CORTLAND — The Jets depth at safety got a little thinner after Friday’s 17-6 preseason-opening loss to the Bengals.
Backup safety Eric Smith, who injured his left knee covering a punt, sprained his MCL, according to a source. The team said Friday Smith is day-to-day, but it is unlikely that they would rush him back in the preseason.
Behind LaRon Landy and Yerimah Bell, the Jets have two rookies in Josh Bush and Antonio Allen.
Landry made his Jets debut Friday night. After dealing with Achilles tendon and foot problems that ended last season for him with the Redskins, Landry said he was eager to get back on the field.
“It feels great,” Landry said. “I’ve been battling with health issues. It’s been a roller coaster these past two years. This is my first time getting some live action in a while, [after] going on [injured reserve] last year, and it feels great to be back out there again.”
* The talk for five months has been about who the Jets’ quarterback should be. It won’t matter if it is Mark Sanchez or Tim Tebow if the team can’t keep them upright.
The Bengals recorded five sacks in the Jets’ loss. Two of those were against the starting offense, and Tebow avoided a few more sacks with scrambles.
Jets coach Rex Ryan said you can’t pin the protection problems completely on the offensive line.
“The offensive line takes all the blame, of course, when your quarterback gets hit,” Ryan said. “On some of those, the ball has to come out. It’s really not all on the offensive line on a couple of those. Now there were also a couple where maybe it could have been, guys getting beat physically. You can handle a guy getting beat physically a heck of a lot more you can mentally.There was one sack against [Greg] McElroy where, shoot, I think everybody in the ballpark knew the guy was coming. He looked like that [Usain] Bolt guy ready to run a 100 [meters].”
Ryan said it’s possible the quarterbacks held onto the ball too long because they’re not allowed to be hit in practice.
“I think sometimes it’s not unusual the way you [never] practice with the quarterbacks live in those situations, they have a tendency to hold the ball a little longer,” Ryan said. “That’s why we put the buzzers out there in practice.“We do all that type of stuff because guys are holding off not trying to hit the quarterback. When you get to the live action, when those guys add to the rush, they’re going to hit the quarterback and that happened [Friday].
* The Jets resume practice this morning. Training camp breaks on Thursday.