Even former Giants are catching Jets fever.
According to former Big Blue tight end Howard Cross, one New York coach is lucky to have a job and the other is the reason his team has a chance to reach new heights this season.
“[Giants] coach [Tom] Coughlin got a bonus year because of the lockout, I think,” said Cross, now an analyst for the YES Network. “The lockout brought a lot of uncertainty, so you didn’t want to bring a new coaching staff in and upset the apple cart.”
The injuries that have contributed to the Giants’ late-season collapses in recent years have started early with the team losing several key defenders before it opens the season in Washington on Sunday.
“Unfortunately when Coughlin came in he talked about injuries like they were sickness that could be overcome with depth, and that hasn’t been the case here,” Cross said of the Giants, who have missed the playoffs the last two years. “They went from having four really good defensive backs to cover the whole field [to] then, all of a sudden, Prince [Amukamara] and [Terrell] Thomas get hurt. So now you have two guys. Health over the past two years has really hurt the Giants.”
The secondary wasn’t the only area affected by injury. Most recently, starting linebacker Jonathan Goff was lost for the season with a torn ACL. Backup cornerbacks Bruce Johnson and Brian Witherspoon also are expected to miss the entire season, along with rookie Marvin Austin. Two of Eli Manning’s top targets — Steve Smith (Eagles) and Kevin Boss (Raiders) — left via free agency.
With all that the Giants may be thankful they will only be without defensive end Osi Umenyiora for the first couple of weeks after arthroscopic knee surgery that followed a training-camp holdout.
The Jets, who open against the Cowboys Sunday night at MetLife Stadium, did not have to deal with much controversy during the offseason, and even fewer injuries. Coach Rex Ryan has come close to backing up his Super Bowl talk by leading the Jets to back-to-back AFC Championship games — where they lost to the Colts and Steelers.
“ I think Rex is their wild card, which will help them out tremendously,” Cross said. “He learned a lot last year; that you need to switch it up sometimes to beat the [Tom] Bradys and [Peyton] Mannings. And when he did that he learned a lot. The one thing he has to figure out is the Jets have to be dominant run-stoppers; they have great cover guys. Once they do that their whole thing will pick up.”
Cross’ biggest concern with the Jets is a former member of the Giants. He has his doubts that Plaxico Burress will be able to replace Braylon Edwards as the team’s No. 2 receiver.
“Plax has the ability to cause a lot of problems, but it’s been a long time since he put his body through a season and it will be interesting to see how it holds up,” Cross said. “But it’s a little scary for a team, who could have kept Braylon Edwards for $1 million. [The Jets have] really one receiver who’s going to be pretty good, one receiver who’s coming off an extended layoff. So that’s going to put some extra pressure on Mark Sanchez.”
justin.terranova@nypost.com