07/24 — One of the treats of watching every snap of every practice of your favorite NFL team is observing the unheralded or unknown players step up and make play after play.

One of those Jets in today's second practice of camp was WR Paul Raymond, the small, fast undrafted free agent out of Brown.

In the morning Raymond nicely gathered in a deep ball from Brett Ratliff during position drills. And he picked up where he left off in the early evening at Hofstra with a stretch in which he caught two deep throws from rookie Erik Ainge.

Not to be outdone, Ratliff came back with a 35-yard long ball that Raymond gathered in despite coverage from S Cameron Worrell and CB Ahmad Carroll.

"Ivy League!" a fan bellowed from the stands.

Those first two QBs, you know, Nos. 10 and 11, had their moments up and down in late session. Kellen Clemens threw a nice intermediate ball to a crossing Chansi Stuckey, then punched the air with a small gesture of satisfaction. But a little later Clemens threw a deep flutter ball for Brad Smith that CB Darrelle Revis easily leaped up for and picked off.

In blitz drills, Chad Pennington had a pass rejected emphatically by rushing LB David Bowens. But CP immediately struck back against another blitz with a perfectly placed short connection with Thomas Jones, who strode up the field for a massive gainer.

Pennington also hit rookie TE Dustin Keller in stride and Keller flowed past other defenders for what would have been another long gain, and slipped an inside handoff to Leon Washington, who looked strong as he darted 30 yards.

Two other WRs went high for impressive grabs — David Clowney for a Pennington ball in 7-on-7s and Smith from Ratliff in front of rookie CB Dwight Lowery in late 11-on-11 situation drills.

But smooth veteran wideout Jerricho Cotchery uncharacteristically dropped two passes, something he's sure to bounce back from in Friday's single early-afternoon practice.

On the special teams front, Ben Graham and Joe Smith, the semipro leg man from Washington, traded a whole lot of punts. Not every kick was a rocket, but during one stretch Smith nailed a high corkscrew kick with 4.7-second hangtime, Graham answered with 4.9 and 4.8 thumpers, and Smith came back with a 4.94 hanger.

Mike Nugent scuffled in the morning workout, fighting a steady wind and the legendary Arena League-width goalposts in going 4-for-8 at the end of practice. But two of those four were from 45 and 50, and he followed up by ending the evening practice in no wind and under a pastel setting sun with a mammoth down-the-middle 58-yarder. The franchise record, for comparison purposes, is 55 yards.

Watching the specialists were of course ST coordinator Kevin O'Dea, plus the man he replaced, Mike Westhoff, who dropped in to say hello to his former charges and take in the practice from a far corner of the field. Jets owner Woody Johnson also visited.

After the practice — which, for those scoring at home, lasted 1 hour, 50 minutes — the running backs as a group, including NFI listers Jesse Chatman and Musa Smith, plus TEs Bubba Franks and James dearth, signed autographs for the Brooklyn Panthers youth football team that was in attendance.

And so Day One is in the books.