Rex Ryan left the door open for a possible marriage between the Jets and troubled receiver Plaxico Burress yesterday.
The team admitted speaking to Burress’ agent, Drew Rosenhaus, before the draft, but said it was only doing its “due diligence.” Ryan repeated that term yesterday, but did not say the team lacked interest in Burress, who is facing jail time after shooting himself in the leg in a Manhattan nightclub last year.
“If anybody is out there, you want to find out because there are a lot of unknowns,” Ryan said. “Quite honestly, through that conversation [with his agent] I don’t think that it’s clear right now either way. Is he going to be available? Is he not? None of you know that answer either. We just wanted to see if they had heard anything.”
When pressed if the team would go after Burress if he is available to play this season Ryan said, “We will let that situation happen, and we will see.”
Burress would fill the gaping hole the Jets have at receiver, but he would bring along with him a public relations headache and the possibility of disrupting their locker room.
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In Ryan’s three months as head coach we’ve learned he’s not shy. He proved that again when asked about his expectations for this season.
“I’ve never gone into a game I didn’t think I would win,” Ryan said. “I’ll let you know when that happens. I have faced a lot of good teams, but I always thought I was going to win even though it doesn’t always come out that way.
“For me to sit here and say that I hope we come third, anything but winning everything would be underselling our guys. I am not a guy that’s big on underselling just to say, ‘If we say we are going to be terrible and all of a sudden we are decent, man what a great coach.’ Forget that, I’m going to tell you the way I feel. I think we are going to be very successful — period.”
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Among the 16 tryout players the Jets have at camp this weekend are Ottis Lewis, a 6-foot-6 receiver from Hofstra, and former Boston College LB Brian Toal, the former high school star at Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey.