Tim Tebow might have floated up the interstate to Foxborough, but the Wildcat remains alive and well in Florham Park.
Brian Costello of the New York Post reported that Gang Green's final minicamp session Thursday was drenched in the subpackage. The Jets "spent most of practice running the Wildcat," Costello tweeted, "More than I ever remember them doing it last year when you know who was here."
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New York's lingering interest in the Wildcat has much to do with the presence of quarterbacks coach David Lee, who was hired in January to replace Matt Cavanaugh and revive the Jets offense on the heels of last season's debacle.
Lee tutored quarterbacks for the Buffalo Bills in 2012, but made his name half a decade ago introducing the Wildcat to NFL with the Miami Dolphins.
Rex Ryan this week talked about using rookie quarterback Geno Smith in an assortment of read-option (and presumably Wildcat) plays. That's an odd fit, considering Geno wasn't an option-based signal-caller at West Virginia. He ran a frenzied, creative attack with the Mountaineers, but he's a dropback passer at the core.
Besides, the most successful display of Wildcat football at MetLife last season occurred when Colin Kaepernick fried Ryan's defense during a sky-is-falling 34-0 whipping by the San Francisco 49ers. Nothing Tebow or the Jets tried from the subpackage seemed to work last year, but things are different now, right?
With the Father of the Wildcat roaming Florham Park, we'll find out soon enough.
Follow Marc Sessler on Twitter @MarcSesslerNFL.
