New York Jets Afternoon Practice For Conditioning & Concentration

Over the last few years I've been used to early morning practices with the Jets. That's the way it was and I never really gave it a second thought. Players will practice but they will also do film sessions, independent development and coaching meetings. What time of day they participated in these activities never really occurred to me as being important.

Todd Bowles runs his practice sessions in the afternoon, with the majority of them starting around 2:30pm EST. What does this actually do? Well Bowles explained his reasoning after the session yesterday

It's hot. It's not Cortland, guys need to get in shape. Some guys ran indoors all summer. We need to get in heat shape. If we practice in 70 degrees then go play a preseason game in 90-degree weather then we're in trouble, but this helps get guys in shape and helps with curfew at night so guys have nothing to do but go to sleep. It's just really about getting guys in football shape.

Temperatures varies on a day to day basis, but the difference between a morning practice and an afternoon practice at the moment, is around 10 degrees. For anyone who has worked out outdoors on a consistent basis, you'll know how much difference this can make to your overall performance.

It's also interesting that Bowles wants his players to solely focus on football, finishing later means the time between them leaving the facility and the time of their curfew is so short, they don't have time to get into any kind of trouble. it may be a hands on approach to keeping adults out of trouble, but a lot of these guys are in their early 20's and have a lot of money. That can equal problems.