NFL

Report: Jets ask about Australian rugby player

The Jets don’t lack for creativity.

A senior official from the Jets sent an e-mail to OzPunt, an Australian-based NFL scouting agency, to ask about rugby star Greg Inglis, the Sun Herald in Melbourne reports.

“The official, from the club’s player personnel department, became interested after word of Inglis’ athletic ability filtered through to the US football ranks,” the report states.

OzPunt representative Paul Shepherd said he believes Inglis would excel as a punt returner or outside linebacker.

”He would be absolutely sensational at the back,” Shepherd said. ”Imagine him returning the ball with three or four blokes blocking for him. But from our perspective, we’ve been burnt by NRL players before and are cautious about being used.”

At the listed 6-5 and 238 pounds, 23-year-old Inglis may not make it as a punt returner, but that is about right for an outside linebacker.

”The Jets contacted us about Greg — it wasn’t the other way around,” Shepherd said. “If he’s serious, we can organize trials but we wouldn’t be doing another thing until we heard from Greg or his manager.

“There is an opportunity for NRL players [to play NFL] but to date they haven’t been taking it seriously. It’s a matter of who wants to be the first to crack the door down.”

The Jets signed Australian Rules football player Ben Graham in 2005 and he was their punter for three seasons before getting cut early in the 2008 season.