Jerricho Cotchery was the center of attention yesterday — for a couple of reasons.
First, an MRI exam revealed the Jets receiver has a slight tear to his left groin, an injury he suffered while running a route during overtime of Sunday’s 26-20 win over the Browns. He is likely to miss Sunday’s game against the Texans, though the team has not ruled him out.
Second, Cotchery was featured in coach Rex Ryan’s weekly “Play Like a Jet” film segment, which he plays for the entire team to showcase an above-and-beyond play. That play happened to be Cotchery’s acrobatic diving catch on a third-and-nine in overtime that came right after he tore his groin. It was the buzz of the locker room.
Right tackle Damien Woody called it “one of the best plays I’ve ever seen.”
“Everybody was in kind of awe” watching it, Woody said. “You could tell he popped his groin well before Mark [Sanchez] had thrown the ball, and to be able to make that catch . . . unbelievable.
“He gave up his body to make a play.”
Fellow receiver Santonio Holmes said: “That’s courage, that’s sacrifice. Another player might have said, ‘[Shoot], don’t throw the ball to my side, I’m going to fall down and act hurt.’ ”
Even Ryan was amazed.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in all my years of coaching,” he said. “I know I’ve never seen it. He already gave his body up for the team and then to lay out like that and make that kind of play. . . . It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Ryan wouldn’t rule Cotchery out this week.
“Jerricho is surprisingly much better than all of us thought he’d be,” he said. “When I saw him in the morning I was shocked that he was actually able to move around.
“I’m not going to say he’s definitely out. That is certainly a possibility, but he’s much better than we thought.”
Cotchery, too, was optimistic.
“I felt a lot better this morning,” he said. “They didn’t put a timetable on it, so that’s a good sign. Usually when it’s bad, they can put a timetable on it right away. My body generally responds well to treatment so I’m pretty optimistic about it.”
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In other injury news, Ryan said Sanchez has swelling in the right calf he injured during the game.
“He’s beat up, but I think he’s going to be OK,” Ryan said, adding that the fact that Sanchez finished the game “generally means that’s a good sign that you can play the next week.”
Ryan said LG Matt Slauson, who reinjured his right knee and didn’t finish the game, “feels better today than he did at this time last week” after he initially hurt it in Detroit.
S Eric Smith has an ankle injury, not the wrist injury Ryan announced after the game. Smith moved about the locker room without a limp and said he was fine.
Ryan didn’t say whether CB Dwight Lowery, who was knocked out of the game with a head injury, has a concussion or not.
“I don’t think he’s feeling that good today,” Ryan said.
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Ryan exonerated K Nick Folk for missing the 48- and 47-yard field goals, but conceded that he had some concern about the 24-yarder he missed.
“We’ve got to have that,” Ryan said. “That’s a little more than an extra point. We’ve got to make every one of those. Am I overly concerned with it? No.”