E-Boland & Gang Green

By Tom Rock

Good thing the Jets kept the receipt. Lee Suggs turned out to be a lemon after failing a physical administered by the Jets on Tuesday morning, and the Jets sent him back to Cleveland. In return, they get cornerback Derrick Strait back in green and white. Here’s a friendly tip, Derrick: Don’t unpack your bags. The Jets will be on the prowl for another RB and Strait could be part of that package. A semi-decent cornerback like Strait with some versatility to play safety is a player many teams are looking for, especially at this point in training camp when they are realizing their current crop ain’t gonna cut it.

Mangini announced the nixed deal at his daily press briefing, which was pushed back about an hour from the usual 11:40 a.m. start. I can only assume that the Suggs situation had something to do with that change in times. When the Jets announced that Mangini would not appear until 12:30, there were some giggles and a sense that something could be up. “No conspiracy theories,” warned Jets PR guy Doug Miller. An hour later, we didn’t need a theory.

“It’s just part of the process with any trade of acquisition,” Mangini said of the Suggs scuttle. “It happens almost weekly in the NFL.”

A few other notes from the day. The Jets waived running back Nick Hartigan, a rookie free agent from Brown. Bad timing for Hartigan, who was probably looking forward to the game at Washington on Saturday. Hartigan is from Fairfax Station, Virginia, and was likely to have tons of family and friends in the stands to see him play. Or at least walk onto the field. But training camps have no heart and roster moves must be made.

The Jets have been pretty lucky in terms of injuries to their interior linemen this season. One reason may be that all of the offensive grunts have been wearing braces on both legs. On Monday, though, backup guard Isaac Snell went down with an apparent knee injury after blocking on a reverse end-around to Brad Smith. Snell was helped off the field and remained on the sideline with his leg wrapped for the rest of practice.