Jets right tackle Damien Woody didn’t practice yesterday because of his sprained right knee. He rode the stationary bike during practice and walked with a noticeable limp in the locker room afterward.
Does that mean he won’t play against the Patriots next Monday night? Don’t count on it.
“This game is too big to miss,” Woody said. “I’m going to be out there. This is the time of year where teams separate themselves and jockey for position for the playoffs and you need all hands on deck.”
Woody, who spent all weekend at the Jets’ training facility rehabbing the knee while everyone else was off for three days, said he doesn’t foresee himself practicing much at all this week, but he will play.
Woody called the MCL injury “usually a four to six-week rehab process and said that playing on Thursday night, just four days after the injury, was a step back.
“It’s going to be that way until it heals completely,” he said.
Receiver Jerricho Cotchery, who missed the last two games with a partial tear in his left groin, returned to practice yesterday on a limited basis. Asked if he thinks he’ll be able to play on Monday, he said: “You’ve got to read between the lines on this one — it’s a division game, we’re 9-2, there’s a lot on the line, it’s crunch time.
“These last five games are crucial to our season,” Cotchery added. “Everyone wants to be available around this time. My focus is on getting this thing all the way right and make sure I’m available for my teammates.”
Two other players returned to practice yesterday — cornerbacks Dwight Lowery, who missed the last two games with a concussion, and Marquice Cole, who missed the last game with a hamstring injury.
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When coach Rex Ryan
was asked yesterday if he’ll seek help this week from his brother, Rob
, the defensive coordinator for the Browns, who beat the Patriots earlier this season, he said: “I’m not going to say a word, because it could be tampering and I don’t want to get into that,” before adding, “but, [the answer] is absolutely a yes. No question.”
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A Jets win over the Patriots would give them a one-game lead in the AFC East with four games to play. But, because they will have swept the season series against the Patriots, they would hold the first tiebreaker for the division title if the teams finished the regular season tied.
The second tiebreaker is division record. The Jets enter the game 3-0 in the AFC East while New England is 2-1. Both teams have to play the Dolphins and Bills once more this season.
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Ryan on Jets WR Brad Smith
, who lost his shoe while returning an 89-yard kickoff for a touchdown on Thursday: “He looked faster with the one shoe than he did with two shoes, so we’re going to look at that.”
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The Jets players are off today and tomorrow and return to practice on Thursday.