For Thomas, the numbers are aligning- Randy Lange

[Kentucky Jet]

For Thomas, the Numbers Are Aligning

Posted by Randy Lange on August 3, 2010 – 9:53 am

It may be NFL summer, but Bryan Thomas has a spring in his step.

It must be the number.

“Yeah, I feel a little lighter on my feet wearing No. 58,” said the ninth-year Jets linebacker, who took the field again this morning sporting his new numerals. “It was funny. At first when I went to my locker, I went to No. 99. It kind of threw me off. I was so used to looking for that number.”

More on BT’s digit deal with JT — Jason Taylor — in a moment. But Thomas has other reasons for feeling frisky at his advanced football age of 31.

“You know what I did this year that helped me out a lot? I ran all three fields plus the turf field,” Thomas said, referring to the array of 100-yard pitches at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center in Florham Park, N.J., at this moment almost 200 miles away from Cortland, N.Y.

“I did that a lot during OTAs and minicamp and then after everybody left for the offseason. I would start off with three times around all the fields, then rest for five minutes, then two or three more times.”

How long is that? “I really don’t even know myself,” he said. By my rough calculations, a lap around all the fields is about 600 yards, meaning that BT’s five or six laps, after a practice or a workout, at LB speed, would be from 1.7 to more than two miles at a clip. All of which got him ready for that iconic conditioning run on Sunday and the first practices of camp Monday and today.

“It really helped my wind,” he said. “I could tell when we ran the conditioning test. Usually I’ll be all slumped over and tired after the last [section of the run]. This time I was standing, walking around and still had my wind.”

Wind is one of those big little four-letter words for this Rex Ryan/Mike Pettine defense as it attempts to better last year’s impressive performance. Ryan has talked about generating more sacks, especially in fourth quarters when a few opponents last year had successful closing kicks. This year the idea is to kick those opponents while they’re down.

So far so good. Thomas said of this year’s camp start: “Guys are running around out there with fresh legs, running to the ball, making the plays they should make. There’s a couple of things here and there that we need to correct, but that’s part of the first days of camp. Just watching the guys out there running around, it looked pretty good.”

That included BT watching JT running around in his old number. The two worked out a deal the week before camp in which Thomas passed that No. 99 that he wore since his rookie season of 2002 to Taylor, who wore that number for all except his one season in Washington since his Miami rookie year of 1997.

“I started out with 91,” Thomas recalled. “Then Josh Evans took it from me and they just gave me 99 and I rolled with it, being a rookie at the time. But I knew Jason wanted it. He’s done so much in that number. You’ve just got to respect it. There was no pressure to give it to him. It was a mutual agreement.”

But which number to wear? BT’s original thought was 46 — “That was the number I had in college” at UAB — but NFL rules restrict linebackers during the regular season to the 50s and 90s. Josh Mauga had 58 but Thomas and Mauga swung a side deal and now Mauga is 53 and some more numbers are aligned for the Jets to reach their ultimate Super goal.

And as the professional and newly conditioned Thomas said, “I look at it as a new number and a fresh start.”

A.M. Practice Notes

It was a great exchange of plays in the live-tackling period late in the morning session. CB Antonio Cromartie was a little late to the party on a Mark Sanchez pass over the middle to Dustin Keller. DC Mike Pettine from the sideline barked: “C’mon, Cro, compete!”

The next play Cromartie competed bigtime in an area some thought he wasn’t strong at: the running game. LaDainian Tomlinson got the call, tried to cut off right guard — and was met in the hole by No. 31.

“He picked him up and knocked him on his back,” head coach Rex Ryan crowed at today’s midday news conference. “Whooo, that was a nice tackle. They could’ve used that in that playoff game.” “They” likely referred to Cromartie’s previous team, San Diego, and “that playoff game” to the Chargers’ loss to the Jets.

“Funny,” Rex said, “a lot of guys will hit when they come to the Jets.”

There was one other huge hit when LB Kenwin Cummings crushed RB Joe McKnight after a short middle pass from Mark Brunell. And in early 9-on-7 running drills, practice was spirited with Cummings and Wayne Hunter going at it hard, Rob Turner getting into a scuffle, and coaches Brian Schottenheimer and Bob Sutton were fired up.

Ryan liked the tempo. “I thought it needed to pick up from yesterday,” he said. “Today they kind of were barking at each other, and that plastic hitting, you love to hear that as a coach.”

Other highlights: Interceptions by LB Calvin Pace — the D’s first takeaway of camp — and an acrobatic Cromartie, both off of Sanchez, and Drew Coleman off of Brunell, but also a long Sanchez-to-David Clowney deep sideline completion when the ball got through S Brodney Pool’s hands.

The kicking game will be on display at this afternoon’s special-teams-only practice, but it continued to look sharp this morning. Nick Folk finished the practice with flawless field goal work under an uptempo rush, drilling all five of his kicks (all from under 40 yards). Ryan liked what he saw.

“I want to go on the record, officially I’m not worried about our Pro Bowl kicker anymore,” he said, referring to Folk’s PB campaign as a Dallas rookie in 2007. “Nick is back to form. I was a little worried, I don’t mind telling, at that first [OTA] practice — ‘Ooof, you kiddin’ me, Nick?’ But he had to get used to that holder and that snapper, and he really does look good.”

[bitonti]

Bryan Thomas is an extremely underrated player.

[visajets]

Bryan Thomas is an extremely underrated player and person.

+1 fixed it for ya. Ive met him hes a good guy with good intentions.

[Jetsfan80]

It was a great exchange of plays in the live-tackling period late in the morning session. CB Antonio Cromartie was a little late to the party on a Mark Sanchez pass over the middle to Dustin Keller. DC Mike Pettine from the sideline barked: “C’mon, Cro, compete!”

The next play Cromartie competed bigtime in an area some thought he wasn’t strong at: the running game. LaDainian Tomlinson got the call, tried to cut off right guard — and was met in the hole by No. 31.

“He picked him up and knocked him on his back,” head coach Rex Ryan crowed at today’s midday news conference. “Whooo, that was a nice tackle. They could’ve used that in that playoff game.” “They” likely referred to Cromartie’s previous team, San Diego, and “that playoff game” to the Chargers’ loss to the Jets.

“Funny,” Rex said, “a lot of guys will hit when they come to the Jets.”

I heart Rex Ryan.

[Larz]

BT is fo real

he's come a long way from his drive through mcdonalds diet of his rookie year