Jets Takeoff

Author Don Yaeger has announced on his Twitter page that he has been contracted to write a book with Jets’ head coach Rex Ryan.

According to the Daily News, the memoir will be ”a nontraditional autobiography that blends Ryan’s upbringing with his leadership style.” More from the Daily News:

Yaeger, who has written books on Walter Payton, Warrick Dunn and Warren Moon, will spend the next several weeks with Ryan to capture the essence of the Jets’ brash, tell-it-like-it-is leader. The former Sports Illustrated editor will spend some time with Ryan at training camp in August before finishing the manuscript in December. The autobiography will be published by Doubleday Books and released in late spring 2011.

Did I miss something? When did Ryan win a Super Bowl? The guy’s been a head coach for one year and now appears to be doing a lot more talking than coaching. Let’s win something first, Rex, then worry about a book. For now Rex, I’ll turn to guys like Parcells and Riley and Torre who have actually accomplished something and whose leadership skills you’d be wise to emulate.

It’s never too early to preview the upcoming season.

Here’s the Buffalo News’ take on the Jets:

New York Jets coach Rex Ryan obviously is not an advocate of the public relations mantra “Undersell and overdeliver.”

Ryan overdelivered in his first year as the Jets’ coach in 2009. But he’s not underselling after his team’s blockbuster offseason moves in 2010. “I came here to win,” Ryan said the week after the NFL draft. “I didn’t come here to be average. I know I’m going to be judged on whether I win a championship, and I’m man enough to go for it, where a lot of other guys aren’t.”

Ryan calls the Jets “an outstanding football team. When we get to playing, we’ll be just fine. We plan on being the team that wins the whole thing.”

The Jets look like the pretraining camp favorites of what has become a beastly AFC East division. Coming off a surprising playoff run to the AFC title game, New York added former NFL interception champion Antonio Cromartie to its defense and former Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Santonio Holmes to its offense.

More good news for the Jets: They will be rolling in new money with the opening of their new stadium.

I’m not sure about that new money part, as we here in New York have seen how difficult it’s been to sell the PSLs. But I do like what I hear from Ryan. I’ve criticized him in the past because there are times when you’d like to see the Jets tone it down a bit, but I have no problem with him saying he’s here to win a championship, and that he won’t settle for anything less. He’s admitting that the talent is there, that it’s on his shoulders to put it all together. What’s wrong with that?

More about the Jets from the Buffalo News:

Key gains: CB Antonio Cromartie (Chargers), WR Santonio Holmes (Steelers), LB Jason Taylor (Dolphins), RB LaDainian Tomlinson (Chargers), CB Kyle Wilson (Boise State), G Vlad Ducasse (Massachusetts), K Nick Folk (Cowboys).

Key losses: RB Thomas Jones (Chiefs), G Alan Faneca (Cards), RB Leon Washington (Seahawks), S Kerry Rhodes (Cardinals), CB Lito Sheppard (Vikings), K Jay Feeley (Cardinals).

Breakdown: Cromartie, added for a third-round pick in 2011, looks good because he doesn’t have to be the No. 1 corner. Holmes is one foul-up from being suspended for a year. He’s suspended the first four games. But he caught 79 passes last year and he’s in a contract year. The Jets gave up only a fifth-round pick to get him. Worried that Jones had reached the decrepit age of 31 for a running back, the Jets handed the job to young Shonn Greene.

Questions: Can Ryan light a fire under Cromartie, who underachieved the last two years? Can Ducasse fill Faneca’s giant shoes? Can Tomlinson get a spring in his step? Can LB Vernon Ghoulston avoid getting cut? Can Rhodes be replaced?

Click here to read the paper’s AFC East preview.

Bart Hubbuch is really down on LaDainian Tomlinson, or LaDone Tomlinson as he calls him in Sunday’s New York Post:

With mini-camp freshly behind them and training camp just around the corner, the Jets and their fans have plenty of reasons to be excited about Rex Ryan’s second season.

LaDainian Tomlinson shouldn’t be one of them.

One of Gang Green’s more curious moves this offseason was jettisoning Thomas Jones after a 1,402-yard rushing year and signing Tomlinson to replace him.

Tomlinson’s low-cost signing had all the makings of a marketing gambit to juice stagnant PSL sales that — like the Darrelle Revis and Nick Mangold contract scuffles — are casting a considerable black cloud over the Jets’ otherwise promising hopes.

If only the Jets could have signed the 2007 Tomlinson.

Read the entire article here.

I want to believe that Tomlinson does indeed have something left. In his prime, he was one of the NFL’s biggest stars, and if he has anything left he will help contribute to what should be a special season for the Jets.

This is a story that’s going to heat up this summer, so we might as well get the discussion going here. Commissioner Roger Goodell has begun discussions with the NFL Players Association about expanding the regular-season schedule from 16 games to 18 games, and reducing the number of preseason games from four to two. The changes, which appear to be inevitable, are not popular with the NFLPA. While the league and team owners are behind the move, the union is not, citing the potential for an increase in injuries as its main concern. We all know how strong unions are so this may not be an easy one for the league, though it does appear that it will eventually happen, perhaps as early as 2012.

CBS Sports’ senior writer Clark Judge has a great piece available here where he talks to current players about the proposal. Here’s his lead:

Sooner or later, the NFL will go to an expanded regular-season schedule, not because it makes sense but because there’s too much support for it not to happen. Commissioner Roger Goodell is for it. Owners are for it. And fans are for it.

Only one problem: Nobody checked with the players.

So I checked for them. I ran the idea of an 18-game schedule through the New York Giants’ locker room after Thursday’s minicamp practice, seeing if players embraced it more than, say, Ray Lewis or Tom Brady, and the NFL won’t like what I found. Players not only were skeptical about an expanded schedule, they were downright opposed to it.

Football is a dangerous sport. Guys are going to get hurt whether they play 16 games a year or 18. Players make a lot of money and most likely they’ll end up getting paid more if the season is expanded. The more meaningful football, the better.

Bart Hubbuck, New York Post: Despite their apparent leak to the contrary, the Jets are no closer to signing Darrelle Revis or D’Brickashaw Ferguson to new contracts. A Newsday report yesterday claimed the Jets were prepared to end their ugly contract impasse with Revis by adding six years to the disgruntled cornerback’s contract that would make the total deal worth $100 million. But Revis laughed off that report to friends, pointing out that NFL contracts are not guaranteed and that the only thing that matters — at least in pro football negotiations — is money paid up front in the form of bonuses and other guarantees.

My Take: Revis is eventually going to get paid, but how ugly does it get before that happens? And is a new contract in place before training camp begins? No contract, no Darrelle. The Jets are on the clock.

Manish Mehta, Daily News: The surreal chant came from the northwest corner of the New Meadowlands Stadium, an homage to a villain that made you think you had stepped into the bizarro world. Ja-son Taylor! Ja-son Taylor! The final practice of the Jets’ three-day minicamp was punctuated by the strangest sort of tribute to one of the most hated Gang Green opponents off all time. Even Jason Taylor was caught off guard when a portion of the 12,000 fans who attended practice Wednesday openly embraced him.

My Take: Fans will root for anyone who will help their team win, and players will sign wherever the money is best. End of story.

Jenny Vrentas, Star-Ledger: Jerricho Cotchery, Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes each have 1,000-yard receiving seasons on the books and hundreds of pro catches to their names. But as Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer gameplanned in his Florham Park office this offseason, until 9 or 10 p.m. some nights, he had a different take on if there would be enough touches to go around.

My Take: What a great problem to have. We talk all the time about the defense, but the Jets have one of the best offenses in the league.

Rex Ryan and Darrelle Revis met Tuesday and both came away from that meeting saying they’re “on the same page.”

Here’s Jenny Vrentas in the Star-Ledger:

After the All-Pro cornerback sat out a series during Monday morning’s mini-camp practice — a combination of light-headedness and a contract protest — he wanted to meet with his head coach before things got out of hand. Both said today they felt good about their conversation.

“It was a normal talk,” Revis said after the Jets’ final mini-camp practice today. “He just wanted to make sure I felt OK with everything that was going on and we could move on from here.”

Revis had given a few reasons for his brief absence Monday, among them a sore hamstring and light-headedness, before admitting it was related to the slow pace of negotiations for a new deal. Today, he maintained he really had been light-headed, but that his contract frustrations played a part, too.

Revis said Ryan didn’t address the specifics of his absence Monday in their meeting, instead focusing on the big picture.

“We didn’t even talk about that,” Revis said. “We talked about more so how I feel about this whole situation, to make sure I was comfortable with everything that’s going on. Like I said, I got a little frustrated and things kind of got out of hand, but we wanted to be on the same page and move forward from there.”

Ryan’s account jibed with Revis’ version.

“Just so you know, he’s committed to being here,” Ryan said. “He wants to be here. Now whether he’s here for training camp and all that, I don’t know what that answer is. That will be a personal decision obviously with Darrelle.”

“But I can tell you this,” Ryan added, “We have the same goals, everything lined up, we have the same vision for this football team.”

Click here to read the entire article.

Here are Giants’ defensive ends Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora on the Darrelle Revis contract situation, compliments of ESPN New York:

Tuck: “Pay the man. Simple as that.”

“I’ll tell you the truth, some people don’t deserve what they’re asking for but he does…they should pay the man.”

Umenyiora:“I do know he’s probably the best cornerback in the league and this NFL, if he wasn’t performing, they’d cast him aside like he was nothing. So he’s outperformed his contract. Whatever they need to do they need to do, but they need to come to terms with that man. He’s a good young player he seems to be a good young man.”

“…they never have a problem kicking him to the curb when they feel like it. So whenever you feel like you’ve truly outperformed your contract like he has, he has a right as a man.”

I guess Revis has the support of fellow players and union members.

Here’s the most recent development from Jets’ camp compliments of ESPN New York’s Rich Cimini:

Expressing a more conciliatory tone than Monday, when he staged a mini-protest over stalled contract negotiations, New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis said Tuesday that he’s planning to meet with coach Rex Ryan in an attempt to smooth over any differences.

“This is the beginning of stuff turning bad,” Revis said after a minicamp practice. “I’ll talk to Rex today and we’ll try to see eye to eye and try to do it the right way. [Monday] was a little frustration going back and forth, but he wants to keep things positive.”

On Monday, Day 1 of a mandatory minicamp, Revis admittedly sat out for a few plays to make a statement about his contract. Revis, who also said the Jets’ latest contract proposal to him was an “insult,” didn’t back down from anything he did or said.

He did, however, add another wrinkle to his story, saying he was indeed lightheaded. That, along with a tweaked hamstring, were the initial reasons he gave for sitting out a few plays. The hamstring, he admitted, was a total fabrication.

Problem was, Revis put Ryan in a difficult spot because he was unaware of Revis’ mini-protest when he met the media. Ryan actually thought Revis was injured.

Revis has three years left on his contract, due to make $1 million in 2010. He reiterated that he was promised by general manager Mike Tannenbaum that the organization would make him the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL.

Meanwhile, disgruntled center Nick Mangold, who wasn’t available Monday to discuss his contract dispute, participated for the second straight day. Mangold said he’s “deeply disappointed” that he has yet to receive on offer from the Jets.

I’ll have more on the Revis contract situation once training camp ends.

We should have also told you yesterday that quarterback Mark Sanchezparticipated in the morning practice but sat out 11-on-11 drills during the afternoon session as he continues to recover from offseason knee surgery. As we mentioned yesterday, nose tackle Kris Jenkinsparticpated in 11-on-11 team drills Monday morning. Jenkins had knee surgery after tearing his ACL last October.