Jets news 8-15

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LIFE IN 'TRANSITION'

MANGINI: FAVRE'S 'FATIGUE' IS PART OF TRAINING CAMP

By MARK CANNIZZARO

MOVING ALONG: Brett Favre drops back to throw the ball during practice at the Jets' training facilities in Hempstead yesterday.

Posted: 3:03 am

August 15, 2008

The fascination with Brett Favre and the subsequent saturation of coverage surrounding his new adventure with the JetsNew York Jets has gotten to the point where sports stations are updating the "Brett Favre arm fatigue" situation.

To that, coach Eric Mangini and his offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, have taken to playfully tweaking Favre.

"He's fatigued, I'm fatigued, [receiver] David ClowneyDavid Clowney [who left the afternoon practice Wednesday] was fatigued," Mangini said. "It's training camp. It's a hard transition. You go from vacation to hitting people and running around, tons of meetings. It's not your normal day at the office. You have to get through that and eventually get into a normal routine and the body adjusts. It's training camp."

Schottenheimer acknowledged that he and some of the other coaches have been ribbing Favre, who on Wednesday revealed that his arm is "fatigued" and he needed to scale back on throwing in practice.

"We tease him," Schottenheimer said. "He goes, 'I'm a little bit fatigued,' and I said, 'Yeah, you're old. You are. You're old.' "

Indeed, Favre, at 38, is not only older than his offensive coordinator but also is older than his head coach.

Schottenheimer went on to praise Favre for the speed with which he's picking up the playbook despite being here only a week.

"He's had a lot going on," Schottenheimer said. "There's been a lot of things that he's had to get acclimated to, whether it's finding the lunchroom or learning the playbook or studying film and all that stuff. He's doing a really, really good job. I'm very pleased."

The Jets have used some unique ways to get Favre schooled up in their terminology, such as using crossword puzzles to help his recall.

"He's into crossword puzzles," Mangini said. "So we take the information and put it in the form of a crossword puzzle and give him that. There are a lot of different avenues."

The Favre acquisition has added hours into the already long days for the coaching staff.

"When you get a guy in here a little bit late, it definitely adds some hours," Schottenheimer said. "But it's been fun; it's been a fun transition. It's been a lot of hard work. The biggest part that goes into it is just the translation of the information of the words and phrases.

"The plays are all the same; most teams run the same type of plays," he went on. "It's just what you call them. He's really doing a good job picking it up. We have a number of guys on the staff and on the team that actually have been in the system that he comes from so you hear a lot of translating going on."

Tight end Bubba Franks, who played his entire career with Favre before signing with the Jets as a free agent this offseason, has been the lead translator.

"Bubba's the guy that actually can translate the best from anybody because he was just there with Brett [in Green Bay]," Schottenheimer said. "The system that he comes from has been branched off in different areas, so Bubba definitely helps. He's one of the players who can help translate for Brett."

Schottenheimer said Favre's instincts will also serve him well in the transition to the new system.

"A lot of playing the position is you see something [and react]," Schottenheimer said. "He's always had a good feel for solving problems and again he might not be able to put it into our terminology but he knows, 'I have a problem over there, I am going to bail myself out over here.

"That's where he and the players started develop a really good feel for signals and things like that. When you're dealing with a smart guy it makes it easier."

mark.cannizzaro@nypost.com

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Brett Favre getting 'coordinated'

BY KRISTIE ACKERT

DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

Friday, August 15th 2008, 12:09 AM

Simmons/News Brett Favre throws during Thursday's practice. He will make his debut during Saturday's preseason game.

Brian Schottenheimer was almost asleep late last Wednesday night in his hotel room in Cleveland when his phone rang. As the Jets' offensive coordinator roused himself, he saw a scroll across the bottom of his television screen.

"I knew it was time to get up and go to work," Schottenheimer said about seeing the breaking news alert that the Jets had just acquired Brett Favre.

Since that moment, the 34-year-old Schottenheimer has been tutoring his 38-year-old legend on the the Jets' playbook and the team's offensive personnel, while helping the rest of the offense adapt to Favre's powerful right arm.

On Saturday night, Schottenheimer will see how much more work he has to do, when Favre makes his first start in the Jets' preseason game against the Redskins at the Meadowlands. Favre, who missed two weeks of training camp as he returned from retirement and negotiated his departure from the Packers, is expected to take up to a dozen snaps tomorrow as he tries to prepare himself for the Sept.7 season opener in Miami.

It is not just a transition under pressure for Favre, but considering that the Jets finished 26th in total offense out of the NFL's 32 teams last season, it is a transition under pressure for Schottenheimer.

Last season, the Jets averaged only 188.4 passing yards per game, and their 15 passing touchdowns for the season were a little more than half of Favre's total of 28 with Green Bay. Schottenheimer said that after hearing about the Favre trade, he immediately took a refresher course on the West Coast offense, trying to find elements the Jets could incorporate to suit Favre's strong arm.

"It's been a fun transition," said Schottenheimer, speaking to the media for the first time this training camp. "It's been a lot of hard work, but the biggest part that goes into it, is the translation of the information, of the words and phrases. The plays are all the same. Most teams run the same type of plays, it's just what you call them. He's definitely making progress."

Although Schottenheimer had never met Favre before the trade, they did have some common threads in their backgrounds. Schottenheimer worked with current Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy in Kansas City on his father Marty's staff in 1998. He also has tight end Bubba Franks, who the Jets brought in from Green Bay this offseason, to serve as a translator and help ease the transition for Favre with the rest of the offense.

"He has a very, very intelligent football mind," Favre said of his new coordinator. "He knows the plays, they just don't come off his tongue as easily because he's been doing it one way for so many years and now it's new. He's definitely making progress."

SEEING RED: A day after Favre said his arm felt "fatigued," the Jets limited their practice to the red zone, which kept Favre from having to gun any long passes. The reps were fairly evenly divided between Favre, Kellen Clemens, Brett Ratliff and Erik Ainge. Schottenheimer said that Favre was fine....Laveranues Coles, who has been upset about the departure of Chad Pennington, missed his second straight practice and again refused to speak to the media.... Kicker Mike Nugent hit a 50-yard-plus field goal at the end of Thursday's practice that got the players out of evening meeting and waived their curfew for the night.

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Schottenheimer: Brett's mind as good as his arm

BY ERIK BOLAND | erik.boland@newsday.com August 15, 2008

Brian Schottenheimer understands the "gunslinger" label affixed to Brett Favre for most of his career, but the Jets' offensive coordinator said that's not all there is to his new quarterback.

"He's very, very intelligent," said Schottenheimer, speaking yesterday for the first time this training camp. "He's got a very good feel for what's going on, both offensively and defensively. The gunslinger tag is maybe a little unfair because he's got a great feel for what's going on."

Schottenheimer found out he would be coaching Favre late Aug. 6 in his hotel room in Cleveland, the day before the Jets opened the preseason against the Browns. His response wasn't quite a shrug, but there was a sense that a lot of work was on the horizon for both of them.

Schottenheimer, like just about everyone else, had been operating under the assumption that Kellen Clemens or Chad Pennington would be the starter this season.

"I had to go back and review some of the things from my background in the West Coast system, but really not much other than being excited about getting him here and just working through the language issues," Schottenheimer said. "But you really don't have time. There's not time to sit around and think about, 'Hey, Brett Favre's here.' "

And now that Schottenheimer has worked with Favre for almost a week, he has become impressed as much with the quarterback's mind as his powerful right arm.

"He's picking up everything that we're asking him to do," he said. Which is a lot.

Favre said Wednesday that the Jets' system is "not easy" to learn and he would have only a small number of plays at his disposal tomorrow night when he starts against the Redskins.

"I'm not going to sit here and tell you I've got it down," Favre said. "I've got just enough plays down to run those plays Saturday. How it turns out, I have no idea. I hope it turns out well."

Schottenheimer acknowledged that coaches can get impatient and want to put in as much as possible. But he also said tomorrow night isn't so important that there's any real reward to overdoing it.

"I would never want to put a quarterback in a position where they weren't comfortable with plays," Schottenheimer said.

"A lot of that has to do with us just sitting down as a staff with Brett and the other guys. There's definitely some give and take, and that would be no different with any player. But when you have a new player, there might be a little more conversation about that and how it translates."

Schottenheimer said what Favre has to learn is more terminology than actual X's and O's.

"Most of the things we're running are plays that he's run before. It's just getting him to be comfortable if we call it this, they [the Packers] called it that," said Schottenheimer, who, along with Packers coach Mike McCarthy, was on the staff in Kansas City in 1998 when Marty Schottenheimer (Brian's father) coached the Chiefs.

"I'm very proud of him. He's done a really, really good job with something that's not easy."

Just how much has been lost in translation during the last week will begin to be sorted out tomorrow night.

Notes & quotes: LB Jason Trusnik, DE Shaun Ellis (broken hand) and WR Laveranues Coles (leg) did not practice yesterday. Coles appeared to tweak something in one of his legs in the latter stages of Wednesday morning's practice and sat out that afternoon's practice ... A crowd of 7,500 watched yesterday's practice, second only to the 10,500 who showed up Saturday, Favre's first practice as a Jet

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New and notes from New York Jets camp

by Dave Hutchinson/The Star-Ledger Friday August 15, 2008, 1:36 AM

FAVRE WATCH

And on the sixth day and seventh practice, quarterback Brett Favre took 22 reps with the first team in 11-on-11 drills and threw 15 passes. He threw the ball well, although safety Kerry Rhodes intercepted his second Favre pass in camp.

Favre's pitch count was almost the same as it was in Wednesday's afternoon practice (23 and 15) after he said following the morning session that his arm was a bit fatigued and his reps were decreased. Rookie quarterback Erik Ainge has been given the leftover snaps.

Yesterday's practice was devoted mainly to red-zone situations and most of Favre's passes were short before a crowd of 7,500 at Hofstra, the second-largest this summer. His longest pass was 25 yards off his back foot and it was intercepted by Rhodes.

"It (the reps) is all feedback based, trying to figure out where we can target the reps and still make sure that you're not doing too much too quickly, and it's a constant give-and-take there," said coach Eric Mangini, defusing speculation that the former Packers legend was setting his own schedule.

Mangini said Favre will get at least 10 to 12 reps against the Redskins tomorrow night at Giants Stadium.

Meanwhile, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer spoke for the first time in training camp. He said Favre has been fun to work with and is picking up the offense rather quickly.

"The biggest part that goes into it is just the translation of the information, of words and phrases," Schottenheimer said. "Most teams run the same kinds of plays, it's just what you call them."

Schottenheimer praised Favre for having a good football mind, saying his reputation as solely a gunslinger is "unfair." He said calling the plays will be Favre's biggest challenge.

"Sometimes (the play) doesn't come off his tongue as fast as he wants it to because he's been doing it one way for a long time," Schottenheimer said.

Schottenheimer said the running game should also benefit from Favre's presence because he's an outstanding in the play-action game.

QUICK HITS

-- For the second time this week, Mangini stressed the need for bubble players to step up on special teams. "I'll be looking for a lot of progress there ... and really clear up some of the questions," he said.

-- Former Rutgers players S Ron Girault and LB Brandon Renkart have been quiet in camp thus far and need to excel on special teams.

-- WR Laveranues Coles continued his media silence. He hasn't spoken since good pal Chad Pennington was released.

-- K Mike Nugent hit a 53-yard FG at the end of practice that canceled team meetings and curfew last night. Players let out a loud scream and started dancing.

-- T Clint Oldenburg (knee) was given an injury settlement.

-- RB Rodney Kinlaw was reclaimed after being waived on Tuesday to make room for FB Justin Green (Ravens), who was claimed and then released.

-- WR Brad Smith had another solid day. He's finally beginning to look like a wide receiver instead of a quarterback trying to play wide receiver.

-- CB Justin Miller has a slight edge on David Barrett for the starting job at right cornerback opposite Darrell Revis.

INJURIES

WR Laveranues Coles (leg) didn't practice and it's uncertain if he'll play against the Redskins. DE Shaun Ellis (hand) didn't practice and won't play.

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Sports

Jets notes: Mangini upset with defense

Thursday, August 14, 2008

#printDesc{display:none;}Mangini says calm

The first-team defense struggled somewhat in the opener against Cleveland, allowing a 62-yard touchdown drive on the Browns

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On the Screen, in Action

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By GREG BISHOP

Published: August 14, 2008

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.