It takes a lot to tick off Herman Edwards, yet his team did it yesterday with a sloppy morning practice that left him irritated.
“I explained to the young guys and veterans [that] we made some mistakes that we just can’t make,” Edwards said. “We’re too far along in program. Rookies are the ones who are going to play in the preseason games and if they can’t handle [doing things right] then they can’t play in this league.
“We had some veterans make some errors and that’s not good. When we don’t do things right mentally in practice, it’s not a good practice.”
Asked if he was surprised, Edwards said, “I thought it was going to happen before this. Some guys were lining up wrong, executing things we were asking them to do wrong. We have to be a mentally tough football team. When you do that, you win some games late when other teams are making mistakes.”
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CB Aaron Beasley hyper-extended his left knee in the morning practice, though Edwards said he’s “fine.” … Free agent FB Little John Flowers sprained his left ankle in the morning session . . . Second-round pick S Jon McGraw was kept out of practice with a sore groin. DT Josh Evans got his right ankle rolled, but Edwards said it wasn’t serious.
LT Jumbo Elliott, “elder statesman, got a rest,” Edwards said . . . WR Laveranues Coles (sore heel) was held out of the morning practice by Edwards, but practiced in the afternoon . . . Vinny Testaverde, who returned for one of two practices Friday, looked sharp in yesterday’s morning session . . . LB Sam Cowart (hamstring) continues to sit out . . . Edwards said that, after Friday’s morning practice, 23 players had to have their fluids restored via IVs and all returned for practice in the afternoon.
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Free agent WR Kory Bailey made a nice TD catch of a Testaverde pass to climax a two-minute drill drive in the morning practice. He leaped over CB Jamie Henderson to make the catch. “At minicamp he dropped a lot of balls,” Edwards said. “Now, he’s starting to feel comfortable. He can jump over guys and catch balls.” Edwards, too, praised another free agent WR, Ataveus Cash, who also made some plays yesterday.
After dropping a sure INT that hit him in the numbers in a morning red-zone drill, S Sam Garnes dropped to the ground and did 20 sit-ups as his penance. “That’s the DB rule,” Edwards said. “We used to have a big deal in Tampa where you put money in the kitty, and that kitty used to get pretty big.”
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The organization “Gift of New York” was at practice yesterday accompanying 30 members of families of Sept. 11 victims. The organization, which works with various sports and arts groups in and around Manhattan, has a mission to “comfort and heal” the families by bringing them to events around the city.
Testaverde recently had about a dozen teammates out to his Long Island golf club, Pine Hollow, to play in an informal tournament to see which Jets would shoot the lowest score. Testaverde, who said he’s played only four times this year because he was rehabbing his surgically-repaired foot, shot a low score of 80. CB Ray Mickens, however, was on his heels, carding an 82.