FanHouse KrisJenkins

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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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.

I guess great weight loss stories aren't just relegated to a hit NBC television show. On the NFL Network's NFL GameDay Morning today, Jets defensive tackle Kris Jenkins revealed some interesting information about his career in the NFL.

During 2004 and 2005, when Jenkins played a total of five games, the leading defensive player of the year candidate said his weight ballooned to Mangino-like status.

"I got up to like 420," Jenkins told Warren Sapp. "Yeah, I was in Miami every chance I got to travel, out there to party and all that, you know Miami will do that to you."

Well, Miami and complex carbohydrates.

Jenkins is now listed at a svelte 349 and has 35 tackles on the season thus far, looking to eclipse his 2003 campaign, when he had a career-high 46 total tackles. He is a member of the red hot New York Jets and hopefully, for his teammates sake, isn't taking trips down to Miami.

(H/T MDS at PFT)

There was a lot to be impressed about the Jets thrashing of the previously undefeated Titans. The Jets offensive line managed to hold its own against one of the best defensive lines in the league, and Brett Farve picked apart the Titans secondary.

But when I rewatched the Jets-Titans game, what stood out most was how the Jets defensive line and linebackers completely stuffed one of the league's best offensive lines. The Jets offense helped by holding onto the ball for 40 minutes, but the defense set the tone by forcing the Titans to largely junk their running game (which came into the league ranked ninth in the league in yards per game). With Kerry Collins forced to pass on almost every down, Tennessee was out of its comfort zone for most of the game.

Tennessee only called back-to-back running plays twice all game. Partly that was because they quickly fell behind, but it was also because the Titans were unable to account for nose tackle Kris Jenkins.

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.

The New York Jets have gone from 4-12 last year to 5-3 this year thanks in large part to the addition of a high-priced veteran player. But that player is not Brett Favre.

Favre has been mediocre at best leading the Jets' offense this year, but the Jets' defense has improved significantly with the addition of defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, who had a thoroughly dominant game in Sunday's win over the Bills.

Jenkins had two sacks on Sunday, twice tackled Buffalo running backs for no gain, and generally destroyed every object in his path.