NFL

JETS’ OFFENSIVE LINE READY TO PROTECT AND SERVE

The Jets offensive line doesn’t need to look at films of the Giants’ resounding Super Bowl victory over the Patriots to recall the way the Giants’ defense tossed Tom Brady around like a rag doll.

This is why it will be on alert tomorrow night when the Jets play the Giants in the teams’ annual preseason tussle at Giants Stadium.

The Jets offensive line, after all, has a Hall of Fame quarterback on short preparation time to protect (that would be Brett Favre).

The vibe among Favre’s protectors yesterday was about how the match-up against the Giants and their fearsome front four will provide a good barometer for their own progress.

“Everybody knows their front helped them win the Super Bowl, so it’s going to be a good gauge for us,” Jets newcomer LG Alan Faneca said yesterday.

“It’s a great gauge for us,” Jets FB Tony Richardson said. “If you look at the Giants and what they were able to accomplish last year, they were the best. They’re the champions. You want to be able to go out and work against the best and play against the best.

“Their front four is phenomenal. Any one of those guys could have been up for MVP of the Super Bowl. They took over the game. It’s going to be a good task for us and it’s going to be a good measuring point for us.”

Indeed, Giants DE Justin Tuck, who set the tone in the Super Bowl by harassing Brady early on and disrupting his rhythm, could easily have been the MVP of the game instead of Eli Manning. Tuck is joined on that line by fellow DE Osi Umenyiora and DTs Barry Cofield and Fred Robbins. Gone, of course, is the retired Michael Strahan, but the line remains formidable.

“They’re very good,” coach Eric Mangini said. “They cause a lot of problems [and] it’s not just the front [four]. The front is one set of problems. They do a lot of stuff in terms of their zone-blitzes package.

“The types of zone blitz are not all just the post safety-zone blitzes. There’s some split-safety cover-two, there’s some split-safety cover-four.

“[The task] is going to be blocking their four and then blocking the different combinations from the secondary and linebackers that they’re going to have to adjust to.”

Despite the challenge facing the Jets with their two new starters, Faneca and RT Damien Woody, the Jets sounded yesterday as if they’re embracing the task.

“They’ve got a real strong pressure package,” Woody said. “They were impressive against Cleveland [on Monday night]. It’s going to be a really good test for us considering we’ve added a couple new guys on our offensive line. The guys are looking forward to it.”

Asked how good the Jets line can be with the additions and a more experienced LT D’Brickashaw Ferguson and C Nick Mangold, Woody said, “Potential is a scary word, but I feel like we’ve got the ingredients to be really good up front.”

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Mangini sounded as if both WR Laveranues Coles (leg) and DE Shaun Ellis (hand) are iffy to play tomorrow against the Giants.

“I’m not sure,” Mangini said of Coles. “You don’t want to have a set-back this late in the process. We’ll just see where it is.”

Mangini said Ellis is “getting closer.”

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Mangini, too, was noncommittal on how long Favre will play against the Giants, saying, “It’s really going to depend on how many plays we have offensively and how long (Giants’) first group is in.”

mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com