Posts tagged EricMangini at FanHouse

Things just keep getting better for Chad Pennington. After he was unceremoniously run out of New York to make way for the love child of Peter King and John Madden, he landed the starting job in Miami, and now, this: Jets head coach Eric Mangini told the New York Post that he would be open to having Pennington return to the sidelines. One small caveat, though:

Mangini is open to the idea of deported quarterback Chad Pennington Chad Pennington returning to the Jets New York Jets -- as a coach. ...

"I wouldn't be opposed to that at all," Mangini told reporters today. "I'm sure he'd be able to do a great job. If that's what he wanted to do, he'd be a great coach."

It's hardly scandalous, however; Mangini says he and Pennington are close, and it sounds like he genuinely respects the guy who he had battling Kellen Freaking Clemens for a job.

The two remain close, according to Mangini, who said he thinks Pennington has a successful future awaiting him in football when his playing days are done.

Training camps are underway, the NFL season is a month off, and to get you ready for 2008, FanHouse previews all 32 teams, "heat index" style. We'll rate each club in 10 categories on a scale of 1 to 10, high score wins.

Quarterback: Chad Pennington enters 2008 trying to prove yet again that he -- wait, what? Who? Really? Didn't he retire? Oh. I see. It doesn't seem like Brett Favre wants to play in New York this year, he's basically said so much in the most diplomatic way possible, which means this is the year where Favre stops having fun. This is the year he stops looking like a kid again, to support the cliche. And it can be argued that that magic has perpetuated itself, and has been the reason Favre is still considered -- rightfully or not -- one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Without it, I can imagine 2008 being a disaster for Favre -- bad play and missed games. And then the New York media jumps in and the misery just compounds. That's how I see 2008 rolling. Oh, plus, they don't have a decent backup quarterback. Heat Index: 6

Brett Favre had a splendid start to his Jets career, but he's still less than two weeks into his re-un-retirement and he'll readily admit that he's nowhere near knowing this offense. That's kind of an issue since the regular season starts Sept. 7, but less of one than if, say, Kellen Clemens were having similar problems (in addition to all the other ones).

Whatever, Favre had a face-to-face with Jets head coach Eric Mangini about how to make the book learnin' as painless as possible given the time crunch:

"I had a long talk with Eric," Favre said on 1050 ESPN Radio. "I don't want to think, I want to react. There's got to be some middle ground there. That's what we're trying to find. I'm trying to get as much digested as possible. "A lot of times you can make this as complicated as you want to."

Favre indicated that the goal is to "simplify" things and "use the guys to the best of our ability."

According to the New York Post's Mark Cannizzaro, Favre admitted that the Jets offense is "totally different" than the Packers' system, and that "there's a tall mountain in front" of him in terms of the job ahead, adding, "I'm up to the challenge and I hope this thing works out."

We're less than three weeks away from the start of the 2008 season, and for the Patriots, it can't come soon enough. After the humiliating Super Bowl defeat at the hands of the underdog Giants, and the subsequent Spygate investigation (as well as other, more nefarious* rumors), the organization is ready to put 2007 behind them and get back to the business of DOMINATING opponents.

And maybe this season, they'll do it 19 times in a row. But there was still one loose end to tie up from last year's ultimately disappointing effort: the presentation of the 2007 AFC Championship rings. And, yes, it's a lot less glamorous than it sounds.

In the end, after declaring the season the fourth-greatest achievement in team history, [Patriots officials] elected to have a private ceremony to commemorate it last Monday at Gillette Stadium.

Owner Robert Kraft and team president Jonathan Kraft presented the players with rings. On one side of the ring, it reads "16-0 -- perfect season." On the other, it reads "18-1, AFC Championship."

Bill Belichick added: "It was a very special and historic year, and I want them to look back with pride when they look at the ring and remember the week-to-week approach." Translation: "This thing is going in the garage with my Cleveland Browns butterfly collar coaching shirts. Last year was a monumental waste of time. Eric Mangini's ass is grass."

Too bad this was a private affair; NFL Network could've charged $49.99 and fans of the 31 other teams would've happily paid it for a hour's worth of schadenfreude-tastic television.

* "nefarious" = "eyeball-gouging and vomit-inducing"

Lost amid all the hoopla of Brett Favre arriving in New York to save the Jets, and the sad faces of Chad Pennington supporters as he was unceremoniously ushered out of town, is the plight of Kellen Clemens, the 2006 second-round pick some people expected to win the starting gig before all hell broke loose last week.

Now, after one preseason game in which Clemens was an uneventful 4 of 6 for 31 yards, it looks like he might not even be the team's No. 2 quarterback. You see, Brett Ratliff looked solid against the Browns (14 for 20, 252 yards, 2 TDs) and he could end up winning the right to back up Favre.

According to the New York Daily News' Rich Cimini, Ratliff was an afterthought heading into camp, but after one preseason game, he's opening some eyeballs.

That would be a crushing blow to Clemens, who opened camp in an open competition with Chad Pennington for the starting job. Clemens' uneven play, coupled with Ratliff's dramatic improvement, has created some uncertainty. Monday, Ratliff shared some of the second-team snaps with Clemens.

"You can't read too much into it," Clemens said. "If something happens, Coach will say something."

There is good news for Clemens, however; rookie fifth-rounder Erik Ainge is skrugglin', so there's no chance he falls to fourth on the depth chart. "He's funny," Eric Mangini said of Ainge. "Some of his throws have been funny, too."

I'm pretty sure Mangini wasn't being laudatory there.

Brett Favre said it himself -- he'll always think of himself as a Packer. That's why I can't understand Jets fans opening their arms so readily for the man. Favre is a Jet because the Jets offered more than Tampa, and because he'd eliminated every other possible option for himself. The Jets might have gotten a better quarterback but they created a big disconnect; they put their offense in the hands of someone who's heart and head is with another franchise. And so Favre's attempts to integrate himself into the Jets' locker seems to me forced.

Regardless, whether or not Favre continues to pine for his green-and-yellow oasis, he won't be watching them tonight when they play the Bengals on Monday Night Football. That's according to Eric Mangini, that is. There will be no checking in on Aaron Rodgers. No gazing at his former teammates and wondering what if.

According to Favre's new coach, Brett will have his dance card punched full with "Jets related activities." And yeah, I guess it's pretty busy in the Favre household lately, trying to learn a new offense and all. But do you really expect Favre not to keep an eye on Rodgers' performance tonight? I'm sure David Lee Roth listened to Van Halen's first single with Sammy Hagar.

Just sayin ...

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick took time off from being completely charismatic and engaging to talk to the media about last night's loss to the Ravens. Because it was a preseason contest, and more importantly, because Tom Brady didn't sniff the field, Belichick wasn't in mid-season uber-boring form, and he even talked about the AFC East's newest best quarterback, the Jets' Brett Favre:

When Belichick was asked his thoughts on the Jets' acquisition of Brett Favre, he said: "He's a great player, one of the best players in the last couple of decades. He has just about every record you could have at the position he plays. It speaks for itself. It's always a big challenge playing the Jets, even more so now.

They have a lot of talent and I'm sure we'll have our hands full every time we face them. But right now, that's not at the forefront of our concerns. We have a lot of other things before it would come to that and that's what we'll focus on. But he's a great player, there is no question about that."

To be fair, it wasn't much of a challenge playing the Jets last season. Not unless "challenge" means "that jerk Eric Mangini ratted me out to the league for cheating."

In all seriousness, is Favre enough to get the Jets over the hump? I mean, is this club suddenly a playoff contender and a threat to win the division? Well, considering that the 2007 version of this team didn't win four games solely due to the quarterback play, I tend to think not. That said, I'm all for them sweeping the Pats in '08.

Remember a long time ago when Jets fans yelled things and told Kellen Clemens that they might prefer the services of one Brett Favre? Yeah, it wasn't that long ago really. But, while there are no more heavily reported "FAV-RUH!" calls, Clemens is still out there, busting his tail and throwing interceptions. From the Jets Stream:

It wouldn't be a training camp practice without an interception by Kellen Clemens, who tossed his sixth pick in nine practices. Yeesh! This one came on the final play. He was throwing to Brad Smith, who ran an in-cut of about 12 yards, I'd say. From the outset, you could see something was unusual about the pass coverage and, sure enough, it was a 'new defense that we hadn't seen,' as Clemens later explained. The cornerback, Drew Coleman, dropped into a zone and played the inside route, which is 'something you usually don't see,' Clemens said. He threw it right to Coleman for the interception.

I don't think Clemens was trying to create an alibi for his mistake, but the bottom line is, quarterbacks see new defensive schemes all the time. The experienced quarterbacks know how to adjust on the fly.

I think that whole 'new defense' thing works -- maybe -- for a rookie with no experience. But Clemens has started enough games at this point to kind of lose that old chestnut. Especially when we're talking about training camp.

I didn't want to be the one to say it since, you know, the last time I tried to crack wise it blew up in my face, but I'm with the Jets Blog's Brian Bassett on the most recent Brett Favre-to-the-Jets news: it probably ain't happening.

When Mort reported that the Jets were to talk to Favre, I was dubious, because let's face it, Mortensen likes to break stories, but doesn't really like to get all the facts. Once we knew that it was the Packers who called the Jets, that was basically all we needed to know.

From the start, it seemed like a far-fetched notion; head coach Eric Mangini initially was uninterested, and Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens are currently on the roster vying for the starting gig.

Favre might appear to be a short-term solution, but he doesn't know the offense, and more importantly, what happens to the team when he decides to (fake) (un)retire in a year's time? So for the time being, the likelihood Favre plays for the Jets in 2008 is "remote." And now that he's not showing up for Packers training camp, the list of potential suitors is down to 30 (give or take 28).

I was joking when I suggested earlier today that now that first-round pick Vernon Gholston is under contract, the Jets could go about signing the last piece of the Super Bowl puzzle, quarterback Brett Favre. I suspect some fans feel differently -- especially this dude -- but ESPN.com's Chris Mortensen, who's never wrong, reports that the Jets have received permission to talk to Favre about the prospects of playing in balmy East Rutherford this fall.

This must be good news for Aaron Rodgers, who learned earlier today that Favre plans to show up at the Packers training camp, which starts tomorrow; not-so-good news for Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens, currently the two guys battling for the Jets starting job.

For shiggles, let's assume Favre ends up in New York. Does he suddenly make Jets contenders in the AFC East? I'm skeptical; not so much because Favre is over the hill, but because he'll have to learn a new offense in less than a month, and will be coming to a team that won four times last season. Yes, the Jets were a 10-win outfit in head coach Eric Mangini's first season, but are the offseason additions enough to give the Patriots something to worry about?

I'm unconvinced, but I'm all for giving it a try; I mean, I can get behind anything that increases the chances that New England doesn't make the playoffs.