Two weeks ago Jets fans were on top of the world. 

After beating the defending division champion Patriots in Foxboro to take sole posession of first place and then travelling to Nashville to beat and dominate the Titans, who were the only undefeated team in the NFL, the team was in a position they hadn’t seen in a decade.    

Then came the talk of the Jets possibly being the best team in the AFC. The duo affectionately known as Tan-Gini were hailed as geniuses by their off-season $142MM free agent spending spree to upgrade the team and lets not forget the hijacking of Brett Favre from Green Bay. Talk was swirling about a “Subway Superbowl” with the Giants. Head Coach Eric Mangini was again being referred to as “Mangenius”.

Damn,  was life as a Jets fan good two weeks ago or what? But, as sure as death and taxes we all knew deep down, it wouldn’t last.  After getting shellacked by Denver a week ago at home and now, a day after the Jets got out-played, out-coached and out-classed by the lowly 49ers, two weeks ago seems as close as 1969.

The Jets win in New England seems like decades ago.

Now, lets not forget…the team is still in first place and controls their own destiny.  If they win their remaining three games, they hold all the tiebreakers and are division champs. However, after watching how this team and coaching staff have performed over the past 2 weeks you’d be hard pressed to find any Jets fan or football prognosticator that has a shred of faith that this team can turn it around and will win the division.

Following the Titans win, Brett Favre looked a lot like the QB that beat the Patriots in the Superbowl 13 years ago. The last 2 weeks he’s looked like Joe Namath after he got traded to the Rams. The Jets defense, which had looked like world beaters during the team’s five game winning streak has been a playground for QB’s such as the Broncos’ Jay Cutler and an unknown journeyman named Shaun Hill of the 49ers. Both could have thrown the ball from a lounge chair while having coffee in the pocket with no pressure from any Jets pass rusher and little coverage downfield by a downright porous NY secondary.

The coaching has equally been horrid, ranging from failure to make adjustments during the game, questionable play calling, to abandoning the running game two weeks in a row when your top back is averaging 8.6 and 5.6 yards per carry and not blitzing to at least try to put some pressure on the QB.

If I have to hear Mangini talk about his quest for “conisitency” after every loss instead of showing some emotion and accountability, I’m going to puke. How can this man ask his team to play with heart and passion if he doesn’t show a shred of it in public?

I am a die hard Jets fan and I pray like everyone else to someday expereince the joy that Patriots and Giants fans have had. However, based on history I fear the closest we will come is what we had 2 weeks ago, and that’s sad.

The scenario everyone is fearing most is that both the Jets and Dolphins win the next two weeks then our old friend Chad Pennington and his ‘Phins come to East Rutherford and steals the divison from the team that kicked him to the curb. Chad then exits Giants Stadium with his finger waggling similar to Broadway Joe at the Orange Bowl.  That would be enough trigger mass suicides off top of the Gate D spiral. 

In the end though, no matter what the final results are we’ll keep coming back.

If we are victorious we may finally get to taste the sweetness of success. If we blow it, like we have so many times before, we will also return. Like a woman suffering from battered wife syndrome, we’ll keep coming back for more, no matter how many times we get smacked around.  

I hope this time I’m wrong.

First off I’d like to address all the fans who have emailed me busting my chops that I haven’t written in my blog since week one of the season. I apologize and really am quite flattered that anyone actually cares about my opinions. The reality is, I’m not a professional writer and to put an article together for me is a long process unless I am truly inspired.  

I am inspired this week because I think this game against Buffalo will be the litmus test on what type of team the 2008 NY Jets are and will ultimately decide if the team has any chance of being a playoff team. I know some will say that one game does not determine a season, however, based on the way the Jets have performed in recent weeks, if they get manhandled on Sunday I believe the season is lost.

The Jets are in a tough spot. They are heading up to a hornet’s nest in Orchard Park where a good Buffalo team is coming off an ugly loss in Miami. They will be pumped up to redeem themselves in front of 80,000 rabid Western NY Bills fans who have no love loss for the Jets. Buffalo is coming off a 2007 sweep of NY where in game one last year at Ralph Wilson Stadium, Bills rookie QB Trent Edwards made his NFL debut, torched the Jets for 234 passing yards and established himself as one of the brightest young QB talents in the league. Since then, he’s only gotten better, leading the Bills to a 5-2 start and tie for first place in the AFC East.

The Jets, on the other hand are a team that I just can’t measure. On paper, this team should be dominating the AFCE. They have great talent on both sides of the ball plus Brett Favre. Despite this, they are a game over .500 and have lost games to the putrid Oakland Raiders and nearly lost to the even more awful Chiefs. Not once this season has the team risen to the occasion and handily beat an opponent. Even in the game where they dropped 56 points against the Cardinals, the defense collapsed in the second half and the game wasn’t secured until the 4th quarter.

The most frustrating thing to me as a fan this season has been watching Head Coach Eric Mangini operate. I’m at a loss as to what kind of coach this guy is. The more I see him, the less I am impressed with him. The game planning and play calling this year has been awful. It seems he’s always trying to reinvent the wheel rather than just hitting a team the way he should. How do you not pound the ball with big doses of Thomas Jones and Leon Washington (who btw, is this team’s MVP so far) against the Chiefs who are the worst rushing defense in the NFL? A mere 24 rushing attempts against this team was ridiculous. Why in God’s name did they spend millions on guys like G Alan Faneca if this is the course they are going to take.

The most irritating thing about watching Mangini is his lack of emotion. I’ll preface this by saying I like Mangini and think he’s a good guy and enjoy his dry sense of humor at press conferences and I want to see him succeed as the Jets coach.

Will Head Coach Eric Mangini give Jets fans a trick or treat this Sunday? (Jets Insider.com Photo)

I know his personality may not be that of a Bill  Parcells or Jim Mora but come on Eric, show something to the masses that indicates you give a crap. After the Raiders loss, in his post game press conference he calmly  spoke about how he was comfortable with the way the team played in the overtime. Are you kidding me? The play calling was awful and the execution was even worse. Eric, can you for once take responsibility for a bad game? Can you imagine Bill Parcells or Bill Belichick’s post game press conference after a loss like Oakland? They would be livid. Parcells’ reaction would be something like this:

“We’re not a good team right now, and I haven’t done a real good job as a coach getting this team ready. I do assure you though that changes will be made, players will be accountable, and I will do everything to my ability to make this a better team.”

For once I’d like to see Mangini say something like that. He got this job based on his pedigree, spawning from Parcells and Bellichick but so far besides his bunker mentality with the media, has shown nothing that he’s anything like either of them.

Anyway, I’ll stop ranting and get back to the game.  Beating the Bills in Buffalo would be such a boost for the Jets.  Being the Pats play the Colts on Sunday night and could easily lose that game, a win in Buffalo for NY could give them a share of first place by Monday morning.   Also, I think it would give them a lot of confidence which is very important in the coming weeks, since after the Rams next week they play three extremely tough games against  New England and unbeaten Tennessee on the road,  then a tough Denver team at home on Nov 30. Losing this week would make the Jets task so much harder as they will be playing catchup.  The Jets will have to get their pass rush in order and get some pressure on Edwards on Sunday as Miami last week had success rushing Edwards and pressing the Bills WR’s and making plays. Kris Jenkins needs a big game as the Bills will try to establish a rushing presence with FB  Marshawn Lynch. Offensively the Jets must play smash mouth football and get the ball more often to Washington who seems to make a play every time he touches the ball. They also need to corall Favre and insist he doesn’t make the same type of careless mistakes he made against the Chiefs because if he does, the Bills will make it a very long day for Gang Green.

All in all, this is a game the Jets can win and if they do I think could be the start of a special season. If they lose, they certainly won’t be out of it but in my opinion the road to a playoff spot will be a long and unlikely one.

Keeping with the Halloween spirit, will Mangini and Co. give Jets fans the usual trick they are used to or for once, reward us with a treat? We’ll see on Sunday.

Publisher’s Notes

-It’s been really cool visiting new tailgates every home game for our 2008 JI Tailgate Challenge contest. We’ve met some really nice Jets fans and a slew of characters to say the least. If you haven’t checked out the videos from our visits please go to the following link and check it out http://www.jetsinsider.com/jets_insidervision.php. Very funny stuff. Also, if you have a great tailgate party, it’s still not too late to get involved check out the contest page ( http://www.jetsinsider.com/2008_tailgate_contest.php ) and drop us a line! We may just visit you!

-Does it seem like the Steelers are on every prime time NFL game this season? Enough already!

-Shout out and congrats to Super Jets and JI Fan Jay Mohr who’s sitcom “Gary Unmarried” on CBS is doing excellent in the ratings. Maybe as soon as he gets some of that syndication money he can buy the team from Woody.

 -Shield fans…how good is this final season? With four episodes left, all hell is going to break out in Farmington. Who will survive? Props also to my new favorite FX show “Sons of Anarchy” which is the same quality as The Shield.

-I’m Coaching the last game of my five year old’s youth flag football season tomorrow where we are going  for a perfect 8-0 year. Not only have the Notre Dame Mites not lost a game, they’ve only been scored upon twice all season. Eric…you know my number…call me if you need some advice!!!

-One last thing…I would be remiss as a Dad if on this beautiful Halloween day I didn’t post at least one picture of my daughter Maggie’s first time trick of treating. Have a fun and a safe Halloween!

We’ll, here we are, the day I have dreaded since the Jets announced their complete exile from the Weeb. I’m sitting in the brand spanking new Atlantic Health Jets Training Center in sleepy Florham Park NJ. My commute from Huntington, LI wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be as I made the trip in a little under 1.5 hours after picking up our JI photographer John Heckman in Jericho. For some reason I think we got a break on the Cross Bronx which wasn’t too backed up despite it being the first day back to school for the kids. As you approach the exit to Florham Park you clearly see that this is not the NJ that most would think. It’s very quiet and almost downright rural…that is until you see the behemoth AHJTC on the horizon.

As a jilted NY fan, I wanted desperately to hate this place, however driving up the new One Jets Drive into the complex, the site is very impressive. The main building is a massive structure that is built around the new field house. It’s a very contemporary complex and it’s ironic that it’s named after a health company because it kinda looks like a giant hospital. Personally, I’d prefer the type of facility the Ravens built not too long ago which is warm, has lots of wood and is reminiscent of a suburban Country Club, but despite the AHJTC being a bit cold, it’s state of the art.

After you go directly across the main lobby and out of a set of giant glass doors, you are right in the thick of a huge pasture of field turf and natural grass practice fields that are neatly manicured and look great. 

Although as I’ve said many times before that I don’t agree with the location, Woody has built his team a top notch facility. The lockerroom is a plush, massive oval room that’s probably around 3 times the size of the old one. Although I’ve yet to get the full tour, one thing it seems they didn’t splurge on or put much thought into is the new media room which isn’t much bigger than the old one and believe it or not, has less work stations for the regular writers. Hopefully that will change as several beat guys were visibly disappointed by the new media digs compared to the rest of the complex.

There’s no doubt that this new facility will give the team a competitive edge and hopefully it’s one of the small intangibles that will help bring the team to the next level.

We had a chance to speak to Brett Favre today and he looks relaxed and ready for the challenge ahead. Every other question to him today was his comfort level of the offense. Is he fully comfortable? No. But that will change week by week. What you are likely going to see this weekend is a lot of handoffs to Thomas Jones and Leon Washington and a consolidated playbook that will be geared towards Favre’s strengths. He seemed genunely touched being voted a team captain and not that he needs it but I think that will add to his motivation to succeed here. Regarding his current game shape Favre said he feels OK but if he’s forced to scramble “expect a draw the next play”.

You can tell that Favre feels genuinely appreciated and wanted here which he obviously didn’t have back in Green Bay. A funny story Favre told last week when I had the opportunity with a few other beat guys to meet with him informally for a 45 minute intimate BS session was his face to face off-season meeting with Packers GM Ted Thompson.  It was in the Spring not long after he retired and stories started surfacing that Favre might be getting the itch to reconsider retirement.  Favre receieved  a call from Thompson saying he wanted to fly to Mississippi and talk to him. Favre assumed the purpose of the visit was that he was going to ask Favre to come back. To his surprise, when Thompson got there, there was no talk of the Packers wanting him back. No talk at all about football at all, in fact. The only thing Thompson discussed was that the team wanted to rip his locker out of the Packers facility box it, and send it to him as a souvenir. After the bizarre offer, Favre just said sure, Thompson left and he knew he’d likely played his last game in Green Bay.

I was a bit surprised that both offensive captains named today (voted on soley by their teammates) didn’t play on the team last year (Favre and Faneca). However, that shows you how much respect the players have for these guys and their accomplishments. S Kerry Rhodes and DE Shaun Ellis are great choices for defensive captains and RB/KR Leon Washington and DE David Bowens on special teams is right on as well. I actually think it’s about time that Bowens got some recognition because he played excellent on both special teams and on defense last season and was by far our best aquisition.

We also had a chance to catch with our old friend Chad Pennington on a conference call earlier, and to no one’s surprise he didn’t provide any pre-game clips worthy of hanging in the Jets’ locker room for motivation. He swears he has no hard feelings and this upcoming weekend is just another game but we all know there’s nothing better he’d like than to beat the team who discarded him.

Anyway, I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I was this pumped up for a season. The closest I guess is in 1999 the year following our run to the AFC Championship game in Denver. Lets hope this year turns out A LOT better.

BTW….Keep those submissions coming for our JI tailgate contest. We’ve gotten some excellent entries so far and some of the presentations sent have been thoroughly entertaining. Here’s the 18B Crew.

For more info on the JI tailgate contest, click the link below:

http://www.jetsinsider.com/2008_tailgate_contest.php

BTW: Did all of you Shield fans catch the season premier last night? It’s looking like a bangup (literally) final season! 

ALSO: look for our exclusive interview with actor and super Jets fan Jay Mohr coming. The native New Jersian is a regular at Jets Insider.com, a huge Jets fan and has a brand new sitcom coming out in a few weeks.  

-SMD

Sorry, I’ve been out of blogland for a while as I was on our annual family summer vacation in lovely Cape Cod and Lake George last week. I hate doing it during training camp but with kids and summer schedules and camp and sports, it’s the only week we can do it. It was actually nice that it was hard to log on for a few days but obviously with all that’s been happening lately was on the laptop more than my wife wanted me to be.

Anyway, back to the grind!

First off, It’s a very bittersweet time at Hofstra as camp has broken and the team embarks on it’s last week at Weeb Ewbank Hall, EVER. It’s a bizarre scene as the Halls of the complex are filled with boxes and moving vans are streaming in and out of the lots. Kinda reminds me of the Colts when they left Baltimore without the sneakiness.  Tuesday will be the last official practice at Hofstra as the opening week regular season routine will begin in Florham Park. I will give you the complete skinny on the new facilities next week. The one thing that kinda bothers me is that I sensed no sadness from anyone on the team, ranging from the players to the coaches, to even the PR staff. This is truly a business to all involved and nostalgia is indded dead.

Now, regarding our opening game…I had a chance to watch the Dolphins/Chiefs game from Saturday on the NFL Network replay (BTW: You saps who are still paying the Dolans don’t know what you are missing. FIOS and the NFLN rocks!) and those who think the ‘Fins are the pushover they were last season are in for a rude awakening. This team is improved on both sides of the ball. Our old friend Chad Pennington seemed to be extremely comfortable with his new team and was moving the ball with ease through the air completing short and medium length passes with minimal effort like he’s been with this offense for years. He has also seemed to gel with his new favorite target Ted Ginn Jr. who the Jets will also have to watch very closely on punt returns as he ran a long one back for six.  

When he wasn’t passing the ball against KC (and I must mention that our other Old Friend Herm Edwards, is in for a hellish year with the Chiefs…they look putrid), Pennington was handing it off to RB Ricky Williams who looks like the Ricky of old. If Williams can stay off the Panama Red, he will be an effective weapon for Miami this season.

Don’t get me wrong… I think the Jets are a much better team than Miami and I’m confident they will prevail on opening day. I’m just saying, with emotuons and drama running high and the ‘Fins on their home field, the Jets will have to bring their “A” game on September 7. This is a game the team can ill afford to lose with New England and San Diego following. God forbid the Dolphins steal one, the Jets could very easily be looking at a 0-3 start.

Mackey's Back!

One cool thing today that I was fortunate to participate in was the inner-circle of regular beat guys got a special up close and personal chat session with Brett Favre (why I was allowed in still is a mystery ). He wasn’t behind the podium, but just sitting in the press room BS’ing like a regular guy for almost an hour. No questions were off limits and though, I’ll reserve the details for a blog post later this week, I will say that Favre one-on-one is a cordial, regular nice guy and he is very happy to be here.

Although, I’m bummed that the summer is almost over, there are some things I am happy about:

-NFL Football back.

-My 10 year old son’s Pee Wee football is back.

-My five year old son starts flag football.

-My daughter is already five months old and almost fits in her baby Jets jersery.

-”The Shield” and “Entourage” new seasons are starting.

Life is good! Enjoy your holiday weekend!

BTW: Please check out our 2008 JI tailgating contest. If you have a great tailagate party, shoot us an email and tell us about it. We may visit and do a feature video about it and you could win some cool prizes. Also, there are rumors that this could be the last year of the world famous 16H tailgate so JI may be looking for a new one to promote! Click the link below for details.

http://www.jetsinsider.com/2008_tailgate_contest.php

Also, for those who have been wondering about Fireman Ed and if he’s returning this year, I have it from a very reliable source that Ed is back healthy and will be raring to go on opening day.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to a private lunch with Jets owner Woody Johnson at Wayne Chrebet’s restaurant on Saturday before the Green and White Practice at Hofstra Stadium. The lunch was attended by 10 or so select media members who cover the team. It was the first time I’ve been involved in an open on-the-record forum with the owner and from what I’ve been told, this is something that the he rarely does.

The purpose of the lunch was specific. The team is on the verge of leaving Hofstra permanently for their new facility in Florham Park, NJ and Woody wants to get the word out to the fans that the Jets will not fully abandon their NY/LI fanbase by having the annual Green and White Scrimmage every summer at Hofstra. For those who have supported the team during their many years here, this small bone is of little solace. Granted, it’s great news that the team is getting a new state-of-the-art facility but it would have been nice if it was built in NY to keep some ties to the state.

One reporter asked RWJ III if he thinks the team should change their name to the NJ Jets, since they technically will have no ties to NY anymore. Woody replied that the team has a huge fanbase in both NY and NJ and would always be the NY Jets despite their new residence.

Let me say first off, that RWJ III is a nice guy. The few interactions and brief conversations I’ve had with him over the years have been very cordial and despite his wealth he doesn’t come off as aloof or pretentious. I believe he’s a true Jets fan and bought the team with genuine intentions of getting it back to NY and establishing it’s own identity.

That being said, the problem I have is that he gave up too quickly after the West Side Stadium failed and was bullied by the Giants and the state of NJ to accept an inferior deal that’s sole purpose is to fleece the fan.

Although he didn’t specify the dollar amounts, for the first time, Johnson acknowledged (to no one’s surprise) that PSL’s are coming and at this point, it’s believed that they they will be set up in the same stucture as the Giants, who announced their pricing a few weeks back.

The owner mentioned that the fans may not “really understand PSL’s” and perhaps the team hasn’t done a good enough job “explaining their value”. Unless the Jets have come up with  a different, new kind of personal seat license that has never been seen before, I have issue with the owner trying to pawn a PSL as a commodity when everyone knows it’s not.

The only thing he did offer that could be considered somewhat of a value is that the PSL would give the owner the right to buy their seats for other events at the stadium (concerts, tractor pulls, etc.). However, how is this possible if your seat is PSL’ed by a Giants fan as well? Unless every event is done in pairs, someone is getting screwed. How do they choose which PSL owner gets which event? He couldn’t explain. Also, if the stadium hosts maybe 3 or 4 concerts per year, that’s a lot. Certainly, not a huge enough perk that would make anyone feel better about paying a fat PSL.

Be honest Woody, the only value of the PSL is to you since the proceeds will enable you to pay down a large percentage of the debt you’ve incurred to build the stadium almost instantly.

Another problem is that past owners who have charged  PSL’s say it’s a way to keep ticket prices down. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case here as the Giants plan gets them paid on both sides. Not only do you have to pay the PSL, but ticket prices are going up too (some quite significantly). Again, the Jets won’t announce their structure until the end of the month, but it’s believed that it will be in line with their co-tenant, Big Blue .

During the Q&A I brought up a real scenario to Mr. Johnson:

I have a good friend of average means who has four seats in Section 112 that his family has owned since the early days of Shea. He’s a DIE HARD JETS FAN and bought these seats every year for 40+ years…through good times and bad. Based on the PSL numbers the Giants have announced, he’s looking at $80,000 in PSL’s just to keep the right to buy his seats. Then,  on top of the PSL, his individual ticket price goes from $120 per game to $700.!! That means, his yearly ticket invoice goes from $4800. to a whopping $28,000!!!

Needless to say, my friend will be forced to give up his seats just based on the PSL alone. The worst part is that the main reason my friend has kept the seats for so long is to experience gameday with his kids who are just becoming old enough to appreciate it.

When I asked Woody what he would say a fan like my friend, he looked a little flustered and just said “That’s unfortunate…we’re not going to be able to make everyone happy and that’s something I’m disappointed about”.  Not nearly disappointed as my friend though, Woody.

The owner mentioned that “Finally the Jets will have their own home, something they have never had”. First off, I’m not sure if I agree with the statement since the team basically is doing the same thing they have for the last 30 years. Sure, the stadium will no longer be called Giants Stadium and it will have neutral colored seats and green accent  lighting…however, technically they could sell the naming rights of the current stadium, change the seat colors and it would be the same thing for around $1.5 billion less.   

Although Woody didn’t give any details regarding the surveys they sent to the Fans recently, he states “We understand the feelings of the fans and will try to incorporate many of those ideas into the way we package PSL’s” I would bet my bottom dollar the majority of the fans would choose to keep the current stadium rather than cough up a PSL and a spike in their ticket prices.

Johnson announced that the official move date from Hempstead to Florham Park will be  on September 2^nd, five days before the Jets’ opening game in Miami. Most of the Jets staff is making the move with the team and some already have moved residences to NJ.      

It’s obvious that RWJ III believes his legacy will be as the owner who finally got the Jets their own home but for me (and thousands of other Jets fans), he’ll always be the man who facilitated the complete abandonment of my Jets from New York. Although I’ll always be a Jets fan, I’ll never be nearly as passionate due to this.

Now that we have a week of Jets training camp in the books here are a few observations:

Week One Battle at QB Winner? Chad Pennington.

Although he hasn’t been flashy, Chad has played mistake-free football and his arm has shown some life. He attributes the improvement to changes in his footwork and delivery and it seems to have helped. Kellen Clemens’ 6 INT’s in 10 practices has actually put him behind third stringer Brett Ratliff. These developments have Clementines (my name for Clemens loyalists) reeling but remember folks, training camp is a marathon, not a sprint. Lots of time for Clemens to emerge.

QB's Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens

Which brings me to my next topic. Why all the hate for Pennington? It amazes me the venom on the JI messageboards towards Chad. Some fans seem to put him in the same category as the Anti-Christ. Granted, Pennington had an off year in 2007 (with a horrible surrounding cast) and has had several setbacks due to injury over his career but the guy is a warrior, works harder than any other player and like it or not, right now he’s the best QB on the roster. Lighten up, folks (especailly you Clementines)….if Pennington ends up the starter, support andembrace. I have faiththat with the improvements the team made, Pennington will surprise a lot of people.

Mangini is not concerned about his job. After reports surfaced today that Jets head coach just purchaed a $4MM house in NJ worthy of an episode of MTV cribs, it’s obvious that Eric Mangini feels he’ll be around for a while. On the other hand, rumors are that Bob Sutton is renting.

Mike Tannenbaum should not do interviews. Look, I understand that the team is trying to be  “media friendly” by having Tannenbaum available to reporters, but conducting a 15 minute Q&A with the answer to every question ”It’s an internal matter that we can’t comment on” is a waste of everyone’s time. It would be more respectful to everyone to just issue a “no comment” and stay in your office, Mike.  

One thing I did enjoy though, is WFAN loudmouth Mike Francesa not getting even a tidbit out of Tanny on his show last week after he touted all day that Tannenbaum would come on the air and set the Brett Favre rumors straight for his audience.

TE Chris Baker: He’s been on PUP for a week for this alleged back strain and according to Mangini today, no definative return time is in sight.

The way I see it is either Baker’s back injury is a lot worse than he’s led everyone to believe or the team may be putting him on ice while they see how the team’s new TE’s emerge. With rookie Dustin Keller and veteran Bubba Franks having a great first week, Baker could be more expendable than first thought.

Bubba Franks

WR to watch: David Clowney. The 2nd year former 5th round pick of the Packers is making noise his first week, showing deep speed and good hands. A person who should be alarmed is Brad Smith, who could be the odd man out with the emergence of Clowney.

I had to laugh at the blog bitch slapping that former Patriots team writer Tom Casale gave Bill Bellichick and Co on his way to a new job.

http://www.jetsinsider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173690

You can’t make this stuff up! Obviously you can’t question Bellichick’s success as a coach, but maybe this will open his eyes and he’ll finally realize there’s repercussions for acting like an arrogant, miserable human being to everyone on a daily basis.  The part about an alleged Bellichick sex tape is a bit creepy (can you imagine that hitting the internet? Let me puke now.) but the tidbit on Tedy Bruschi was priceless. Karma’s a bitch, Bill.   

And finally…Brett Favre is not coming to NY. Not that there was ever really a shot, but every day that passes makes it less likely. Being the 3 time All-Pro hasn’t even given the Jets the courtesy of any dialouge shows he’s not interested in being here. The conclusion to this quandary should be interesting but the road won’t end in Hempstead.

Just when you thought the Favre to the Jets rumors were over, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported today that the Jets have received permission from the Packers to speak to Favre about a trade. I have to give it to Gang Green, win or lose this team is always filled with drama.

For Green Bay, it’s a perfect situation. Favre leaves and is out of the division and they can move on with their youngster Aaron Rodgers at QB.

For the Jets it’s much more uncertain.

There are reports that the team would need to restructure Favre’s hefty contract which is in excess of $39MM over the next three years, all counting directly against the cap. Second, they would need a commitment from the 16 year veteran that he will be a Jet for more than just one season.

If they can negotiate these terms with Favre, it could make sense to pull the trigger if the trade price isn’t too high. The Jets committed $140MM to free agent contracts this past off-season and on paper is a team built to win now. The only question mark is the QB position where both Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens haven’t done anything lately to give fans confidence that either of them are the field general who will bring the team to the big show.

. 

Pennington is coming off a horrible year where he got benched and revealed yesterday he played all of last season on a right ankle with two torn ligaments.  Clemens, who has a strong arm, could improve but showed nothing last season that would convince anyone that he’s anything more than another Browning Nagle.

Keep in mind…If they trade for Favre, the team is basically telling both of their current quarterbacks that they have no confidence in either one. Pennington, with a $6MM base salary this season will be surely gone and Clemens will stick around for now but the move would be a major message to him as to what the team thinks about him as their future QB. Likely he would be gone too after this season and the Jets would either draft another young QB to groom or look to get one from another team to succeed Favre.

From the owner’s perspective, he needs to sell upcoming PSL’s for the new stadium in a bad economy as season ticket holders are turning in their seats at a record pace. To RWJ III, could you think of a better salesman than Brett Favre…especiallyif he comes in and wins?

I’m torn regarding my feelings on this. I don’t question Favre’s resume. The guy is a legend and the Cal Ripken of the NFL regarding his durability. He’s also coming off a terrific season where he almost led the Packers to the Superbowl and he would bring a gun slinger to the team that they haven’t seen since Vinny Testaverde’s first year as a Jet in 1998. 

However, if you look at Favre’s numbers in the half a dozen or so years before last season, he was average at best. He also has a tendency to throw costly INT’s in big situations which worries me. I also fear that if this move backfires and the team does not win this season it will set the franchise back tremendously.

I believe this team can win with one of the two QB’s on the roster (most likely Pennington) and based on this team’s history two words come to mind if Favre is acquired:

BLOW UP

Maybe I shouldn’t be such a pessimist and perhaps this team is due for a change of luck. I guess it’s just what I’m used to as a long time Jets fan.  So stay tuned, my Jets brethren….as I said earlier, win or lose, the drama is always high at Weeb Ewbank Hall.

The Jets had a conference call scheduled with the media at 9:30 to officially announce that VG has been signed. However, it was cancelled with no official explanation. Sources say that the deal is waiting for league approval and it’s just a formality. Look for a press conference before the 1:30 practice tomorrow. Also we hear the deal is for 5 years in the $45MM range.

The Jets kicked the 2008 season with their first training camp practice this morning. A early shower turned into a breezy cool session which was refreshing, considering the stifling heat lately. I won’t go into specific practice reports (I’ll leave that up to the writers…..full AM report coming) but here’s a few observations.

First off, as I’m sitting here in Magini’s press conference, his first news of the day is that Vernon Gholston is “Close” and he expects him signed in the “near future”. Although he didn’t say it would happen today, I imagine it will happen within the next 24 hours and there is a chance he could be on the field later today. Sources tell us they have agreed to a deal and are just cleaning up the details.

Here are some practice notes:

Mangini was serious when he said he was going to be kinder and gentler this camp as the first session was under 2 hours. The last two seasons before, practices regularly went 2 1/2 hours or more.

Give Chad Pennington practice one over Kellen Clemens. Both QB’s took reps with the starters and Pennington looked overall much sharper than Clemens. Clemens first pass was intercepted by Eric Barton and although he did have some nice throws there were several wobbly and overthrown balls.

Rookie QB Eric Ainge, who is still recovering from surgery on his throwing hand looked like it was still  bothering him as he threw a few wounded ducks trying to go deep.

FA NT Kris Jenkins looks like he’s be curtailing his visits to White Castle. He visibly looked fit and slimmer than he did at minicamp. When speaking to C Nick Mangold, who is on the other side of the line against him in practice, he described him as a “massive physical specimen who is almost impossible to get around”.

On the other side of the line, T D’Brickashaw Ferguson doesn’t look like he’s bulked up much this off-season and during reporters questioning after practice, you could see that it’s a sore subject for him that he’s tired of talking about.

I had a chance to speak with new Jet Alan Faneca and besides being very cordial and looking in incredible shape, he seemed very comfortable with his new environment. Obviously, $40MM in the bank could make anyone comfortable but he mentioned the synergy between him and his new teammates has been great. He, Mangold and Brick all said that they have been leaning heavily on each other. Faneca for guidance in the new offense and the youngsters on Faneca for veteran technique help that they lost when Pete Kendall left last season.  

Chris Baker spoke to the media after practice. He’s still on PUP and rode the bike on the sidelines during the session. During his Q&A he seemed to be in a much better place, not bashing the team and saying he’s confident a resolution of his dispute will be soon.  No word on when he’ll be acitve (he’s still nursing a back injury) but it should be sooner than later.

The CFL was in the house! Something I’ve never noticed in covering camp for the last several years is that there were two reps from the CFL scouting Jets players. One was a scout from the Edmonton Eskimos and the other was the General Manager from the Montreal Alouettes. I was informed that a large number of CFL players are taken from the pool of undrafted free agents who don’t make NFL rosters so a lot of these scouts make their rounds to NFL camps this time of year looking for talent. Can you say Danny Woodhead?

Hot off the presses, here’s your first look at the 2008 Jets at the inaugural camp practice:

http://www.jetsinsider.com/forums/gallery/browseimages.php?c=175

Late practice at 5:30. Weather is supposed to improve. Come on down!

More later. Be sure to take advantage of all the JI resources including breaking news, detailed camp reports daily and the largest NY Jets camp photo galleries anywhere on the internet.

Good evening JI Land:

Well…after resisting it for years we have finally embarked into the world of blogging. Although our messageboard could be considered a form of blogging we will try to implement the two vehicles together to bring you the ultimate interactive experience along with the best coverage and commentary of the NY Jets.

All writers on the site will have their own blog so along with daily team reports, the writers have the opportunity to add opinion and commentary.

Along with the writers, we have our draft expert, Doug Cantor providing regular commentary and news on the NFL draft along with his own spin on the team happenings.

Finally, we have given blogs to a select few fans as voted by the site users who can give another perspecive on the doings of Gang Green.

All blog entries will be announced on the JI messageboard for debate. You also have the ability to leave comments below. Please interact and feel free to give all of us your feedback, commentary and  suggestions. I can’t guarantee we’ll take them but usually they are interesting.

Please bear with us as we migrate this new interactive medium into the site. It’s a work in progress and will hopefully improve as we go ahead.

On the eve of training camp, here’s looking forward to an exciting, successful NY Jets season.

***One more thing: Here are some of my pre-camp predictions (prognostications that either make you look like a genius or idiot in December) 

-QB Chad Pennington will emerge as the starter and will throw 20+ TD’s

-Thomas Jones will break 1500 yards in rushing

-With a re-vamped line and support in the pass rush, Bryan Thomas will come back with 10+ sacks (and have more than Calvin Pace).  

-The Jets finish with over 10 wins and make the playoffs.

See you at Hofstra!

Best,

Sean