Today's afternoon practice, as in the morning, was full-squad and it was on the SUNY Cortland grass field. It was a shortie — about an hour and 15 minutes — and it again featured the quarterbacks. Kellen Clemens looked sharp early. Mark Sanchez (with a little help from his friend, Wallace Wright) made some nice throws late.
Clemens had two long balls in particular to note in 11-on-11 drills. His first one was to Chansi Stuckey, a perfect strike down the middle past CB Donald Strickland for a 35-yard gainer.
"The fans and the writers keep talking about the Jets finding a No. 2 receiver and they don't even know what they have here," said a knowledgeable observer about Stuckey. "He never drops anything."
Then Clemens found Brad Smith a few times. The first pass went for 25 yards, the second was a shorter completion in front of CB Darrelle Revis.
Then came Sanchez. The rookie signalcaller, who declared after the morning session, "Wallace Wright — still my guy," could have said it again after this practice.
The first strike came on a quick throw over the middle that Wright, the third-year man from North Carolina, snatched and then headed north for the end zone.
To end the practice, No. 6 hit No. 15 twice on out-routes. The second one was particularly pretty. Sanchez took off on a rollout right out of the USC playbook, waited for Wright to clear, and rifled the ball to him just past the outstretched hands of S Eric Smith. Wright caught it and got his feet in for the "first down."
A few defensive plays of note: OLB Calvin Pace, on the inside rush, batted down a Clemens throw in team drills. And CB Marquice Cole was all over a 7-on-7 pass that Erik Ainge was trying to get to Marcus Henry, snatching the ball away from the first-year wideout from Kansas.
The afternoon attendance was 1,194, giving the Jets a Cortland-best one-day total of 2,256.
Wednesday's schedule calls for an 8:20 a.m. start in the morning and a 4:15 p.m. special-teams-only practice in the afternoon.
