Transcript of Jets head coach Rex Ryan's news conference following Monday's morning practice:
Guys that did not practice today: Kenwin Cummings who had a shoulder. He doesn't have great strength in his shoulder right now. Of course Calvin Pace, he will have that surgery I believe around 5:00 tonight. Brodney Pool, out with an ankle. Charlie Tanner, the kid from Texas, with the knee. Then [Donovan] Warren with the head and Damien Woody had a low back today. I never saw D. Wood, but he was on his way to the chiropractor. Limited was Shaun Ellis, and then Josh Mauga made it through practice today again, so that was encouraging.
On if Brodney Pool will play this Thursday against Philadelphia…
None of the starters are playing anyway.
On the seriousness of Pool's injury…
I don't know. He was kind of limping around yesterday when I saw him and I haven't seen him today.
On if any other starters will be playing Thursday besides Matt Slauson…
No. We're going to go with Slauson and then Wayne Hunter. I always consider him a starter because he plays in all those other things. Vernon Gholston will play. We're only going to have 36 players playing in this game and that includes the three specialists, the long snapper and the kickers. That number is not very big. We're going to run the ball a bunch [laughter]. I'm just telling you.
On if Jason Taylor is going to play Thursday night against Philadelphia…
Not playing.
On if Santonio Holmes is playing...
He will play.
On how long Holmes will play…
We'll put him in there and let him go. He's going to miss four weeks, so we'll do with him like we did Calvin [Pace] last year. I think we did almost three quarters with Calvin last year, so we'll do the same thing with Tone. I was talking with Coach [Andy] Reid and I said, "Well, you're going to have to roll your coverage to him." So I gave him some advice already, so expect some cover two over there when Tone is in the game.
On who will play at quarterback…
Mark [Sanchez] will be the only one that doesn't play. I anticipate us playing the other three, [Mark] Brunell, [Kellen] Clemens and [Kevin] O'Connell.
On if Mark Brunell, Kellen Clemens and Kevin O'Connell will play in that order…
I haven't even really thought about it. Probably. You know what? Yes, let's go ahead and go in that order [laughter]. I'll mention it to them. We're going to do it in that order since I mentioned it that way, let's go ahead and do it that way. The media made that decision [smiling].
On if he's concerned about Warren's injury…
No. It's just like Mauga. Mauga missed. We had that goal line scrimmage and he had the concussion, actually finished the practice and then came back and had the concussion. He hasn't played in a single preseason game. Obviously, if you still have symptoms, then you don't play them. It's as simple as that.
It's weird. You go back and you think about many years ago, a guy would have a concussion and it was like "No big deal. He'll be up next week." That's not the case anymore and it shouldn't be. You've got to make sure they're a 100 percent healthy. That's really what we're doing. It's not like back in the days where he would have played.
On the fine line between trying to evaluate Warren on the field but he has been injured…
Well, you can't. A head injury in particular, no way are you going to rush that. So if you can't evaluate, you can't evaluate him. It's unfortunate for those two young guys, but what's the likelihood of him making a team? You have no tape, so I would say slim to none, but maybe you put him on a practice squad and you see a little more of him that way.
On how important this game is for David Clowney…
I think it's important for all those receivers obviously. There are some jobs up for grabs and we'll see who takes them. We had [Danny] Woodhead working some receiver today, so he's working as a running back and receiver. To be honest with you, he had a great practice today. So there is another guy. We're trying to give guys opportunities. This game is going to be big.
On how much does it help Danny Woodhead that he can play both running back and wide receiver…
I think that anytime that you can wear a lot of hats that helps you and the fact that he can go on special teams. That's definitely a plus.
On waiving Aundrae Allison after he had a decent summer…
He did. He's really an outstanding young man, but I just think that it was a deal where he really can only play receiver. You talk about the different roles where [David] Clowney is ahead of him because he does play special teams.
On if Clowney plays special teams well…
Well that's still debatable. That's a great question. He's made some plays on teams, but we want to see that consistency. He's had a couple real nice plays, fumble recoveries this preseason. I want to see him be single press. He needs to be able to do that consistently and so far he's still been a little inconsistent in his special teams play.
On if he needs to see more from Brunell this week…
I think we'd all feel a little better if we moved the ball. I think we'll definitely feel better about it, but this is the best week so far of practice that he's had, so I think he's catching up to the playbook. I think he feels more comfortable. He's throwing it well this week.
On how important this game is for O'Connell…
I think it's critical — for a ton of guys. I'll say this. By now, you're roster basically is you know who is going to be on it. Maybe there is one guy, maybe two guys that you play that last preseason game and they jump on your roster. We literally have, I would say, five spots up for grabs. Off the top of my head, I would say there are five spots.
On if any of the open roster positions have been solidified…
I would say that the fullback spot, with T-Rich [Tony Richardson] and "the Terminator" [John Conner], I think you've got those two for sure on this team. I think the tight ends are on this team. All four of them. That's a strange deal when you're going to keep four tight ends. I think that we will keep four tight ends, barring an injury. We have four good players. I think when we think about our roster, that's what you want to do. We want to keep the best players regardless of the position. That's how we're looking at this.
On if Kellen Clemens is one of the guys on the bubble…
I would say he's got a pretty strong chance of making this team.
On if this game is critical for Clemens…
I wouldn't put it in the critical stage. Some of them are on life support. We've got to see it.
On if there is anything new on pursuing Adalius Thomas…
Well, we haven't signed. I think we need to play this game and find out exactly how we have the roster set up.
On if he thinks Adalius Thomas will sign before this week's game…
I don't think so. I was wanting to before, to give him a shot and opportunity to see if he was the same guy who would've made the decision really easy. We need to give these guys a good, hard look.
On if Thomas doesn't want to come in for a few weeks and then come back again after the Ravens game…
I don't think any player would really want that scenario. It happens in the league all the time, but most people are going to want that security of playing that first week and your contract is guaranteed for the season. If you don't come in until the second week, you're contract isn't guaranteed.
On if any team is willing to give Adalius Thomas a guaranteed contract…
It doesn't look like anybody.
On how Antonio Cromartie played in the game against Washington…
I thought he really played well. I know he had the two penalties. I'm not going to say the officiating was poor, but the one call, maybe I just had some bad angles on it. It's like, "OK." I thought he played really well. There was one deep pass early in the game that the guy got free from him and the ball fell incomplete. What happens is when you're pressuring, that ball better come out at a certain time. Sometimes there will be separation late in the down that he better not be able to throw it. If it's zero coverage, he better not have that time to throw it. I thought he was playing really well.
On the deep pass to Santana Moss that was dropped…
That was more on Brodney. That was where it was "Come on, Brodney, pick this thing. That's why we've got you back there." The funny thing is Brodney played pretty decent in the game, but especially when he's high like that, the high safety, sometimes it's like just go ahead and go for it. Take your shot at the ball. I think he just doesn't pull his trigger sometimes as fast as I'd like to see him do. He's got to understand that our mentality is probably a little different than other teams where if that ball's in the air, we've got to get after it. That's our football. Again, he's still new to this defense, but once he picks this thing up, whoo, he's really a physical kid. We're excited about him.
On Pool being passive…
He's definitely not passive that way. He just doesn't want to make a mistake instead of just attacking the football. Go get the football. It's to where it's "I'll just go secure a tackle." No, we want to attack the ball. This guy is really physical. He did a great job getting off blocks, making tackles, and he comes up there and hits you. He's definitely not passive when it comes to the physical part of the game. I'd just like to see him be a little more aggressive and be more of a ballhawk in the deep patrol.
On Pool's ball skills…
He's got great ball skills. He's just got to go for the football instead of just making a secure tackle. Just go for the ball. That's what separates the great ones from the good ones.
On how Jason Taylor has looked in practice…
He looks great. We can say what we want, but some of the pickups we had, we struck gold on a few of them. We get to showcase that when we start the season for real, but I think we've all see it. We've all seen what Jason Taylor looks like out there and LaDainian [Tomlinson], of course, and Santonio Holmes and Brodney. We got better in the personnel department. Without question, we got better.
On why he is confident that they can have still have a great defense without Calvin Pace or Darrelle Revis…
I guess history is part of it. We can get it done. We've proved it all through the years. That's all I know is great defenses. That's what we stand for. It's not about one guy or one or two guys. Every team is going to go through one or two guys you are going to miss. That happened last year. When we opened the season, we never had Calvin and we never had Shaun Ellis. We'll get it done. Last year we lost [Kris] Jenkins for a lot of it. This is what we do. We're a team defense. That's why I know our defense will play great. There's not a question in my mind that we'll play great. We play great team defense.
