Transcript of head coach Rex Ryan's late-morning news conference following the Jets' Thursday training camp practice at SUNY Cortland:
The people of Cortland, I tip my hat to them. Everybody was terrific here. The university, as always, was just amazing. Everything went off without a hitch. The weather cooperated, you want to have one really bad rainy day, we had that, and that's it. The weather was tremendous, the fields, the cafeteria, everything. Cortland, they always blow you away. I mean, they blow me away. They do a tremendous job here and it's a great place to have training camp. We'll see if our streak continues and we make the playoffs. That would be nice. Really, I couldn't ask anything more of Cortland and the community, everyone was terrific. Last day, I felt, some guys were already down at Florham Park, but other than that I thought it was a pretty good practice and some pretty good competition. All right, let's go. Go ahead, fire away and let's get out of here [laughing].
On how Tim Tebow handled the various roles…
I think Tim's doing a good job as a personal protector and the quarterback stuff we have him doing and some Wildcat things. I think Tim's doing well.
On if he has been happy with Tebow's progress…
Absolutely. I think his completion percentage, I mean you chart everything, was a little below 50 [in OTAs] and now [in training camp] it's around 65.
On if his training camp completion percentage was 65 percent…
Well, I don't want to give you an exact number, but I think it was definitely in the sixties for sure. I don't know if it was 65, but if it wasn't there, it was close.
On if that completion percentage includes team drills and seven-on-seven…
Yeah, team and seven-on-seven, those things. I mean obviously you expect them to be a little higher in seven-on-seven than in team.
On what the biggest question about the team is…
I just think we have to get healthy. I think that's the big thing. It's frustrating for everyone, its frustrating for the players themselves. We have to get guys healthy. We're fortunate we haven't had the major injury. We have had things that they're going to get better from, but that's been frustrating. We haven't had the receivers out there. We have three of our top receivers missing, and that's not a good thing. Other than that, I feel pretty good about where our team is.
On if there are any new injury updates…
No, everything's just the same as yesterday, so we can just go by that. No I'm just kidding. Everybody has those notes from yesterday? Let's just use those and move on. Eric Smith won't play. Santonio [Holmes] won't play, [Jeremy] Kerley won't play. We had Jordan White have some knee swelling, so we'll see about him. That will remain to be seen if he plays. I was feeling good about him, and then his knee swells up, so that group over there is a M.A.S.H. unit, there's no doubt about that.
On if he thinks Wayne Hunter will play…
I do, I feel Wayne will play.
On how long the starters will play on Saturday…
I want to have some guys shorter than this, but probably a half, close to a half. A guy like Brandon Moore probably won't play much more than a quarter, but I would like to get them out there for about a half.
On if he is worried about Moore's hip…
No, I'm not really worried about him. He's just a veteran player. He's tough as a mule, but sometimes you want to back those guys down a little bit, and just be smart. Just like we are backing down [LaRon] Landry for a different reason, you have to do the same thing there.
On if he believes Mark Sanchez can be a top-10 quarterback in the NFL…
Again, I don't want to put a number out there, where you'd rank him, but I feel great about Mark, there's no doubt. He has all the tools, he has a great grasp of the system, and now he has experience, which you can't buy, going into his fourth season. He has a lot more experience with NFL coverage and different disguises. When you enter this league as a rookie, you think you see things and these coordinators will fire a bunch of different looks at you, but Mark now has experience.
On if he was surprised to see Sanchez be more assertive in the huddle …
No, I think that the passion, he's always had that passion and all that. But now, he knows this system probably better than any of them. No, probably, him and Mangold. I think he's demanding things. There should be no reason that somebody gets in the huddle and doesn't understand what he's doing or whatever, or for that matter, even really talking in the huddle. When he steps in, he has the play, and that's how you go about business.
On Jeff Demps…
You know what? I really don't want to really talk about him. I know Mike Tannenbaum's on top of any available player.
On if Sanchez has improved at being more even-keeled with his emotions…
Well sometimes, when your quarterback's hanging his head, that's a bad look. And sometimes you can't help it. But it's something that, number one, I think his whole demeanor is more about "We'll get you. We might've had a bad play here but we're coming back and we're going to find a way to get you." So I think he's further along that way.
On his overall goal for the offense against the Giants…
I think it's more about the whole team, just make improvements. I'm not spitting a number out is it rushing, is it passing? I'm not saying that. It's just, make improvements in all areas. Obviously, we need to improve on special teams, we need to improve on defense, we need to improve on offense.
On if he remembers the Giants game from last Christmas…
A lot of things you'd like to erase in your memory, but that unfortunately will stay in there. As most coaches, you remember almost all the losses. But that one stung, no question about it. Again, I don't want to rehash all of last season, but obviously you remember those games for sure.
On what he said to the team after practice…
Really, it was we had to go over some logistical things. What time this is, that is, checkouts, whatever it is. We had to go over all those type of things. And each thing, anytime you're in a preseason game, when you're moving, you have game bags, you have all that kind of stuff. So you're talking about, I mean, you asked the question, this is what you go with [laughter]. Like literally, put what you want in the game in this bag, the other stuff you put over here. You asked, so I gave it to you [laughter]. But those are little things that you do. I'm sorry. I don't have anything good. It wasn't any good. That's what you come up for.
On if Knute Rockne ever spoke about that…
Hey, I'm just telling you, Knute Rockne was here [laughter]. Make sure you put that helmet in this bag and those shoes in this bag.
On the flavor of the playcalling for the Giants game after taking a vanilla approach against the Bengals…
Oh, man. Maybe, I don't know. Chocolate chip maybe or something. Put a little vanilla ice cream and maybe some sprinkles on it. How's that?
On if there will be any game-planning for the Giants game…
No.
On if there will be game planning for pass protection…
You don't do game planning. What you do really is you work, if there's pass protections things, you put your base rules out there, whatever the protection is, and you go against the different looks. Sometimes that's a good thing. Obviously, we have to protect the quarterback going against the New York Giants who's pass rushers are probably better than any team in the league. Obviously, we're going to know that going in, but specific game planning, no, we don't do that.
On the biggest improvement at SUNY Cortland over the past three camps…
Well, the first year was kind of interesting because we had to spend most of the time on the turf, at least the first several days as we tried to put a field in. That was a little challenging. And we might remember the helicopters hovering over the field to dry it up and things. But you look at the fields that we have out here now, I mean they're tremendous. They're as good as it gets, they're as good as our fields back home. So that's really nice to see and really been terrific. But I think that the big leap was really the first year to the second year in the organization, the building, everything. Now it's kind of like clockwork, it just goes. And Clay Hampton does a tremendous job organizing the whole thing. It never ceases to amaze me how organized and it's too easy. You know, its boom, boom, boom. You have no issues there. None of the players do, no coach, no anybody. He just does an unbelievable job.
On if Tom Coughlin has called about the Wildcat plays…
No. I don't think he cares, he's world champion. He probably doesn't really care.
On if all the draft picks will help the rookie show tonight…
Man, it's going to extend that rookie show. I think guys are going to want to speed that up a little bit. But no, I think it should be a good one.
