The Jets, doing their best to forget the 4-12 mess from a year ago, convene for the start of training-camp two-a-days this morning, with the first session set to begin at 8:45.
With a September move to their new facility in Florham Park looming, this will mark their final training camp at Hofstra in Hempstead.
When the Jets break camp at the end of next month, they’ll be headed to New Jersey.
As of last night, there was no news on the contract status of Vernon Gholston, the Jets’ top draft pick, though Jet GM Mike Tannenbaum has a history of getting his draft picks into camp on time.
Gholston’s agent, Ben Dogra, did not return several calls yesterday.
However, Gholston, the sixth overall pick, isn’t expected to be a major issue. The top four picks already have been signed, with Darren McFadden at No. 4 signed by the Raiders for six years and $60 million.
So Gholston likely will slot in at somewhere around six years and $45 million.
Gholston aside, the central theme to this training camp will be the Jets’ unsettled quarterback situation.
It’s a wide-open competition between veteran Chad Pennington and third-year man Kellen Clemens.
“It won’t be a big distraction at all,” wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery said.
“It’s not any drama coming from my standpoint. Whoever wins the job, I have to make sure that my level of play is where it needs to be for whoever wins the job.
“I don’t think there will be any division [inside the locker room] whatsoever for who wins the job,” Cotchery went on.
“There are a lot of position battles throughout the team each and every year, so whoever wins the job, the teammates are happy for them and ready to move on through the season.”
Another theme to this camp will be a less-is-more approach by coach Eric Mangini with regard to practices.
Mangini has vowed to shorten his historically long sessions.
Cotchery conceded, “there were some questions here and there” about the length of the practices, and added, “any time you can do something to help the players save their legs, we definitely welcome that.
“We were out there for a long time,” Cotchery said. “I guess [Mangini] is switching it up a little bit. He just thinks we can get more work in the classroom. He’s a guy that is big on research, and I think he’s just been following his plan and is just tweaking some things.
“He evaluates us a lot, so I think he did a lot of self-evaluation. And I think he just tweaks some things within the program and it’s just a fresh start.”
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So, too, is the infusion of new talent acquired in the offseason, including left guard Alan Faneca, linebacker Calvin Pace and nose tackle Kris Jenkins.
“I think everyone has real good expectations for this season,” said linebacker David Harris.
“We made a lot of offseason acquisitions.”
Second-year CB Darrelle Revis called the offseason acquisitions “very exciting.”
“I mean, you have Alan [Faneca], Damien [Woody], on defense you have Kris [Jenkins], Calvin [Pace], and we have a lot of other guys,” he said.