes you can work at stuff but it's piecemeal, here and there. Vernon is working at things and working at his individual development. It's just each guy develops at different levels.
On if Gholston's development has been slower than he thought it would be…
I don't really go in with expectations because it's so radically different player to player. I've seen some guys that right away can make that transition. Some guys it takes a little bit more time to do that. I don't ever have an expectation there. It's going to be reps, experience and consistent work ethic.
