Transcript of head coach Rex Ryan's news conference following Wednesday's midday practice at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center:
OK, here is the injury report. Logan Payne and Robert Turner are the top thing there. They are out. How's that? Nick Mangold did not participate with the ankle injury. The guys that were limited in practice: Mike DeVito, shoulder, David Harris, toe, Santonio Holmes, quad, Jim Leonhard, hamstring, Eric Smith, ankle, Muhammad Wilkerson, shoulder. Guys that were full: Marcus Dixon, knee, Derrick Mason, knee, and Mark Sanchez, elbow. So that's the injury report.
As far as something that was good to report, and we found out from somebody, is that [Antonio] Cromartie was the AFC Defensive Player of the Week. No surprise there, but it's a great accomplishment, it's fantastic. We're proud of him for that. But that also means no gameball for Cromartie. It was great and he definitely deserved it.
As far as this week's opponent, we're playing the Raiders, kind of a legendary franchise, the Silver & Black, and going to their place, with their fans and all that, it should be great. It should be a fun experience going over there and we're just going to do whatever we can to get us a win. The guys that they have really playing well for them: Richard Seymour, obviously we know him around here from his New England days. He's doing a great job, still playing like a Pro Bowl player.
Then the other thing that jumps out at you is their team speed. That's no surprise. Al Davis always builds his team that way, with that size and speed, and they can throw five guys out there that can probably win most track events. It's a typical Raider team. They do a great job. It's a tailback-driven offense, speed at the receivers, and we understand that. Defensively, they're going to get in your face and play a lot of man coverage. It's one of those Raider traditions.
On if Nick Mangold's status for Sunday has changed…
His status hasn't changed at all. He's off of crutches, which is a good sign, but I just think we'll see. I'll never say never, but I don't see it happening this week.
On how much Mangold is lobbying him to let him play…
Pretty well. He's smart. We'll lean on the trainers to help us there, obviously, traveling across country and everything else. Again, we're not 100 percent ruling him out, though. He seems to be doing pretty well.
On if Mark Sanchez's elbow injury is to his throwing elbow…
Yes, that's the right elbow. That's the one that got hit on the ill-advised pass play [laughter]. I can take it [laughter].
On if Sanchez took the normal amount of reps he would in a practice today…
Yes, he's fine. All we do there is we recognize that he's getting treatment, so he gets ice and all that stuff.
On if having three straight road games will affect the team's weekly preparation at all…
Our team is used to that. We've had the playoffs two years in a row, but again, our focus is just on the one game. We'll worry about that the next time, the logistics of whatever follows after that. This is all about Oakland and if you prepare with anything other than 100 percent, you lose the game. We're going out there. We feel good about it. We know how to travel to the west coast. It takes a lot of preparation. You have a new opponent you haven't played in two years, so the preparation has to be there.
On if any of the players limited in practice are in danger of missing the game…
I don't believe so. I think everybody will play.
On how he feels about the team's depth…
I think we're about as deep as you can be, maybe not at every position, but no team can say that. I feel good about our depth. I think we have great depth in the line and in the secondary, in particular, and even at linebacker now, the way Josh Mauga is playing and the way Nick Bellore is playing. Obviously, [Jamaal] Westerman on the outside and then we have 'Oh, Canada' [Garrett McIntyre]. We have great depth on defense.
And then at receiver, I think we have depth. At running back, I think we have depth. At tight end, we have three tight ends we feel good about. Obviously, not having Rob Turner hurts you because he was an outstanding backup player for us. Every team has issues, but I feel good about the team we have.
On if the team has looked at bringing in any other offensive linemen…
I don't see it right now as a possibility. Like I said, we feel pretty good about the guys we have.
On if Colin Baxter seems to be picking up things this week as he goes along…
I think so. This is only the third week that he's been here, but he seems to be doing well. I'll tell you who's been a big help for him is Rob Turner. Rob comes in like he's playing. He still does, and he's been great. He sits beside him in the meetings, does extra things with him and he's been outstanding. You could always kick [Matt] Slauson in there to play center and put Vlad [Ducasse] at guard. [Caleb] Schlauderaff is coming. I don't think he's there. I think he's a little behind where Baxter is, just for the simple fact that he's coming from a much different system. I think once he catches up to speed, he's going to be a guy that we're happy with.
On if he thinks quarterbacks have to develop quicker now than they did a while back…
I think the further in years you go back, there weren't as many teams. I don't think Tom Matte got on the field for the Baltimore Colts for five years, so you don't have that luxury anymore. As far as the game developing, even the quarterback specifically, I think the way the colleges are playing now, these guys are used to throwing 50 balls a game. It's a little different than it used to be.
On if he thinks the offense will get more chances on the outside with receivers since Oakland plays a lot of man-to-man coverage…
I think so. I think when you look at them, that's their bread and butter. When you think Oakland Raiders, you're thinking about Willie Brown out there. You're thinking about Mike Haynes and Lester Hayes and all those guys. It's a man-cover team, with that safety deep in the post. That's who the Oakland Raiders have been throughout the years. You're seeing a little more split-safety out of them, but that's not an Al Davis team. An Al Davis team has that safety in the post, but I expect more opportunities on the outside this week.
On if he thinks this will be a good time to get the running game started…
I hope we can run. Like I said, I want to see us improve each week on our running game. Again, we're playing a different opponent. They may look at us differently than they look at other teams if you try to force an issue, one way or the other. You have to be able to adjust to what you're seeing. I feel good about us this week being able to run the football, but certainly, it's going to be a challenge. They have two, actually, three huge defensive tackles.
On why he thinks teams have been able to run against Oakland's defense…
When you're on your heels playing a lot of pass, sometimes you don't force the run as much. I think in the Bills case, they had a lot of what we call sub runs that they were able to hit, spread it out and were able to hit guys. Again, each game is different. You're never going to play two games similar or whatever, but again, hey, we hope we have success running the football like Buffalo had. We'll see.
On if he is worried about the offensive line's ability to protect Sanchez…
No, I could have protected him on that one. We're all talking about that one because he took a hit against a three-man rush. That happened. We can't take that back, but everybody gets hit in this league. This league, it's a 100 percent injury rate, for every position. You can even be a kicker and you're going to get blasted at one point. Obviously, you try to your best to protect your quarterback, especially a franchise-type quarterback, but at the same time, the nature of the game says you're going to get hit.
On if he thinks Wayne Hunter needs to improve…
I think Wayne Hunter, like I say, we focus on that he got beat one time, so we focus on that and he had two penalties, but Wayne Hunter does a great job. I think we also need to focus on the rest of the game and how he has played in the past year. He did have four starts during crunch time last year, at the end of the season and in some of the playoff games and he played great against great competition. I think Wayne is going to be just fine.
On Sanchez's two interceptions…
I think the first interception, he ended up reading the coverage a certain way and then probably forced the ball when he shouldn't have. I think maybe he might have misread the coverage and thought he could get it over the top of the guy and that wasn't the case. The second one, the kid made a great play. He read his backside of three, went to the single receiver side, and the guy ended up jumping us on the in-cut, beating us to the punch. It was a great play on his part.
On what Antonio Cromartie did differently from Week One to Week Two…
Well, if Cro gets that interception against Dallas, we're saying he had a great game that one, too. He gave up a three-yard touchdown completion. He had that one, it was dual-possession and all that. Cro's playing a high level right now to say the least.
On if what he saw on Sunday is what he expected out of Cromartie when they traded for him…
Well, that was it, and when we traded for him, we knew we were getting a guy that can play man coverage. There are a lot of guys that are good corners in this league, but they can't play man. In our style of defense, and Oakland's playing a lot of man coverage. You're going to get beat, I don't care who you are. [Darrelle] Revis once in a while, once in a long while, will get beat. But you have to be special to be outside playing in this system.
On the biggest challenge the Raiders offense poses…
It's as simple as this. It sounds real easy, but it's hard to defend. It's vertical passing and it's the screen pass. So you have to be ready to handle both, and they'll do all kinds of different things. They had a play last week where they ran a fall down-type delay to a tight end where he was wide open. They've had the guy splits double coverage for a 50-yard pass, a rookie. They can throw it over top of you. The quarterback has a huge arm. He literally can throw the ball 80 yards. I mean, he has a huge arm. So again, that's the old Raiders style, that's the Raider way. It's also they center things around their tailback, and Darren McFadden is a pretty good back.
On Mark Sanchez being more careful running with the ball…
Really, when you take off with the ball, he's responsible to protect himself, and knowing when to slide and knowing when to get out of bounds. Mark is not going to take the unnecessary hit. Like his first year, remember when we brought in [Yankees manager] Joe Girardi to teach him how to slide because he was always going forward. And that stuff is all right in college because you're down, but not in the NFL.
He learned that way, maybe he thought Joe was telling him to slide forward, but either way, it's taken some time. But right now, I feel really comfortable with the way Mark is. He understands the pro game, where you slide, if you're in any heat at all, you slide or you run out of bounds. And that's how you can protect yourself.
On if Sanchez learned his lesson on getting out of bounds quickly on Sunday…
Maybe so. We did get the 15[-yard penalty], though, the one time [joking].
On the extra challenges the Raiders defense poses with Mangold being hurt…
Well, those big, huge guys they have inside are the number one challenge. You have Seymour, you have Kelly, you have John Henderson. I mean, that's some big guys. So it's hard to handle in there. Those guys, they tie up a lot of blocks and they make plays. You have to single block them there, those are some huge guys.
On if he is confident Baxter or Slauson can pick up the slack…
I always feel confident. You have that Jet decal on his helmet, I feel confident. Whoever we put out there, whether it's moving Slauson, whether it's keeping Baxter in there, whether it's Schlauderaff, with Bill Callahan coaching, I feel pretty good about our chances.
On potentially moving Matt Slauson to center…
I mean, we could do it. There's nothing prohibiting us from moving Matt to center and Vlad to guard because they do have more experience. That's certainly a possibility. But right now if Nick can't go, our first option would be to put Baxter in there. Again, I think the young man is just going to get better and better. You talk about a crash course now, I mean, he was just kind of thrown into it.
Rob Turner yesterday was telling me, he's like, "I've been around Mangold forever, he's played 82 straight games, right, he's never missed a start." Unfortunately Rob's hurt. He's like, "Why didn't you do this when I could have gone in there?" But that's the way it goes. And we'll need our entire roster. Before it's all said and done, everybody on the practice squad is going to have to step up and all the backup roles. That's what happens every year. Again, this is the National Football League. Every single guy is going to have to contribute.
On not letting Dennis Thurman interview for the Raiders defensive coordinator job…
I have a great coach that has been with me for 10 years, and I have a responsibility to this organization first and foremost. I love Dennis like a brother, but I'd keep my brother too, and that's just the way it is. But Dennis, I think, aspires to become a head coach one day. And I think that's the seat that he's more interested in than anything else. So it is what it is. We don't have an open door policy, and just come and take any coach you want. That's not what we signed up for.
