Just prior to the season, when the Jets unceremoniously dumped Chad Pennington to trade for Brett Favre, one of Pennington's closest friends on the team, wideout Laveranues Coles, wasn't happy with the move. At least that was the perception because he really didn't say much about it publicly.
With the Jets facing the 49ers this week, Coles was on a midweek conference call with the San Francisco media, and while Pennington's name didn't come up, his successor's sure did. The Chronicle's John Crumpacker writes that Coles "sounded almost bitter at the impact Favre's arrival in New York has had on him."
"We're in a quarterback-driven offense where he pretty much has control of everything, where before the offense was pretty much driven through me. ... I just kind of become a role player instead of a guy that teams had to prepare for." ...
"This is his offense. When we do throw the ball, there's really no level of importance, where at one point it used to be where I was the guy ... in position to get the ball most of the time."
Hmm. Sounds like Coles, who by all accounts is a swell dude, is less happy with his diminished role than with who's occasionally throwing him the ball. Fair enough; he's an established veteran used to being the feature wideout in the Jets' -- and before that, the Redskins' -- offense. Keep that in mind as Coles continues:
"I catch balls from the Jugs machine. The ball probably comes out harder from there than it does from anywhere else. ... Of course he's the big name, he's the Hall of Famer, he's going to get the majority of the credit but most of the guys who deserve the credit don't really get it."
As Crumpacker points out in closing: Coles has hauled in 55 receptions for 615 yards and six touchdowns, and the TD total is the second-highest of his nine-year career. Maybe he really does miss Pennington, although that still doesn't explain the Jugs comment.
