Jets coach Rex Ryan believes the Jets will face the toughest tight end in the NFL this year, but he does not play for New England.
In a conference call with San Francisco reporters yesterday, he said he believes 49ers tight end Vernon Davis is the best in the game, not Rob Gronkowski of the Patriots.
“If you’re not looking at Vernon Davis, what are you kidding me?” Ryan said while listing the 49ers’ weapons. “The guy runs a 4.3, the best tight end, the No. 1 tight end in football, in my opinion. You got that Gronkowski kid, but this guy is a 4.3 speed guy.”
Gronkowski caught eight passes for 113 yards and two touchdowns against the Jets in their second meeting last year. You can be sure this topic will be revisited before the Jets face the Patriots on Oct. 21.
* Ryan said Dolphins running back Reggie Bush misunderstood what he meant when he talked about giving Bush some “hot sauce” last week. Bush said, “what goes around comes around” in reference to Darrelle Revis’ knee injury, believing the Jets intended to hurt him.
“It means you pour a ton of attention on him,” Ryan said of the “hot sauce” line. “I guess he took it a different way. I respect this game and I respect the players in this league. … By no means do I ever want to see anybody leave a field due to injury.”
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LB Bart Scott (toe), WR Stephen Hill (hamstring) and S Eric Smith (hip/knee) did not practice. … TE Dustin Keller (hamstring), OLB Bryan Thomas (hamstring), FB John Conner (knee) and WR Patrick Turner (hamstring) were all limited.
* Former Giant Brandon Jacobs (knee) returned to practice on a limited basis for San Francisco. … The 49ers are practicing in Youngstown, Ohio because they played the Vikings in Minnesota Sunday, and did not want to fly back to San Francisco before facing the Jets this Sunday.
* Ryan acknowledged he mismanaged the end of the first half Sunday when the Dolphins took over the ball with just under two minutes left and the Jets still with three timeouts. Ryan did not stop the clock and allowed the Dolphins to take about a minute off before he used his first timeout.
“Hindsight being 20-20, I probably should’ve used them and forced them to punt,” Ryan said. “I probably could’ve done a better job of that.”