CORTLAND — No one on the Jets knows what’s in store for Santonio Holmes better than Calvin Pace.
Holmes is set to serve a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy when the regular season starts next month. That is familiar territory for Pace, the veteran outside linebacker who got the same punishment last year for using performance-enhancing drugs.
Although Holmes is keeping mum about his plans for the four-game banishment, Pace has a good idea what’s going to happen with the playmaking wide receiver.
“It’s going to make [Holmes] appreciate the small things, that’s for sure,” Pace said yesterday during a break in practices. “Camp is monotonous, and you take it for granted. But when you’re sitting at home, you’re like, ‘I wouldn’t mind sitting in meetings today,’ because you don’t know what to do with yourself.”
Jets coach Rex Ryan plans to do the same thing with Holmes that he did with Pace last August: Work him like an undrafted rookie in the preseason games.
The wide receiver played deep into the second half of Monday’s exhibition loss to the Giants, and the former Super Bowl MVP is expected to do the same again Saturday on the road against the Panthers.
Pace logged a lot of snaps in the 2009 preseason as a way to get ready for the season, and he said it will be a challenge mentally for Holmes to follow in his footsteps with that.
“You just have to keep your head down and keep thinking about those games when you get back [after the suspension],” Pace said.
Pace said he thinks Holmes should be able to make an impact more quickly than Pace did last year simply because of the position Holmes plays.
Pace needed three games after his suspension was up to reassert himself, recording three sacks in a 38-0 rout of the Raiders in Week 7. Pace said Holmes could have an impact as soon as his first game back, the Oct. 11 Monday night showdown with Brett Favre and the Vikings at New Meadowlands Stadium.
“The good thing for him is that he’s a receiver, and he’s not taking the beating that we take as [linebackers],” Pace said. “It’ll be an easier thing for him than it was for me.”
Pace said Holmes has not yet come to him for advice about the suspension, and the wideout likes to change the subject when it is mentioned by reporters.
“We’re going to keep that between us — me and the team,” Holmes said yesterday about his September workout plans.
Sundays will be the toughest part for Holmes, Pace warned.
“I woke up like I was going to pregame meal, then I realized, ‘I don’t have a game today,’ ” Pace said. “I had to watch the games with no sound on because I didn’t want to hear the commentary. The first week will be the toughest.”