Transcript of QB Mark Sanchez's news conference before Thursday's afternoon training camp practice at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center:
On how the offense is progressing…
I think that's one of the most important parts for our offense, not to get frustrated, to understand that defense is usually ahead of the offense at this point, and they are doing a really good job. I think the day before our break, Tuesday, we had a great day on the indoor on offense. It started to turn the tide a little bit, so that's good. We want to keep it competitive. That's our main focus, staying competitive once we have all our plays in. That makes it a lot easier to try to compete against our defense.
Now we're starting to focus on our first preseason game and getting our chemistry and timing down with the wideouts and running backs in the passing game and getting ready to actually hit another color jersey which is nice for our guys up front.
On if he's ready for a change of pace by playing in the first preseason game…
Absolutely, and you see your own players so many times and see their looks so many times that you start to over-think things, you start to try to figure out ways to make your plays better when you're just trying to force stuff, and that's natural in camp. Now things will be much more clear. Just having a different color facemask to look at is nice. It'll be good. It should clear some things up and it should tell us a lot about our team, especially our young guys.
On how he sees himself this year compared to last year…
I'm well prepared, I think this team has the potential to surpass what we did last year, but it starts with this first game. We'll see how much Rex wants to play us this first game, but I'm just excited. That's the number one thing. We have a lot of potential, but we'll see how we do.
On how the veteran wide receivers can help the young guys…
Well, I think right now guys are still getting used to each other, but when they're in meetings watching one on ones [they have been helping each other]. I told [Jeremy] Kerley to make sure he sits with Derrick Mason as much as he can because that'll end up being his role as a slot player and to watch his routes. Mason is one of the best in the league at route running, especially from the slot position. So he's helped him quite a bit and it's only been a couple days but that kind of stuff is really going to wear off on our young guys and hopefully help them just like Shonn Greene learned from [LaDainian Tomlinson], [as did] Joe McKnight.
On Derrick Mason's impact thus far…
He's so smart and he runs around like he's 20 years old, and he's 37. So that always helps. He always has a positive attitude, he's smiling. That energy kind of wears off and reminds you how much this guy loves the game. Then you get him in there to play and he's competing his butt off, asking questions. It's an all-out battle for him every play and you can see it on the film. It's pretty cool to watch. He's an easy target, he gets open really well, knows how to use his body, understands the timing of routes, spacing of your concepts and he's doing a really good job for us.
On Plaxico Burress' lost time due to injury thus far…
What Plaxico and I have talked about is that when he's ready to go, we just have to hit it hard. To me, taking that extra time to watch film together, that stuff is paying off right now and now we have to go practice it on the field. There's plenty of time to get things right, I think the most important thing is that we just don't waste the time when he gets back.
On if he bought dinner for himself and Burress last night…
I ended up buying dinner.
On if it was just him and Burress at dinner…
It was just us.
On how the dinner with Burress came about…
We talked about going to dinner a couple days ago. I think we were going to do a goalpost drill. If you hit the goalpost, whoever doesn't hit it pays for dinner. I missed, and then I figured we'd go somewhere Mexican where I might get a free meal so I didn't have to pay [joking]. But he said that was off limits, so I ended up paying.
On if he took the ferry into New York City to get to dinner…
I went to go get a haircut and then I took the ferry across the Hudson for the first time. That was pretty cool. I got some good pictures.
On tight end Dustin Keller…
He's definitely a Pro Bowl-caliber player. No doubt, with his ability. I think even him watching Derrick Mason run routes, watching a lot of the cut-ups that Tom Moore has with me, Schotty [Brian Schottenheimer] and [Devlin], Dustin is seeing how he can unlock his full potential just by cleaning up a couple routes here or there, really getting on the same page with me as far as protections, when he needs to look "Hot", when he needs to look "Q" and stuff like that. He's doing a really good job and really coming along, so this could be a big year for him.
On high school players that don't live up to big expectations…
Sometimes there are a lot of other circumstances that come into play. It could be timing, it could be a relationship with a coach or something that didn't pan out. Maybe they just weren't totally into it and happened to be pretty good but just didn't really love it.
There's a million reasons why things might not work out, and there's a million reasons for somebody in my situation where things end up working out. Why did the Browns trade their pick so we could trade up? Who knows, but it happened, and I'm here. So some of the things you can control, like working after practice in high school and college, but some of it is just happenstance.
On if the team doesn't want to rush Burress back too early…
That's the most important thing, if we try to bring him back too fast and his ankle starts swelling up or something, then we're back in the same boat. I think that's the cautious approach we'll take until he's ready to go. He looks good already, we're just being cautious.
