1495 Sports is proud to bring these quotes from New York Jetstraining camp from Wednesday August 8 as well as these news and notes.

The Jets claimed running back Jeremy Steward off waivers from Philadelphia. Steward who is a graduate of Stanford, played in 47 games, rushing for 920 yards and 14 touchdowns on 209 carries. He also tallied 18 receptions for 123 yards, ran for 257 touchdowns and nine touchdowns on 55 attempts as a fifth-year senior in 2011.

1495 Sports also has these quotes from Dustin Keller; Nick Mangold; Rex Ryan; Mark Sanchez and Tony Sparano.

Keller had this to say on how practice was on Wednesday:

“I think today was pretty solid.  We had our ups and downs and that’s usually how practice goes.  I’d like to see us be more consistent, but there are some good plays we made out there and there’s some we left out there.  The reoccurring theme for our offense so far is that we need more consistency, and we’ll have that.  We still have some time to work, but we want to be ahead of where we thought we would be so we have some work to do.”

On if he is impressed with Mark Sanchez’s leadership:

“Yeah, I think that’s what you can expect from Mark.  He’s more of a leader this year than he ever was before.  I think being in his fourth year that guys really respect his voice.  Every time he steps up, when you’re a first, second, or third year guy, and you’re sitting here talking to eight, ten or twelve year (veterans) it’s kind of hard to get your point across because you’re still relatively new to everything.  This year though he’s a true veteran and he’s proven himself and when he’s talking, everybody’s listening.”

On what he hopes to get out of the first preseason game:

“I would just like to see our offense be more consistent.  Obviously, you want to make some big plays down the field, you want to establish the run, whatever route we decide to go on the play calling and all that, I just want to see consistency out of our offense.”

On how the quarterbacks are handling the new offense:

“They handle it well.  I think at this point, this week, both of them really know the offense very well.  You’ll see that if the receivers are going to a new position, an outside receiver’s going to the slot, they can kind of help them out, get them lined up, tell them about the motion, the shift, because they know offense inside and out.  That’s very encouraging.  Especially if you’re a receiver playing something new, they can always get you lined up right.  But, at the same time, all the receivers especially in this offense, we all need to know everybody’s position, everybody’s job because we can all be playing anything any moment.”

Nick Mangold, whose sister Holly was participating in the Summer Olympics had this to say on his trip to London:

“London was great. Holley did great, battled through injury, and finished tenth in the world, (I) can’t argue with that. I’m very proud of her.”

On what the whole experience was like:

“It was fantastic, it was a great experience. (I’m) very proud of her, she fought through injuries. She finished tenth in the world, (you) can’t be mad at that. Now it’s good to be back banging around a little bit.”

 

On if London was what he expected:

“No, it was an amazing experience though. We were sitting there eating breakfast before going over to the event on Sunday and we saw the women’s marathon run by our hotel, so it was kind of just one of those eye opening experiences with so much going on. (It was) very neat and London was a fantastic town. Everyone there was very friendly, so it was a very positive experience.”

Head Coach Rex Ryan had this to say on how happy he is with his defense:

“I’m happy with our defense. I don’t think it’s a surprise. I think it’s hard to pick a weakness of that defense.  As Bill Walsh used to say, in a line I use with (Mike) Tannenbaum all the time, it takes 11 good players on defense. Sometimes you don’t have to have 11 good players on offense because you can control who gets the ball and how your protection is and all that, but you need 11 good ones on defense because if you don’t, then that opponent will expose you. I think it’s hard to find that out there now.”

On what he has seen from the running game during training camp…

“I like where they are at.  I like where our entire backfield is.  I think John Conner is doing a good job at fullback as well.  Terrence (Ganaway) had the hamstring issues and we have got one guy that has never been out there so I don’t know what he looks like.  All of those guys, Joe McKnight has had some great runs.  He is a dangerous guy and is one of the fastest backs in football, an explosive back.  Obviously with Shonn Greene, I don’t think you appreciate Shonn until it is tackle football and then you can see him and how he can run through arm tackles.  I like where Shonn is at.  I thought he has been catching the ball with the one exception today.  He has been catching the ball well.  I like where all of them are at in protection.  They step in there and have been doing a better job of protection I think this year also.”

On the progress of the offense:

“I am pretty excited about it, there is no doubt.  We don’t have a lot of the things in that we are going to (use) but we have been working a long time and working hard at it.  Let’s see it up against another defense, and I am excited to watch our guys compete.”

Quarterback Mark Sanchez had this to say on the pace of practice:

“I think it was great.  I think (when) we’re finished with specific team drills and (the) move the ball drill, and there’s still time on the clock so we’re ahead of the clock there.  That’s why you see Coach Sparano look at the play clock, the game clock, and the clock of the period, so if we have time left over that means we’re moving at a good pace.  He’ll remind you, he’ll just scream at you and say, “Hey the clocks at zero,” and he’s not talking about the play clock, he’s talking about that individual period.  So it’s important that we stay ahead of the time there.”

On if he feels more mature:

“I mean sure, as opposed to my rookie year.  You just try to stay afloat (as a rookie) so (now) I’m starting to anticipate some things.  Especially on the field, I feel a lot better.  Just (making) better decisions, better accuracy, and that comes with playing and experience.”

On how the rookies are progressing:

“They’re doing great, I think they’re running fast.  There’s not a lot of hazing going on.  Part of that is because we know a lot of these guys have to play.  We’ll have our rookie show, have a good time with it, make fun of guys, but we have to bring them along.  We need some of the guys on offense to get first downs.  Some of the guys on defense have to get interceptions, and cause fumbles to get us the ball back.  So we want to bring guys along, but the rookies are great.”

Offensive Coordinator Tony Sparano had this to say on where the offense is at:

“Today was practice number 10. In the old days at this time, it would be practice number about 18. We’re in practice number 10. We’ve made good progress, really good progress along the way.  We’ve gotten an awful lot done. We’ve got a long way to go here but we’ve still got some time. These guys are competing at a pretty high level right now out there. There has been some really good give-and-take in different periods throughout the last four or five days. So I see us getting better every day at something out there and that’s a complement to our players.”

On Sanchez’s growth and development:

“Listen, the last three years that I have coached, I had a bunch of quarterbacks play. I’ve said this before, they’ve been very fortunate here that Mark Sanchez has been healthy and he’s gotten through the number of games he’s gotten through.  I’ve been on the other side of that, where you’re playing three, almost four quarterbacks. I believe one year it was four quarterbacks.  So to get him the work right now at (the) quarterback position at this point so that we can continue the growth with him there that way (it) doesn’t matter what group he’s playing in, just matters that he’s under the center and that he’s getting that work.   Today out there, Mark got really hot in a period there, and I took him out of the period and we put Tim in for a couple plays there in that period and got him a couple extra reps.  So, there’s a point in time where we can start to do that a little bit when you start to see Mark’s play count get high.”

The Jets will have their first pre-season game of the season against the Cincinnati Bengals on August 10, which is set to air on the CBS Network at 7:30 p.m.

 

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