There were a lot of elements of this morning's practice to get Rex Ryan fired up — Jim Leonhard's interception and lateral to Lito Sheppard, the scuffle between Shaun Ellis and Damien Woody at the end of that play — but the Jets head coach was really pumped about the first play of the blitz pickup drill.
"I think we saw Shonn Greene get welcomed to the NFL by Bryan Thomas," said Rex about BT's bullrush that bowled the rookie RB backward to the Cortland Stadium turf. "That's what I like to call Run Over Drill, and that's why we call it Run Over Drill.
"Usually on offense, when you don't have pads on and the running backs are 1-on-1 with the linebackers, we call that Run Away Drill. And when you gotta pass-block, that's Run Over Drill — they get 'em back. Shonn's got to realize, oof, they're not messing around over there.
"But it was good, man," Ryan said. "I tell you what. That's exciting to me. I love watching that drill, because you have to be an unbelievable competitor to sit in there and take on some of those big rushers. You see Thomas Jones, you see Leon, and Shonn, too, to his credit, he got nailed, but he came right back. I like the way our backs compete."
A lot of that, Rex beamed, comes from his RBs coach, Anthony Lynn.
"Anthony's a tough guy and they want to please him. Sometimes a coach will rub off on a team."
Exhibit A, of course, is Ryan himself.
