07/30 — There’s so much to watch at this training camp that I think most people tend to forget Eric Smith. The 6’1”, 209-pound safety, who started four games in his first two seasons, has seen the overwhelming majority of first-team reps for the right to play alongside Kerry Rhodes.

“The first group, we put a lot of practices together where we’ve been good,” Smith said of the DBs after today's single afternoon session. “There are a few mistakes here and there, but that’s part of practice — that’s why you practice. Things are going pretty well and this schedule is a lot nicer than it has been.”

Smith, a tough, versatile player with good instincts, could be set for his professional breakthrough. It might have happened last season if not for a bad break in the summer when he went down out here in Hempstead with a thigh injury.

“It was rough because I was making some strides and working towards that starting position,” he told me. “Then to have a setback like that and fight with it for about half the year, it was rough.”

After the bye, Smith (a solid special teams performer whose 19 stops were second on the team) worked his way back into the defensive lineup. He started two of the Jets’ final three contests and registered eight tackles in the ’07 finale against Kansas City.

“I was kind of up and down at the beginning and then as the season progressed, I felt like I was in there and they could rely on me more to do the things I was supposed to be doing,” he said.

The game slowed down for Smith and he played faster. Earlier in the year, slow recognition meant more completed passes for the opposition.

“But as the year went on, I was recognizing more things, getting more comfortable where I was and reacting ahead of time to what I should have done,” he said.

During the off-season, he was anxious to return and build on the positive results. Once known for his quiet nature, the 25-year-old knows he has to turn up the volume.

“My rookie year, I really didn’t say a thing. I just kind of went along with the flow and I think that hurt me quite a bit with my playing time because they wanted me to step in and speak up like I did at Michigan State,” he said. “Now I’m starting to get back to the role of making all the checks and getting the communications to everybody.”

The Jets already have a great leader in the backfield in Rhodes and it will be all that much better for the team if Smith can display those similar valued qualities.

“A big thing is taking a leadership role in the secondary with the calls, getting all the checks and being someone the guys can turn to if there’s a question. If they come ask me, ‘If we get this formation, what are we going to do to this?’ Being the guy they come to for that,” Smith said.

Over the weekend, Smith said he was “at the right place at the right time” when QB Brett Ratliff overthrew Bubba Franks and the ball went into the defender’s arms. But the critical point there is Smith was at the right place — he might have been thinking about being there last October.

An avid reader, Smitty is currently turning the pages of James Patterson’s “Step On A Crack.” He says he’s about three-quarters of the way through it and it sounds pretty suspenseful.

Afternoon Practice Highlights

Keller continues to make catches. Despite S Cameron Worrell’s interference, which drew a flag, Keller somehow came up with a long haul from Clemens and walked into the end zone for a score covering close to 50 yards. ... As Coach Mangini noted this morning, RB Leon Washington took the afternoon off. Washington, reigning team MVP, was rewarded for winning the Jets’ overall off-season award. Musa Smith was perhaps the greatest benefactor of his absence, getting his most work of the summer.

Brett Ratliff threw a couple of real pretty tosses, including a strike to undrafted FA Paul Raymond (the Brown product was formerly known as the Ivy League’s Fastest Man). ... But Ratliff also added an INT, picked off by S James Ihedigbo.

Mangini ended practice with a two-minute scenario. Pennington, who found Keller a couple of times, got his unit into field goal range and Mike Nugent kicked a game-tying field goal from 39 yards out. Just for good measure, Nugent added a second boot from the same distance. ... Faced with the same 16-13 deficit, Clemens couldn’t duplicate the success. He targeted Brad Smith across the field but CB Drew Coleman stepped in beautifully for a would-be game-clinching pick.