Extra, extra, read all about it: The Jets are supposed to stink this year.
Rookie quarterback, rookie head coach, new defensive system, difficult schedule, tough division. It all adds up to a poor 2009 season for the Jets, according to an inordinate number of national prognosticators.
The Jets know what the outside world expects them to do this year — and they don’t give a #@$%&! about it.
“Not a lot of people are really giving us a chance to do any good things this year,” Jets right tackle Damien Woody said. “That’s exactly where we want to be at. I like the fact that we’re flying under the radar.”
Indeed, look around at the Web sites and publications that are posting NFL predictions for the 2009 season and you’ll be hard-pressed to find any that are predicting the Jets to be a playoff team.
A look at several of the recently in vogue “power rankings” shows these results:
Of the 32 teams in the league, Foxsports.com has the Jets ranked 21st, CBSsports.com has them 24th, ESPN.com has them ranked 23rd and USA Today has them 20th.
Those are not very complimentary predictions.
“I kind of laugh at them, because who are these guys making power rankings and what do they know about football — especially at this time of year?” Woody said. “It’s funny to look at them; it’s like reading the comic section in the newspaper.
“They look at a rookie head coach [Rex Ryan] and a rookie quarterback [Mark Sanchez], and they figure with those things we’re doomed to be no higher than third in our division. That’s cool. We take it as a challenge. . . .
“At the end of the day, we really don’t care what they’re predicting. The game is played between the white lines, it’s not about what someone’s writing on the Internet.”
Linebacker Bart Scott, the Jets’ most vocal leader, said, “I really don’t give a [bleep]” about the outside predictions.
“Every year they already pick the Super Bowl winner before a game is even played,” Scott said. “How many people picked the Arizona Cardinals to be in the Super Bowl last year? They’ve got to write something. They’re going to [tick] somebody off. If it ain’t us, it’s going to be somebody else. Somebody’s got to get picked last or 20th.
“I’m sure if the Miami Dolphins would have thought about [how poorly they were predicted to finish] last year, they wouldn’t have even shown up. Preseason predictions? Who cares?”
Nose tackle Kris Jenkins said, “those things are just like the weather — an educated guess. They might get it right, they might not. It might be sunny like they predicted or it might rain. The hurricane might hit Alabama or it might hit New Orleans. Making power rankings has nothing to do with the games, so we don’t pay attention to it.”
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Among several great matchups to the Jets-Texans game Sunday, perhaps the most fun one will be Sanchez against Houston starting rookie linebacker Brian Cushing, who was not Sanchez’ USC roommate for more than two years.
Sanchez called Cushing “a phenomenal player and an even better friend. . . . He’s one of those guys on game day you don’t want to get in his way. He’s a tough young man and he’ll be coming full-speed off the edge.
“It’s going to be fun to play against him for real, because at practice at USC, I was wearing that yellow jersey and he couldn’t touch me. But now it’s on.”
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Sanchez on Ryan yesterday: “His easy-going manner and businesslike manner, he has a way of turning it on and turning it off. When it’s football and it’s serious, there’s no doubt what he wants and what he expects of you. And as soon as practice is over, he’s back to Rex, a good old guy. He drives a pickup truck. Awesome.”