On Wednesday New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan addressed the media. Here is the transcript courtesy of the Jets.
Opening statement…
(Mark) Brunell, out, right calf. (Trevor) Canfield, out, left knee. (Jeff) Cumberland, out. Now this is for practice status but I’m assuming they’ll be out for the game if they can’t practice right now, but hopefully that changes. Rob Turner obviously out with the right ankle. Now guys that are “re-evaluate after individual, limited if doing well.’ Plaxico (Burress), with a low back. He went up for a ball yesterday, kind of came down, thought it was a rib, moved to his back a little bit. (He) seems to be doing fine right now. Nick Bellore with a right calf that he got during the game. Now the other guys that I’ll mention, we’ll monitor these guys. Derrick Mason, left knee. Courtney Smith, right ankle. Limited guys: Marcus Dixon, left knee. Calvin Pace, left groin. Sione Pouha, left knee. Bart Scott, left leg.
On all of the injuries being to left body parts…
Well, defense it’s all left. So we’re going to put those guys on the right side this week, balance them out a little bit. (joking)
On the team having a lot of injuries so far…
No, not for us. Really we’ve had the one serious injury with Turner. Brunell has a calf, that’s not unusual. And these other ones are kind of nicks, these guys are practicing. So I’m anticipating that everybody will play in this third game with the exception of obviously (Rob) Turner. Canfield, I would doubt very much that he plays, and Brunell. And the only one that would be iffy would be Cumberland.
On if he is concerned about Burress being on the injury list again…
No, again, these are things, if we’re playing a real game he’s going to play. I think he’s going to play anyway, so we’ll see. We will re-evaluate it after individual. And we’ll limit him if he’s doing well. See I learned, because anytime I put my own diagnosis on there, trouble happens. I ought to just post it right here (on the podium). There you go everybody. (joking)
On how tough it would be for Burress if he wasn’t able to play on Saturday…
If he can’t play, we’ll definitely let somebody else tell him that. I think this is good that you’re playing a team like the Giants and all that kind of stuff. There will probably be a little more juice than there is in a lot of preseason games. But the fact that we play them in the regular season, I don’t think it’s near where it would normally be.
On the emotions Burress will feel on Saturday…
I’m sure it’ll be exciting for him to come back out there. It’ll be interesting to see the fan’s reaction to him, things like that. That’ll be interesting.
On how much the starters will play on Saturday…
I think it’ll be maybe one series into the second half, just so they come out and get used to it. We won’t extend it more than that.
On whether that is less than normal for the third preseason game…
I don’t think so, I think that’s pretty much our standard operating procedure.
On the rash of injuries for the Giants…
I don’t know, I’m really just focused on this team. Anytime you lose a player, that’s tough. And I know they’ve lost some players at the same position. That’s where it really gets tough on you. I know they have the young man from Nebraska out and then they just lost this other good (cornerback) (Terrell Thomas). That’s a tough thing to overcome for sure.
On playing against the cross-town Giants and it being a rivalry game…
I think it’ll be good. I think it is good. I think there will be plenty of energy in this game. I would definitely agree with you on last year when we played them in the preseason. It seemed like it was a big deal that there was a lot of hitting going on and guys were getting after it. It was good. It was a preseason game, but it was still amped up about as good as you can get for a preseason game. It kind of reminded me of when we went to Baltimore that time. That was a knockdown-drag-out. That looked like a regular season-type game. And it was similar last year with the Giants. But again I think both sides want to see that. Will it be the case, the fact that we’re playing in the regular season? Probably you won’t see as much game-planning. For us, we don’t game-plan anyway for the preseason, but I don’t know if you’ll see as much game-planning as maybe you would.
On if the Patriots are a bigger rival for the Jets than the Giants…
Yes, they’re in our division. Absolutely. But, if you’re going to pick a team out just by the location, your biggest NFC rival would be the Giants. That goes without saying. I’m not going to discount that at all, because I’m sure it is. Them and Dallas of course. (joking)
On if the team ever game-plans during the preseason…
We always hold back in the preseason but we still blitz and we still get after it. But we don’t game-plan. A lot of times teams will game-plan. I heard a young man from Washington say that they’re game-planning for the Ravens and all that. We never game-plan defensively, anyway, in any preseason game.
On going to Hofstra for practice on Thursday…
I think it’s going to be great. We’re excited about it, it’s something that we want to do, for the next 20 years or something go back in there. It’s just one day. It’s a little inconvenient, but so what. It’s a big group of our fans, we’re proud of that and it just gives an opportunity for us to go in there and maybe some of the fans can’t get to games but they can see us at a practice. We enjoy it, it’s what we do. It’s one of the things we’ll do now.
On how much different of an atmosphere it is to have practice at Hofstra…
It’s kind of neat. We have it a little bit purposely, it’s later in the week so you’re dialed down a little. You’re not really killing your guys, you’re just going out there. But it is something. And we’re trying to keep that one fan that came on the field last year. (joking) I don’t know if he’ll be out there, but it is neat. I mean 10,000 people at a practice, that’s fantastic.
On if there will be any fast food on the bus this year…
We will be traveling with our cheeseburgers on the bus this year. (joking) If I have to go down here and buy them myself, there will not be that issue. At least there better not be.
On what he’d like to see from his team against the Giants…
I’d like to get our running game going a little bit. I’d like to see them. That’s going to be a good test against their front seven. Up front, that’s a big, strong, physical, athletic line. That’ll be a big test. I think that’ll be good. Offensively, they run the football and they’re taking shots (long passes). We know their game-plan. I watched it last year. They threw literally 15 fades on us or back-shoulder fades or something. It’ll be good, this will be real football.
On waiving Chris Stewart and Brandon Long…
Well, I think sometimes you have to, if you think it’s going a certain way. I’m not a coach that likes to just keep a guy, knowing that the end result (is) that you’re going to cut him. So when I looked at it, the way (Matt) Kroul is coming on, we like this (Zane) Taylor kid from Utah. It’s just the right thing to do. You give this guy an opportunity to maybe catch on somewhere else. That’s really what it is. Just like when we let Brian Toal go. Brian Toal is a good football player, but we’re going to keep one fullback, and it’s John Conner. And there’s probably one other guy that is a phone call away that if something would happen to John Conner. So I just feel that you have to give a guy a chance. If you know in your heart of hearts that you’re going to go a different direction, you need to be honest and give that young man an opportunity. And that’s what we did in both those cases.