FanHouse RexRyan

With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet The ...
Offense in transition. With a new head coach along with rookies at quarterback and time-sharing running back, the best work of the Jets' offense will be in 2010 and beyond. They'll look to win with defense and taking care of the football in 2009, and you know that doesn't bode well when it comes to garnering massive amounts of fantasy points.

There are finds to be had on any team, but no Jets should be taken in the first three rounds of your draft -- and that's being conservative.

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NEW YORK (AP) - Words have always been Rex Ryan's biggest challenge.

Not so much saying them, of course. The New York Jets' loquacious rookie coach has no trouble speaking his mind. Reading and writing, though, have made Ryan cringe since grade school.

That's the effect dyslexia can have, even on the most confident of NFL coaches.

"It was really frustrating," Ryan told The Associated Press. "So much of school, you have to write, but I just struggled. I couldn't help it."

Bill Belichick is a lot of things, both real and imagined, but he rarely uses the media to take shots at opponents. Yes, he went off on Freddie Mitchell, but I'm not even sure that counts. Mitchell was flapping his gums about the Patriots prior to Super Bowl XXXIX and it prompted this response from Belichick: "All he does is talk. He's terrible, and you can print that. I was happy when he was in the game."

I mention that encounter because despite Belichick's sometimes tumultuous relationship with the New York Jets -- he resigned a half-hour after accepting the gig in 1999, and didn't appear to be particularly fond of former assistant Eric Mangini once he took the job in 2006 (This probably didn't help; on the upside, Bill and Herm never had any problems, and there's video evidence as proof. [Waves at camera, mouths "hello," laughs hysterically.]) -- he has yet to go "FredEx" on anybody associated with the team.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- There are so many things a rookie quarterback -- even one as hyped as Mark Sanchez -- can do better. He can be more accurate, less nervous, a quicker learner...any number of things.

Sanchez's coach wants him to be louder.

Jets coach Rex Ryan said Tuesday that one of the things Sanchez needs to work on in his preseason competition with Kellen Clemens for the team's starting quarterback job is his voice -- specifically the way in which he uses it to try and draw defenses offsides. Sanchez said today he was getting the message, and getting better.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Look, the NFL offseason is freaking boring. I know, I know, if you're reading this, you're a die-hard and you can't get enough NFL news, even in June. But the fact is there's little-to-nothing going on this time of year. Which is why you've got to love Jets coach Rex Ryan and Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder for spicing things up the way they have the past couple of days.

Ryan and Crowder have been hooked up in a little war of words for the past week. And their dispute, rooted in Ryan's tough talk about not being intimidated by anybody else in the AFC East and Crowder's hurt feelings on behalf of a division-champion team that he feels isn't being given enough credit for its 2008 accomplishment, continued today.

I didn't go to Jets minicamp to listen to Rex Ryan Tuesday. Decided to go Wednesday instead. But it looks like I missed all the fun. During his news conference, the Jets' trash-talking head coach fired back at Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder for comments Crowder made last week about him.

"I don't know this Channing Crowder," Ryan said, unprompted, in the middle of his opening remarks to the media. "But all I know is that he's all tatted up so I need to be nervous about him. He's right about one thing. I am a first-time head coach. But I've been around the game all my life. I'm no different now than I've ever been. It's just that more people are listening."

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Thomas Jones showed up Wednesday and worked out for two days with the rest of the Jets. He wore a tight white T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, and everybody noticed.

"I said, 'Welcome back, Eddie George,'" guard Damien Woody joked, "because he's just so big. He looks like he's been down in South Beach pumping a bunch of iron."

Jones had been skipping the voluntary portion of the Jets' off-season workout program because he wants the team to restructure his contract. But after his agent met with Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum last week at the owners' meetings in Fort Lauderdale, Jones decided to reverse course and join the team for this week's optional OTAs. The Jets, who have not shown any interest in restructuring Jones' deal, are hoping the change of heart his permanent.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Mark Sanchez is here working. He's not just doing interviews and charity dinners and GQ photo shoots. The fifth pick in last month's draft stayed at the Jets' practice facility until 10 p.m. Wednesday night, picking coaches' brains, watching video, studying playbooks ...

"Name it," Sanchez said. "I've made friends with the cleanup crew."

But all that work didn't keep Thursday from being another rough day along the learning curve for the former USC quarterback, who threw a couple of ugly interceptions, overthrew some passes in red zone drills and generally looked like ... well, a rookie who's learning the NFL ropes.

FLORHAM PARK, NJ -- Jets safety Kerry Rhodes came out after practice to take questions, but he made it clear right away that he couldn't answer any about the woman who claims she was raped at his Morristown, N.J. home.

"It's a pending legal matter, and I can't talk about it," Rhodes said at least 10 times in answers to questions about the incident.

Rhodes did say he was pleased that the Morris County prosecutor had made it clear in a public statement that Rhodes was not a suspect or the target of the investigation, and he and coach Rex Ryan both said they didn't expect it to be a distraction for Rhodes or the team going forward.

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.