With apologies elsewhere, this is what I see I’ll see:

- I see Chad Pennington, behind a new offensive line, hitting the grass an awful lot, a result of both sacks and pressures. And without a lot of playmakers around him, struggling to do not much more than dump offs and screens. Please hold the punchlines…

- I see Brett Favre having his own struggles having not seen a lot of game action in the preseason, but, most important, staying upright for the most part behind Faneca, Woody, et. all.

- I see a game plan that looks to establish the run and then branches off from there but nothing too fancy.

- I see Dustin Keller breaking open at least once deep in the seam and Brad Smith taking an end around 15+ yards.

- I see the Dolphins, imbued with emotion, behind the running of Ricky Williams, getting off to a good start and taking an early lead.

- Like a few of my colleagues, I see the Jets pulling off some kind of big special teams play. And so, in the end…

- I see an emotional, draining contest in oppressive heat and humidity - though possibly in severe rain, too - with the Jets getting out of Dodge with a 16-10 win in a game they absolutely have to have. But…

- I’ve seen enough of the NFL to know that it’s quite possible almost none of the things I think I’ll see will actually happen and the final could very well be 45-38. But speculation is what we do here.

- As for the rest of the NFL games this weekend, I have to pick them all for the paper. For those who missed them in today’s paper, here they are with all picks against the spread. I guess I’m supposed to give this disclaimer: all picks against the spread are for recreational purposes and should not be used for any actual cash wager. I feel much better now. Additionally, in the interest of full disclosure, I picked the Redskins last night and, as a youngin’ many years ago, recall having a hunch that Mondale might unseat Reagan. Whether before the age of 10 or now, my predictions can be slightly off.

Weekend picks, with the “best bet” in CAPS: Jets, Packers, Steelers, Seahawks, Panthers, Browns, Bengals, Titans, SAINTS, 49ers,Bears, Chiefs, Falcons, Eagles, Broncos.

* Random Act of Randomness I: Bloom’s a little bit off the Steve Spurrier rose, no?

* Randomness II: While assisting with Newsday’s coverage of the Giants game last night I was able to spend a little time chatting with some other papers’ national writers, primarily the great Judy Battista from the Times and the equally talented Charean Williams (Charlene to some of us who are type-I-cally challenged) from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. How does Newsday’s Bob Glauber fit into that group, you might ask? Interestingly, after talking with the other two, I had the same question…

* Randomness III: His Thursday night free, Herm Edwards apparently lent Redskins coach Jim Zorn a hand managing the clock.

* Randomness IV: A potential disruption to my early-morning flight out of LaGuardia tomorrow is the possibility of the remnants of Hurricane Hanna moving through New York. Yet another hurricane is predicted to possibly hit Miami at some point during the weekend. I've had some memorable travel occurrences over the years [see the hotel room floor story from a few posts back] but this trip is shaping up as an all-timer. And with that, talk to you from Miami.

Sometimes - actually most of the time - it's what you DON'T see at practice that's significant so maybe after we go in he catches everything. But during a receivers' drill during the 30 minutes we watched practice, Bubba Franks, on a deep out that covered just over 20 yards, dropped the ball. One play earlier, Dustin Keller made what seemed to be his 100th fluid-looking run-and-catch of the preseason. I still think Franks was a good pickup and a good player but, sheesh, he's had a lot of drops.

Here was the order of plays we saw in the red zone during one drill, one that included just the receivers and no defenders:

- Favre out left to Laveranues Coles
- Favre dump over the middle to Leon Washington
- Inside handoff to Thomas Jones
- quick slant to Chansi Stuckey
- quick out to Dustin Keller
- soft toss middle to Jerricho Cotchery
- a fade (YES, that play is still in!) to Stuckey right side.

Semi-humorous Favre comment, addressing a favorite topic of his - playbook size - from yesterday that I didn't put in here:

"Believe me, each and every playbook across the league, you can go to bat with a lot less than what they put in. don't know how many pass plays we have in, but we have a bunch. We won't run half of them. That's just the way it is. I could say that each year I've played. I feel confident with what we have in. It just comes down to execution."

* As frequent readers of this blog know, I tried to give extensive - if not long-winded - practice reports during training camp. That's impossible now, given our 30- minute allotment and not a lot of team drills done in that time. However, with special teams almost always getting worked on in that time frame, at least we get to observe Mike Westhoff, who recently rejoined the team, coaching.

"I want the fliers to give me the EXACT look Miami does!"

"There it is Leon! There it is!"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

The man is enjoyable to watch coach. I asked kicker Mike Nugent about Westhoff earlier today and, while he was very sincere in his praise of Kevin O'Dea, Nugent talked at length about how uber-prepared he is for, well, just about everything.

"It seems like what we use in film or our study and everything we see on paper, when it's put together on the field, it just seems like everything goes together right," Nugent said. "He just makes everyone so prepared on the field."

A couple of non-related notes: I'm off to Giants Stadium now to cover tonight's game. Well, that's not exactly accurate. I'm assisting on our coverage. Or, as Glauber would say when I'm not around, "detracting" from Newsday's coverage. I will not, however, be making a blog post on the game unless for some unfathomable reason a Jets happening, well, happens.

AND, by rule - and maybe even by law - I have to be off tomorrow so Jim Baumbach, always willing to travel anywhere [he dressed up as a NASCAR pit crew member over the summer for chassis' sakes] will be filling in. But I'm not leaving for Miami until Saturday morning so I'll be away but not so much. In fact, I will give my predicted score for the game, which I know blog commenter Scott P is waiting for.

Anyway, it was from a reader, Jeff. Here's part of what he wrote:

"i do agree this is a trap game. but it's a trap for the media, not the jets. i mean, put aside all the juicy media storylines and name one player on the dolphins who should scare the jets? this game will be a blowout. as CG noted, how is it all of a sudden the dolphins are a tough team to beat when chad is the QB. just three weeks ago he was just the weaklink on a much better team -- and the success of the team was being questioned bc of his lack of ability. it's illogical. it's as if the fins were the team in need of the missing QB piece instead of the jets. it's the world upside down. the dolphins are a borderline expansion team outside of pennington and their two RBs."

So is that the case? Are the people covering the team, including myself, making too much of the "trap" nature of Sunday? Jeff raises some good points, though I think Ricky Williams, Pennington and a more physical - at least based on the preseason - are all legitimate concerns. But I could be wrong (yes, Darrell, I know I often am) and might be overstating Miami's hand. Though, in the end, I think the Jets will escape with a win.

Anyway, I know cutting and pasting a reader's comment is a cop-out blog post of sorts but, alas, no GPS system in the Solara is your loss. Or gain depending on perspective.

Okay, same schedule as yesterday: Eric Mangini at 10:15 followed by locker room access and then 30 minutes of practice viewing. I'll have more.

P.S. A thank you to the readers of this blog familiar with the Florham Park area who have posted various suggestions or simply a "welcome." While I'm not moving from Long Island, I'll be spending a lot of time here so your comments specific to that were/are appreciated.

"I’m excited because I have a chance to start and play this game," Pennington just said on a conference call. "And there’s nothing like opening day in the NFL. I think it’s an exciting time for all NFL players and when you get a chance to help lead a team it’s exciting. So on the outside, with the hype around the game and with all the transactions that have happened between the two teams, one would think it’s a revenge game or a statement game or anything like that, but I don’t approach it that way. I approach it as our opening day game, which is exciting for all of us."

Jets coach Eric Mangini and Dolphins coach Tony Sparano gave similar "one of 16" answers.

Brett Favre, as always, gave the most honest response of the day regarding this topic.

"You know, if I was playing against the Packers this week, it would feel a little bit different obviously."

Oh, to talk about this or anything else NFL related, our NFL columnist Bob Glauber will be doing a live chat at 3 p.m. Today. Meaning just about now.

About half the time was spent stretching (the players, not the media) and we didn’t see any 7-on-7’s or 11-on-11’s. Welcome to the regular season.

Still, there’s always something.

* To answer Ira’s question, lest there be any doubt about it: Mike Westhoff has resumed lead command of the special teams. While players stretched, the veteran coach could be seen going player to player. Of course, that could be explained by this being his first day back on the practice field, but when drills began, it was Westhoff’s voice – not Kevin O’Dea’s – piercing the air, shouting out instructions. That didn’t take long. O’Dea is still there and it’s not as if he’s muzzled, but this is Westhoff’s show. Again.

* During the first drill we saw with the running backs, there was a mix up with the exchange between Brett Favre and Leon Washington, resulting in a fumble. Thomas Jones and Washington shared the carries, with Tony Richardson in as the lead blocker for both of them.

* Over with the defensive backs, Dwight Lowery, as expected started opposite Darrelle Revis. From what I saw, which in full disclosure was about 100 yards away, David Barrett was working exclusively at safety (no, not a starting one).

* After Favre was done working with the running backs, Kellen Clemens stepped in next. Mangini said it over the weekend and it appears to be true: Clemens is the No. 2 going into the season.

* Lots of questions recently about Laveranues Coles and, as was the case when we saw him for 45 minutes at a time last week in practice, he looks about full-go. We’ll find out later this afternoon – at 4 p.m. – when the injury report gets released to see if he was limited, but he didn’t look to be while running some routes earlier. Last week Mangini said much of Coles’ limited action during the preseason was “precautionary” more than anything else.

* The amount of designated practice space here is remarkable. Five full-length practice fields, four of them outside. I'm looking forward to a full tour of this place. Or at least the kitchen which, tantalizingly, is just around the corner from the media room. Pretty nice place overall I have to say.

Chad Pennington’s conference call is coming up shortly. The bet here is while he tries to downplay Sunday, he’ll at least somewhat admit the game has a little more meaning to him. The man isn't without common sense.

* Eric Mangini revealed how the team vote went down for the 2008 captains. No surprises until you get to the offensive captains. The defenses captains were Shaun Ellis and Kerry Rhodes; special teams were David Bowens and Leon Washington.

And on offense...

Two newbies: Alan Faneca and Brett Favre.

"I'm honored," Favre said during his press conference with reporters that wrapped up a short while ago.

Favre, as the quote in the header demonstrates and I've mentioned this before, is incapable of speaking cliches. More on that after practice - and other things - but what strikes me about him is his seeming need to prove himself.

"Eric [Mangini] and I had this conversation yesterday," Favre said. "What drives me is the fear of failure. There's always this fear of not being at the top of your game week in and week out."

Our NFL columnist Bob Glauber will be writing more about that tomorrow. I'll be doing a main story on what comes out of Chad Pennington's conference call, which is coming up shortly after 2. Okay, out to practice. Ira, I will check on your question and a few others.

Anyway, I was out the door of my Long Island apartment at 5:59 a.m. and arrived at the facility in Florham Park, N.J, a crisp 1 hour, 27 minutes later. All in all, not bad, but I am looking forward to my stay in one of the area’s fine hotel establishments tonight. I’m also looking forward to getting to know the area, which includes Fairleigh Dickinson University across the street, and the area is looking forward to doing the same with me, I’m sure.

This is my first time here so I don’t have a report on the amenities but I wrote a story in today’s paper about the players’ thoughts on the new digs. They’re all positive. From what I've seen, everything looks pretty impressive.

One thought toward the end of the drive was, you’re not in New York anymore – not even close. I had flashbacks as I neared the place of driving lonely I-80 across Pennsylvania. Ladies and gentleman, out the window to your right is…nothing, and to your left, more of the same. That’s not a criticism, but I began to see how Woody Johnson and Mike Tannenbaum sold Brett Favre on the country setting.

“You can hunt around the facility,” Favre told us Tannenbaum told him.

And indeed, just before the Florham Park exit on Rt. 24 West, was one of those yellow and black deer crossing signs appeared as if on cue.

So we’re into the groove for Week 1. The Jets had meetings and walk-through Monday so it’s not like they were off from Friday until today, keeping in mind Tuesdays is a league off day. But still, today - Wednesday - is the first full day of preparation, which is pretty much the way it is week-to-week during the season.

Here’s what’s coming up today for us media people: Eric Mangini will talk at 10:15 followed by locker room access. We’ll watch 35 minutes of practice – we won’t see much but I’ll tell you what we do see – and then, later this afternoon we’ll have conference calls with Dolphins coach Tony Saparano and, obviously, quarterback Chad Pennington. He should be interesting to say the least.

I don’t think this game can be hyped up enough and CBS agrees, sending it’s No. 1 announcing team of Jim Nantz and Phil Simms to call it. The weekend would have been circus-esque WITHOUT Chad Pennington down there because of Favre’s first start. But the attention is off the charts with Pennington facing his replacement. In Game 1. That’s a pretty good script. We’ll get into this at some point later but the importance of this first game for the Jets can’t be overstated. Not with New England and San Diego to follow. No first game in an NFL season is must-win, but I really think this is the closest thing to it.

We’ll get into more specific aspects of Sunday as the week goes along. Back later with what came out of the Mangin’s presser and the locker room and practice.

King Randomness I: On the highway to get here, before the sign saying “Entering the Boro of Florham Park” is one that says, “Entering the Boro of Chatham.” Matt is gone but not forgotten.

Randomness II: I wish one of the supposedly objective pundits/journalists covering this election would answer this: how does McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin undermine his experience argument, yet Obama picking a Senate warhorse like Biden doesn’t undermine his “change” mantra? As a proudly registered Indy – with an actual voting record to prove it – I wonder about these things.

Randomness III: Hopefully seeing his team drop two straight in the midst of a division-title run has finally gotten Brewers manager Ned Yost to concentrate on something other C.C. Sabathia’s one-hitter.

* Kevin O’Dea is keeping his special teams coach title but not the responsibilities. Or the most important ones. Mangini said that Mike Westhoff, officially welcomed back today, will be the final decision-maker on game days when it comes to special teams.

“Mike will be responsible for that,” the Jets coach said yesterday.

Though on the surface the move seems to indicate the Jets were unhappy with O’Dea, it's not necessarily the case. Westhoff is one of the game’s most respected special teams coaches and his resignation after last season came strictly because of medical reasons. Mangini said that Westhoff was integral in hiring O’Dea – “We really hired him together,” Mangini said – and that O’Dea was on board.

“Kevin understands the situation and is really excited about the opportunity to work with Mike,” Mangini said.
Mangini later said: “Having two guys as good as they are at what they do is only going enhance what we’re able to do on special teams.”

And Mangini stressed Westhoff would have a larger role than special teams.

I made this comparison last week and I'll stick with it: think the football version of what Don Zimmer was to Joe Torre.

* Mangini, like the players we spoke to earlier, spoke glowingly of the new Florham Park facility, which the team used for the first time today.

"The building is amazing," Mangini said. "We don’t officially have our grand opening until tomorrow but we did have the players in today and the reaction has been what I would expect it to be. The energy was great. Just an amazing facility."

* Mangini also answered his first questions of the week - not the last! - about facing Chad Pennington Sunday. I asked him if he would use the word "weird," just as some of his players did earlier, in describing what it would be like seeing a quarterback who had spent the last eight years - up until some three weeks ago, no less – with the Jets in another uniform.

"I think everyone is happy for Chad and excited for the opportunity he has there but when it comes down to the game, it will be the Jets vs. the Dolphins, not Chad vs. the Jets or vice versa," Mangini said, mentioning that players change teams all the time.

Very true.

Still....

Here's the suggested answer for Mangini the next 20 times he's asked about this: "No question, it's an unusual situation, especially when you're talking about a guy in Chad who really was kind of the face of the franchise for a number of years and then the fact he was here within the last month competing for the starting job. He's as familiar with us as we are with him and that makes it kind of unique. Getting Brett Favre meant we had to make a tough decision with Chad but I think both teams are happy with how everything's turned out. As if the first game of the season needed more hype, right?"

Or something like that. I'm available on retainer.

* College football randomness: 24-7 Fresno State. At Rutgers. At least we can do away with the “emerging college football power Rutgers” storyline earlier than usual. And...

* For some reason, I like UCLA, with head coach Rick Neuheisel debuting along with his new offensive coordinating guru Norm Chow, tonight over Tennessee. Long cross-country trip for the Vols and I think they begin to discover how much they’ll miss Erik Ainge. I’ll log back on to change this prediction as the evening wears on if necessary.

Kerry Rhodes: "It’s going to be weird. He's been here since I've been here, before I got here. He's a winner. When he’s in and he’s healthy, he’s a productive quarterback in this league. You know he's going to be able to make all the reads. He knows what we like to do, we know what he likes to do. It will be a chess match. It’s going to be fun."

Jerricho Cotchery: "It will be weird seeing him in a different jersey. It’s going to be fun, but it will be very weird seeing him in another jersey."

Nick Mangold: "Chad’s a heck of a competitor. I know he’s going to be bringing his 'A' game, as we will as well. You’re going against a fierce competitor there. It’s going to be a battle for 60 minutes."

Shaun Ellis: "It's going to be very weird. Only thing I know him to be in is green and white. He’s a smart quarterback who knows our system. We're going to have to play a little bit of cat and mouse."

Players were not off today in the traditional sense. They began preparation for the Dolphins, going through a brief walk-through and otherwise spending much of day in the spacious classrooms of their new facility in Florham Park, N.J.

"I think it’s fantastic," Mangold said of the place. "What they’ve put into this building, it’s amazing. State of the art meeting rooms, the quality of the fields, the weight room. Everything was designed with the purpose of allowing us to have better preparation to be at the peak of our game. It's exciting to be in the building after hearing about it so long."

Cotchery called the new locker room "extraordinary." The place should be. I heard famed architect Rem Koolhaas consulted on the project.

Not really.

Anyway, Mangini coming up in a few.

* UPDATE: This Rutgers/Fresno State game...3-0 in the third? Sheesh.

WR Larry Brackins, (6-4, 221/Pearl River CC/Dothan, AL)
RB Jehuu Caulcrick, (6-0, 254/Michigan State/Findley Lake, NY)
OL Stanley Daniels, (6-4, 320/Washington/San Diego, CA)
DB James Ihedigbo, (6-1, 202/Massachusetts/Amherst, MA)
OL Matt McChesney, (6-4, 307/Colorado/Santa Cruz, CA)
DE Ropati Pitoitua, (6-8, 290/Washington State/Spanaway, WA)
WR Paul Raymond, (5-10, 185/Brown, Miami, FL)
LB Brandon Renkart, (6-2, 236/Rutgers, Piscataway, NJ)

And there you have it. Again, Eric Mangini conference call coming up at 6 p.m.

As an aside, I'm not sure what Mangini likes about this 6 p.m. thing. He rescheduled a 1 p.m. conference call Saturday to 6 p.m. that night, therefore ruining the social life of mine he has mocked at various times this preseason. That's my story anyway.

To a couple of reader questions from the previous post: Scott P, I have not yet made a prediction for the Dolphins game. Blog rules clearly state that said predictions cannot be made by said blogger until Fridays when they appear in the paper. More to come on that as the rules, a fluid situation, unfold. But I might make an exception during tomorrow morning's live chat.

To JetsFanDan, if someone else gets signed to the roster, and it's pretty much assured that will happen, there's several candidates for getting cut but I don't see Wallace Wright as one of them. He's too good on special teams. I hate making these kinds of predictions but I'd look along the lines of a Cody Spencer or, dmb this is for you, David Barrett.

And Frank, as you mentioned, "coffeenerdness" is already taken by someone much higher up on the NFL media food chain, but we'll try to add something here, especially with four West Coast trips this year. Oddities, since I started in this business, have followed me on the road. Such as the time, while working at the Warren Tribune Chronicle in Ohio, I found a recently used prophylactic under my hotel room bed. Darn right I got a discount. And for the record, I was looking for a pen that I dropped.

Uh, yeah, about this Dolphins game...

(sarcasm, to be clear)

So the Jets finally will be announcing their practice squad today and, because the team is still finishing the process of moving to Florham Park, there is no practice. Tomorrow is an automatic off-day, meaning the Jets' next practice is Wednesday. Does this mean the Jets have been doing absolutely nothing since Thursday's game in Philadelphia? Um, no. But remember, during a typical NFL week, the majority of work for the following week gets done Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Anyway, media-wise today, we'll have a conference call with Eric Mangini at some point to get a briefing on the practice squad and any other roster shifts, not to mention getting into some Dolphin hype. Hey, it's time. Let's get this thing started.

Oh, unrelated, yet related in a sixth-cousin sort of way: Live Chat V will take place from the World's Most Famous Futon (trademark) tomorrow - meaning Tuesday - morning at 11 a.m. Note the time, dmb, of one hour BEFORE lunch.

Randomness: good for Pirates official scorer Bob Webb for sticking to his guns on the "hit" ruling he made that turned out to deny C.C. Sabathia a no-hitter. Tough break for Sabathia but Brewers manager Ned Yost acted like a buffoon afterward. No, Ned, you all didn't get "cheated" out of the no-no. If MLB overrules Webb's decision, it should be ashamed.

Randomness Part II: Add Missouri receiver/kick returner Jeremy Maclin to your Heisman Watch list. I have.

Happy Labor Day, and good luck to everyone along the Gulf Coast.

Back later.

“Jesse never tested positive for a steroid or any other performance-enhancing drug. Near the end of last season the League claimed he had a diuretic in his system that they said could also be used as a masking agent. After spending great time and money defending his innocence, the League made its final ruling and now Jesse has no choice but to look ahead to week 5.”

Obviously, the Jets weren't caught by surprise here. Don't mean that in a judgmental way, just saying.

Also, totally unrelated, not a good debut by Rich Rodriguez's spread offense at Michigan. But his defense was even worse. The Michigan/Notre Dame game in two weeks looks just huge now. That game should be sponsored by Zoloft.

All right, back to newspaper writing. We'll have some thoughts on the roster later tonight or tomorrow morning. Depends how good the Clemson/Alabama game is. Not that I'm leaving the blog unprotected tonight by any stretch.

"Jesse Chatman of the New York Jets has been suspended without pay for the team’s first four regular-season games of 2008 for violating the NFL Policy on Steroids and Related Substances. Chatman's suspension begins on Saturday, August 30. He is eligible to return to the Jets’ active roster on Monday, September 29 following the team’s September 28 game against the Arizona Cardinals."

"I'm disappointed," Eric Mangini just said on a conference call with reporters.

Mangini said Chatman had a job waiting for him when the suspension ends.

As for the roster moves, note the surprise of the Jets keeping four quarterbacks. I was way off on that one.

Here goes...

Injured Reserve:

S Cameron Worrell

Released:

LB Matt Chatham

DB Hank Poteat

Waived:

WR David Ball

OL Jacob Bender

WR Larry Brackins

DB Rudy Burgess

RB Jehuu Caulcrick

OL Stanley Daniels

OL Kyle DeVan

OL Nate Garner

DB James Ihedigbo

DL Thomas Johnson

DL Bryan Mattison

OL Matt McChesney

LB Blair Phillips

DL Ropati Pitoitua

TE Jason Pociask

WR Paul Raymond

LB Brandon Renkart

TE A.J. Schable

"Sometimes it's hard to find three (QBs) that you like," Mangini said. "It [keeping four] is unique but all four guys we like."

More to come but now I have to write some newspaper stuff.