E-Boland & Gang Green

During the 35 minutes the media watched practice today, there was a sleet/hail/rain combination. But I roughed it for you as I always do, even as milquetoasts like Greg Bishop of the Times and Steve Overmyer from SNY ducked in a couple minutes early to start on the lunch buffet. I'd say the same of Larry Hardesty of the Jets Radio Network and ESPN 1050 but, frankly, the guy intimidates me a little bit. So keep the good work.

Anyway, before getting to some of the practice stuff, there were a few roster moves.

The Jets signed RB Marcus Mason from the Ravens practice squad. The 5-9, 218-pound Mason led the NFL in rushing this preseason with 317 yards. Also, safety James Ihedigbo was elevated from the practice squad and LB Jason Trusnik, who had been on the PUP list, began practicing today, the start of his three-week window in which to practice and, ultimately, either be activated or declared out for the season.

* Eric Mangini also announced the players of the week from Sunday. On offense it was Laveranues Coles, on defense the award went to Kerry Rhodes and specials teams had two winners; Leon Washington and Jesse Chatman.

* Now, to practice. David Harris was relegated to the sideline riding an exercise bike. He did not practice and I didn’t see Eric Smith out on the field or Bubba Franks, either. Chris Baker was out there but looked to be limited. We won’t know for certain until the injury report comes out later. Damien Woody was excused from practice for personal reasons.

Mangini said if Baker can’t play Sunday, we likely won’t see as much Robert Turner as last week.

“At this point we are able to do a few more things in terms of preparation,” Mangini said. “Dustin (Keller) played a lot more reps last week and I’m not afraid to play Dustin more than he has to this point and he’s made good progress, so I would see him take more of a role there as the true tight end getting involved with more of those plays than maybe he has in the past.”

Mangini said the Jets “looked at tight ends that were available, and didn’t feel there was someone that could come in this week and really help us.”

James Dearth, the long snapper who is also a tight end, won’t be an option.

“That’s one of those things where you don’t really miss it [a good long snapper] until it’s gone and then you really, really miss it. You’ve got to weigh the cost of risk.”

* With Favre talking today, obviously the number of picks he’s thrown the last three games – seven – was a big topic. Mangini used a gambling analogy in talking about some of the things he’s tried to get across to Favre in tempering the quarterback’s go-for-broke style.

“You just stress, don’t hit on 20, you know what I mean,” Mangini said. “Like sometimes it’s okay to stay and see what the dealer has.”

Favre was asked about the analogy.

“I used to always take hits on 16,” he said with a laugh, before realizing, as some of the degenerate gamblers in the room did, that hitting on 16 can be, and often is, a sound if not necessary strategy.

"Believe it or not, I'm not a gambler," Favre said, obviously speaking of table games and such. "I know it sounds crazy."

He turned serious.

“Believe me, I’m well aware of what is expected of me, how important it is to take care of the ball.”

More: “Being 30-for-30 for a hundred yards is not very good. Points are the most important thing and so, I mean, there is a fine line there and I think we didn’t even really talk about, in fact, we did talk about how important it is from a team standpoint. He knows I know that. It was, how can we make this offense better. After the six-touchdown game, same thing: okay, how can we build on this. And that’s what we’re trying to get to.”

Mangini mentioned he would like Favre to consider throwing the ball away, Favre didn’t mention that in his press conference so I’m guessing that message didn’t quite take hold. The bottom line, of course, is that there’s no bait-and-switch that’s gone on here. The Jets traded for Brett Favre and that’s what they’ve gotten. Whether for better or worse can't be determined yet.

Moving on...

* Trent Edwards vomits before every game. The quarterback, in remembering his first start against the Jets last year, said he was extremely nervous before that game and continues to be now. He said he has issues before each game, regurgitation among them.

* The Daily News’ Rich Cimini, who has a faculty for asking well-phrased questions, asked Edwards what the reaction from the Buffalo coaching staff and fans would be if he threw seven interceptions in a three-game stretch, but never mentioning Favre's name in the question.

“Ooooo, ho-ho, wow,” the good-natured Edwards said. “Ahhhhh, has he thrown seven in the last three games? I don’t even know. Me, with where I’m at in my career, I’m pretty sure that would be a pretty bad thing…I’m sure the media would be all over me, I’d be trying to find excuses and I’m sure there’d be some questions as to whether or not I should continue to be playing this position.”

And with that, time to write newspaper stories.