FanHouse Kris Jenkins

Did the injury bug hit your fantasy football team like it was a car windshield moving at 100 MPH? If so, it may be time to do some Damage Control.

Quarterback

• Daunte Culpepper, Lions - Culpepper calls the injury a tweak, others call it a slight hamstring pull. Drew Stanton played the majority of the second half on Sunday and nobody knows who will be the Lions quarterback in Week 7.

• Joe Flacco, Ravens - Flacco was noticeably limping on Sunday after his foot was trampled. He has a bye week this week -- rest will do him good.

• Trent Edwards, Bills - Edwards took a blow to the head on Sunday. The Bills aren't using the word concussion until further tests have been completed.

The suddenly reeling New York Jets are going to have to try and get back on track without their immense nose tackle Kris Jenkins. Jenkins tore the ACL in his left knee during the Jets' dispiriting 16-13 overtime loss to the Bills on Sunday and he was placed on injured reserve Monday afternoon which ends his 2009 season.

"It comes with the game," Jenkins said. "My feelings are hurt that I won't be able to be out there fighting with my teammates."

His teammates might be finding it a lot harder to win their future fights without Jenkins occupying the middle of the line. They'll have to figure something out, though, because there's not much chance of swinging a deal before Tuesday's trade deadline.

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Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.

Sometimes, picking one player for the week's Coach Killer is tough. When you've got Tony Romo's decision-making, JaMarcus Russell's ineptitude, Mark Clayton's stone hands and the entire St. Louis Rams' existence to choose from, you wish the bounty of bad could be spread across multiple weeks so you can hit them all. Alas, we can't.

There has been no shortage of criticism lobbed at those people thus far this week (including at FanHouse). It seemed easy to pick on them more. While there's been some heat in the general direction of this week's subject of Coach Killers, tucked away in the trenches you're obscured a bit more from the national media. Until now, that is.

CORTLAND, N.Y.(AP) -- Mark Sanchez reared back and lofted a pretty pass downfield that landed in Jerricho Cotchery's hands for a touchdown.

It was the first play of team drills and the beginning of a brilliant practice Saturday for the New York Jets rookie quarterback.

"I put it in a place where only J-Co can get it," Sanchez said, "and he made a great adjustment for the ball."

Working exclusively with the first-team offense for the first time this summer, Sanchez completed 10 of 19 passes for two touchdowns and an interception. He also further solidified his edge over Kellen Clemens in the team's quarterback competition.

FLORHAM PARK, NJ -- It's not that Kris Jenkins minded the way it used to be -- a New York Jets defense with him as its massive, central focal point. It's just that the gargantuan nose tackle really likes the way it is now.

"This is the first time in a long time where it doesn't feel like it's just a job," Jenkins said after a recent practice at the Jets' training facility here. "Football gets to where, Sunday is always fun, but Monday through Saturday, the fun can get sucked out of it. Now, though, it's a different atmosphere around here. This is the first time in a long time where I really feel like it's fun coming here every day."

The reason is a new defense, imported from Baltimore by new coach Rex Ryan, that allows Jenkins and everybody else on it to do pretty much anything they want to do.

Yesterday I mentioned that while Browns owner Randy Lerner waited for Patriots vice president Scott Pioli to make up his mind about the GM job, Eric Mangini was emerging as the unofficial favorite to replace Romeo Crennel.

Still no word on Pioli's plans -- he's scheduled to meet with the Chiefs this week -- but they might not matter as far as Lerner's concerned; National Football Post's Mike Lombardi is hearing things: "I hear - and keep hearing - it is Eric Mangini's job in Cleveland, and he is already assembling a staff."

You know, if true, I think that's a solid move for the Browns. Not splashy, but solid. Mangini got run out of New York after missing the playoffs two of the last three seasons. Part of the problem, apparently, was that he was meticulous in his preparation, but couldn't motivate Kris Jenkins to eat a cheeseburger.

Sound familiar? Bill Belichick was a mediocre NFL head coach during a five-year stint in Cleveland in the mid-'90s, known as much for his winning personality as for being responsible for running Bernie Kosar out of town.

Five years later he re-emerged in New England, and now sports three Super Bowl rings and has people calling him genius (just like Jim Zorn but the exact opposite).

Normally a team that improves by five wins from one season to the next would be celebrated by their entire fan base. Their coach would get an extension, their players would become folk heroes and there would be nary a complaint about what's transpired. The Jets, then, are not a normal team.

Unless you've been living in a cave, you already know that the Jets have declined from 8-3 to the brink of missing the playoffs. In the process, Eric Mangini's seat has gotten hot and Brett Favre has earned the kind of rancor that he was unaccustomed to in Green Bay. A loss to Miami on Sunday guarantees they'll miss the playoffs, while a win gives them only an outside chance of making the postseason tournament.

Yet, they aren't the only team in this matchup that could see a rapid turnaround go up in smoke. The Dolphins are nine wins better than they were in 2007, but a loss to the Jets will mean they don't make the playoffs despite winning 10 games. They didn't spend hundreds of millions in the offseason, though, and had no expectations of making it this far, so Tony Sparano's got nothing to worry about.

A win, however, means the AFC East title and sweet revenge for Chad Pennington. Jettisoned to make room for Favre, a storybook season couldn't hope for a better ending than Pennington celebrating the improbable in his old stomping grounds.

Every Play Counts is Michael David Smith's weekly look at one specific player or one aspect of a team on every single play of the previous game.

In an installment of Every Play Counts last month, I wrote about how the New York Jets' defense had dominated the Buffalo Bills' offense, and specifically how defensive tackle Kris Jenkins was a practically unstoppable presence in the middle of the line. The Bills finished that November game with just 30 rushing yards on 17 carries, and the Jets' defense looked like it could lead them deep into the postseason.

And then in Sunday's Jets-Bills rematch, Buffalo ran 32 times for 187 yards and two touchdowns, and the Jets' defense looked like it had no business playing in the postseason at all. Although Bills quarterback J.P. Losman ended up giving the game to the Jets with five turnovers, including three in the final 2:06 of the fourth quarter, the Jets' run defense was a mess.

So what's gone wrong? And can the Jets count on their run defense to lead them in the playoffs? We explore in this week's installment of Every Play Counts.

The AFC and NFC Pro Bowlers were announced a short while ago, and why make some pointless comment you are sure not to laugh at when we can just give you the rosters instead? Here goes.

Right after J.P. Losman fumbled away a Bills win with just over two minutes left in a game they were winning 27-24, FanHouser Shane Bacon emailed to remind that a cardinal rule of quarterbacking was to throw the ball away when you've got nothing.

It was a sound point. Losman was scrambling when Abram Elam hit him from behind, causing a fumble that Shaun Ellis returned for a touchdown, but there was another rule that loomed large. Somewhere in the big book of coaching rules, it states that one shall not let J.P. Losman try to win a game unless there's absolutely no other hope.

Dick Jauron will likely have plenty of time to review that rule when the Bills fire him in a couple of weeks. His team finally showed up to play, no small thing given their recent efforts, on Sunday, but Jauron removed all hope of a win by calling for a pass. It was second-and-five, the two minute warning would follow the play and the Jets had just two timeouts. And the Bills had run for 187 yards to that point in the game!

To his credit, Jauron took full responsibility after the game.


It's nice to hear that honesty. We'll see if it's enough to quiet the swirling rumors about the status of his job.