Mike Pennel / DT ~ ~ ~

[kelly]

There's not a whole lot in Mike Pennel's short NFL résumé that suggests he could be on the verge of a career breakout. He was an undrafted free agent by Green Bay in 2014, had five starts in three Packers seasons, was hit with a pair of NFL suspensions in 2016, and was released by the Pack in March.But the Jets were interested enough to acquire the burly nose tackle on waivers, and there was some buzz among Green & White faithful at his arrival.

Then last week head coach Todd Bowles added his name to the list of offseason admirers.

"Mike's a big man," Bowles said of the 6'4", 332-pounder. "He's had a good spring, a very good spring. And he's into it. If it continues in pads, he'll have a future here."The personable Pennel hears the compliments from outside and in, and he smiles. But he lets them roll off his broad back."To be honest, I kind of shut myself off from outside influences my second year into the league," he said. "My mom reads a lot of the stories and comments, she always sends me stuff, and I tell her, don't send me that. It doesn't matter to me. I just want to stay even keel."

The good ship Pennel has brought him further east from his Colorado home and his Wisconsin stopover to the Jets, where he's made a smooth transition to the Green & White and into the still formidable talent in the D-line room."Everybody's been so welcoming here, giving me everything I need, and I'm just trying to take advantage of all that," he told me after the last practice of minicamp. "I feel like I can be another piece to the defense. We already have great playmakers, and I have a veteran nose tackle I can learn from. Whenever Steve [McLendon] needs a break, I want to be able to come in and have there not be a dropoff."

Some have even likened Pennel to a young player out of the mold of Kris Jenkins, the mammoth O-line wrecker who made four Pro Bowls, including one for the Jets in 2008.

"The crazy thing is I watched a lot of film on Kris when I was younger, and that's who I wanted to be — great first get-off, big guy, just solid in the middle," he said. "So I like that analogy. That's nice."But let's not get too far out over our skis. Pennel's good start to his Jets career will continue back in the Rockies for the next five weeks before training camp. He used to travel his first few NFL offseasons, but this year he's focused on daily workouts. And for some fun vacation activity, perhaps some hiking.

Such as up and down the famed Manitou Incline near Colorado Springs. You start at 6,600 feet above sea level, then go up at an average 41% incline for 2,000 feet and 2,744 steps, all constructed of railroad ties."I do the Incline two to three times a week," he said. "It gets you altitude training and it gets you right. It's really hard on your lungs. Go up, run down — great workout!"

It's all a part of Pennel's plan. The past is prologue, the future is now.

"I feel like you can go one way or another," he said. "You can just rely on your talent and make the team, but I have bigger aspirations than that. I want to outplay anything that I've done before. And I actually want to prove people right who said I have the potential to be a good player."

>     http://www.newyorkjets.com/news/article-7/Mike-Pennels-Prepared-to-Keep-Climbing/ad6d4730-ede3-436d-aaca-b728c593a643

[Sarge4Tide]

He has a definite shot to make the roster.  One from the group of McClendon, Simon, Pennel will likely be one kf the very last players cut 

[jetfan39]

hopefully this is not just another fluff piece to fill space during this dead 6 weeks of no football and real news

[varjet]

Pennel and Simon are actually prototypical NTs.  McClendon is not .  

The 3-4 defense is completely ineffective without a functional NT.  That is why McClendon is still on the team.  The Jets are worried about relying on the younger players.  McClendon could end up a late cut if the other two look better.  Not a great situation for him.

[Tinstar]

Mclendon is not a true NT  and he's 31 carrying a big contract .

[kelly]

-- In mid-May, Mike Pennel returned to his first home, Topeka, Kansas, for his grandfather's 70th birthday. While in the area, he decided to make the one-hour drive to Kansas City, Missouri, to visit an old childhood haunt.

A place he barely remembers.

The place that saved his life.

Pennel went to Children's Mercy Hospital, where he was greeted with New York Jets placards and green balloons. He had called ahead, telling them his story and his plan for the day.

The hulking nose tackle, 6-foot-4, 335 pounds with a chest as wide as a doorway, arrived with toys, art supplies and board games such as Monopoly and Sorry! He distributed them to kids with cancer and kids battling kidney disease, and he spoke with their parents, trying to ease their fears. He saw his former doctor, Alan S. Gamis, who removed tumors from his kidneys 24 years ago."It was real humbling, to be honest," the big man said at last week's minicamp. "I talked to a lot of kids on dialysis. One kid, about 2 years old, didn't know what was going on. I just tried to raise their spirits a little bit."

For Pennel, who is strong enough to bench-press a couple of linebackers, it was the most satisfying lift of his life.

The new man on the Jets' defensive line is a cancer survivor. Before hatching his NFL dream, his goal was to live long enough to become an adult. He overcame a frightening childhood, took a circuitous path to the NFL and landed with the Green Bay Packers, where he spent his first three seasons.Adversity has been a traveling companion -- he was cut by Green Bay last season after two league suspensions -- but nothing can compare to what he endured as a child.

"I still get choked up thinking and talking about that period of time in our lives," his mother, Terri Pennel, said.

Pennel was only 2 when he was diagnosed with Wilms' tumor, a rare kidney cancer that primarily affects children. He went in for a routine checkup, a screening for day care, when a physician's assistant felt an abnormality in his stomach. That was on a Wednesday. By Friday, following a CT scan, he was in surgery.Tumors were attached to both kidneys. Dr. Gamis was able to remove the tumor off of one kidney, but the other was complex. To extract the tumor, he had to remove more than one-third of the actual kidney. Next came 18 months of chemotherapy, and many car trips from Topeka to Kansas City. Each time, he spent a few hours in the pediatric oncology center, watching "Barney" movies as potent, cancer-killing drugs filled his little body.

"Every appointment was a reminder and fear of treatment not working or the cancer metastasizing to his lungs, liver or pancreas," Terri Pennel said. "I stayed prayed up and kept pushing."Pennel was a hefty 9 pounds, 11 ounces when he was born, and his medical issues started almost immediately. At 3 months, he was diagnosed with hemihypertrophy, a condition in which one side of the body is bigger than the other. It was so severe that a pediatric orthopedic specialist considered shutting down a growth plate. The bone length and diameter on the right side was thicker and longer than the left.Eventually, it made sense. Doctors told Pennel's mother that hemihypertrophy correlates with Wilms' tumor. They said there was a 1 in 10 chance of a recurrence.

"'Emotional wreck' is an understatement," she said, recalling how she felt.

Mike Pennel beat the cancer, clearing one-, five- and 10-year benchmarks for remission. By the time he was 12, he was 6-foot, 215 pounds, thinking about a career in football. He wanted a personal trainer and a weightlifting set for Christmas. He got the weights, not the trainer, but he was on his way."His thoughts were no longer 'If I live to be an adult,' but were now 'When I grow up ...'" his mother said. "I believe that's when he saw himself going to the NFL. ... I knew the odds of him making it were slim to none, but I also believed my kids could do whatever they set their mind to, and I believed that with every fiber of my being."After a stint at Scottsdale (Arizona) Junior College, Pennel enrolled at Arizona State, but he clashed with the coaching staff, got suspended three times in a year and left after playing in only five games. By now, his family had moved to Aurora, Colorado, so he decided to transfer to Colorado State-Pueblo.

Pennel dominated at the Division II level and received a free-agent contract from the Packers. In training camp, on Family Night, his mother cried when he was introduced at Lambeau Field. It was the culmination of a long journey from the oncology ward at Children's Mercy.He worked his way up the depth chart, impressing with his unusual athleticism for a man his size. He was projected as a starter, but then came a four-game suspension for violating the league's substance-abuse policy. Then came another four-game ban for the same violation. Upon returning, he was released by the Packers on the eve of their playoff game against the Dallas Cowboys.

Pennel said "something clicked" in his mind as he watched the Packers on TV. At that moment, he said, he decided to make changes in his life. The Jets picked him up on waivers, hoping he'd make the most of his second chance."He’s had a good spring, he’s had a very good spring," coach Todd Bowles said. "He’s into it, and we like what we’ve seen in the spring. If that continues in pads, he’ll have a future here."

The question is, can he stay out of trouble ?

"In this business, there are no guarantees," Pennel said. "I could be cut tomorrow or I could do something tomorrow. For me and my family, putting them through everything I did last year, I know that's something I don't want to do again."

Pennel received some tough love from his mother, who gave it to him straight.

"Life doesn't always go as planned and, if you are fortunate and blessed enough to get a second chance ... you don't blow it!" she said, repeating her message to him.A week before the Jets' OTA practices started, Pennel took that trip to Children's Mercy, where he spent three hours with the kids. Maybe, just maybe, he got as much out of it as they did. It was a sobering reminder of his past and how lucky he is to be alive. It was emotional for him and his mother, who believes "it gave some parents some hope to see my baby beat cancer."In the spirit of determination and redemption, she designed two tattoos for Mike. On his left arm, it says, "BEAST," with claws. On his right arm, there's a large cross and it says: "Blessed by God, watched by angels, destined for success."

"For eight years after his cancer surgery and treatment, I told him, 'God spared you for a reason -- that was His gift to you," Terri Pennel said. "What you become and make of yourself is your gift to Him."

>     http://www.espn.com/blog/new-york-jets/post/_/id/69489/jets-big-man-mike-pennel-cancer-survivor-watched-by-angels