Mangini upbeat about Chad, Curtis

[Smizzy]

Mangini upbeat about Chad, Curtis

BY BOB GLAUBER

Newsday Staff Correspondent

March 29, 2006

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- If Eric Mangini thought his life was a whirlwind since becoming Jets coach in January, nothing measures up to what happened Friday night on his way to the NFL owners' meetings.

"Probably the toughest moment of all this was trying to get my 2-year-old and my newborn [son] on the plane," Mangini said Tuesday at a coaches' breakfast. "It was dual meltdowns. That was tough, legitimately tough. It was a complete disaster. That's when I'm thinking, 'OK, this is tough. This is legitimately hard.'"

When he and his wife, Julie, couldn't console 1-month-old Luke, Mangini was beside himself. "You can't reason with him, you can't make him run, you can't fine him, you can't cut him," he said.

It's easier to be at the office, where Mangini has managed the difficult task of overhauling the roster and preparing for next month's draft. Here's what he's thinking on a number of fronts:

Chad Pennington: The Jets quarterback continues to rehab from shoulder surgery, although his long-term prognosis remains somewhat guarded. Pennington has resumed throwing, but Mangini wasn't certain when he'd be back to full strength.

"He's doing exactly what's expected of him. There's really no timetable set. Wherever he's going to be, I couldn't tell you. In terms of his program, he's on target, and that's encouraging. His progress has been positive. The fact that he does have more time [than after last year's surgery] is a benefit to us.

"I've only known him a small amount of time, but he works as hard as anybody that I've seen. He's just wired that way. He's working at this rehab as hard as he works at the game plan, and that's what's going to give him a chance to be successful."

The draft: The Jets have the fourth overall choice, but could be in position to move up to select one of the top quarterbacks -- Matt Leinart of USC, Vince Young of Texas or Jay Cutler of Vanderbilt. Mangini would not say if the Jets would take a quarterback with their top pick.

"They're all great players, but I want to make sure we're getting a great person, too. This whole block of time will be used to sort that out with the scouts, spending time individually, getting to know them. It will all sort itself out the more we learn about them."

On Young's low Wonderlic scores: He scored 7 out of 50 the first time he took the intelligence test (initially thought to be 6, but incorrectly scored by the test-giver), and got 16 on a re-test.

"I've been around players that have had low Wonderlic scores that have been some of the smartest players I've ever coached," Mangini said, "and that's always the difficulty with looking at that score and defining a player with that score."

On how much Curtis Martin has left: "He understands that it's about competition. He's never shied away from that. That's what makes him so special. Don't underestimate him. Whenever you underestimate him, he kills you. I think Curtis is going to be as competitive as he always has been."

On being the NFL's youngest coach at 35: "It's always been like that. When I was with the Jets the first time [as defensive backs coach], it was me, Bill [belichick], Romeo [Crennel] and Al [Groh]. I was pretty young compared to those guys."

On what he looks for in players: "It's all the intangibles: smart, hard-working, tough, competitive, selfless, and football is important to them. If [a scout] brings them to me, they'd better have those qualities. Your name is associated with the player you bring to me. If they don't have it, there's going to be a problem."

.