Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes still won’t say whether he is playing Sunday against the Buccaneers.
“I still don’t know,” Holmes said. “Still haven’t gotten any word from the doctors yet on whether I should be playing or not, so I’m just going to keep playing it by ear.”
All indications are Holmes will be out there. A source said the expectation internally with the Jets is Holmes will play. Another source, though, said the coaches may limit the number of plays Holmes participates in.
Holmes is recovering from a Lisfranc injury in his left foot, suffered nearly a year ago. The injury required two surgeries and sidelined Holmes for the entire offseason.
Holmes said he still can’t run routes or cut like he is used to. He was asked if he needs to be able to do that at 100 percent to play.
“Like I said before, I have a long career, and I don’t want to go out there and do anything to jeopardize that up until this point,” Holmes said. “We have 16 games to play this season and hopefully I can play in all 16, but if not, we’ll have to deal with what I can do.”
Holmes did acknowledge the Jets are fired up ESPN ranked them dead last in its power rankings.
“Right now in the power rankings we’re ranked 32 in the NFL, and I think we probably couldn’t be happier than being off the radar for everybody,” Holmes said. “We have a focus on the team and not what anyone else thinks this team should be. We have a focus and a goal in mind to have the best 53 guys on this roster and go on and win with these guys that we have.”
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Jets coach Rex Ryan said Vlad Ducasse will start at left guard, Antonio Allen will start at safety and Bilal Powell will start at running back Sunday. … Matt Simms will be the team’s backup quarterback. … RB Mike Goodson restructured his contract, according to a source. His $1 million base salary is reduced to $715,000 and portions of his base salaries the next two seasons were converted to a roster bonus. … QB Mark Sanchez (shoulder), TE Kellen Winslow (knee), DL Leger Douzable (illness) and OLB Quinton Coples (ankle) did not practice. CB Antonio Cromartie (hip), NT Kenrick Ellis (back) and Holmes (foot) were limited.