CORTLAND — The Jets’ defense was severely hampered by a nose tackle with a back injury last season. Now, they are dealing with another one — they just have to hope it’s not as serious.
Kenrick Ellis has missed the last two days of practice after injuring his back weightlifting. Last season, nose tackle Sione Po’uha hurt his back lifting and missed most of training camp. He missed four games in the season and was ineffective when he played.
Ellis is much younger than Po’uha, and coach Rex Ryan said he thinks this is just a short-term injury.
“I know [it’s] a day-to-day thing so I’m certainly hopeful it’s not as bad as Sione’s was that kept him out of a lot of training camp,” Ryan said yesterday. “Hopefully, it’s not like that. To me it’s a day-to-day type of injury.”
The Jets run defense was 26th in the NFL last season and a large part of that was because Po’uha was not his normal self occupying blockers.
* It was 53 degrees, windy and raining when practice began.
“Without question, that had to be the coldest training camp day I’ve ever been a part of,” Ryan said. “That’s about 30 years worth.”
The cold weather seemed to affect the offense more than the defense.
“That was chilly … almost as chilly as the offensive performance today,” Ryan said. “Not a good day at all for the offense. Obviously, we’ve got to straighten a lot of things out before we play Jacksonville. I’m disappointed because I thought we’ve been doing some good things out there.”
* QB Geno Smith said he was annoyed the media assumed his former West Virginia teammates and coaches were talking about him when they questioned the leadership on last year’s team. Coach Dana Holgorsen said this week that Smith was a good leader and he was not referring to him.
“I hate the fact that you guys try to make it about me,” he said. “It never was when I was in college, junior high school, high school. It’s a team sport and team game. We all go out there and compete as a team. It’s the same thing here. That’s what it’s all about.
“I loved my teammates at West Virginia. I loved the coaches. I had a great time there and I wish them the best.”
* RB Joe McKnight (head) missed practice again.
He was asked if he had a minute to speak to reporters and said, “Nope. I don’t want to talk to none of y’all.”
* TE Kellen Winslow was excused from practice because his wife was scheduled to give birth. … Punter Robert Malone (back) and LB Josh Mauga (back) did not practice.