The starting quarterback is up in the air. The offensive line has a 40-percent turnover from last season, they’ll be running different schemes on both sides of the ball, and the Jets have a new head coach with a new staff.
John Abraham, Kevin Mawae and Jason Fabini are all gone, and Curtis Martin has yet to set foot on the practice field at training camp. What, no Super Bowl predictions this summer?
Last year’s camp was showered with championship dreams and the Jets opened the season basking in the hype that painted them as legitimate contenders.
But coming off the 4-12 dud that least year turned out to be, coming off the 16-game exercise in heartbreak, pain and broken quarterbacks, observers rightfully have exponentially lower expectations for this year’s team. Some have gone so far as to dub this a rebuilding year for the Jets.
The heat index on the field turf during the two practices yesterday at Hofstra soared above 100 degrees. But just about the only thing that could make the players hotter than the weather as they came off the field yesterday was floating the notion that they’re destined for rebuilding.
“If players think it’s rebuilding, then we might as well hang up the pads and just forfeit every damn game,” Shaun Ellis said. “It’s not rebuilding.
We’re going out to win, just like everybody else.” In many ways, the Jets are starting fresh. Eric Mangini is the new head coach and the first few days of his first training camp have been grueling gauntlets of full-contact and intense focus. Yesterday’s morning session featured more emotion than prior days with D’Brickashaw Ferguson angrily spiking Ellis twice to the ground during one-on-one pass protection drills as the rookie showed his first signs of carrying a chip on his broad shoulders.
At the other end of the field, Chad Pennington threw a touchdown pass in a separate drill and continued his work to regain the starting spot behind center.
Don’t tell him he’s in for a rebuilding year, either.
“You know what, I don’t worry about that,” Pennington said after another solid practice. “Everyone’s going to have their opinion of our team, where we are and the goals that Coach Mangini has for our season. But I think as players, we’re here to win. That’s the bottom line.
We don’t want to come out here and work hard just for moral victories.
“We want to work hard to prepare ourselves to win and give us the best chance to be competitive.” Practices have been far too tough and the weather has been far too brutal for the players fighting for roster spots to have low expectations for the coming season.
There is never any doubt during training camp, and the Jets have far too many questions still to answer.
“There’s no sense in rebuilding. Why?” Ellis said.
“We had a down year last year, and a lot of things went into effect with that. But we’ll bounce back. We’re practicing now, we’re working hard right now to get back, to get back to winning.”