Tarik Cohen dropped a few F-bombs on Jets reporters following today's training camp practice. That's F as in "fat," something the smallish, at 5-6, but rapid-fire, at 191 pounds, veteran running back/returner didn't want to be anymore.

As a result, he's back in the NFL, vying for a roster spot with the Jets.

"I let myself get fat," Cohen said in his first news conference since signing with the Green & White as a street free agent in late May. "I was at 207, 208, [fat] rolls on the side. I was at the pool and my friend took a picture and sent it to me, and I almost threw my phone against the wall."

Then he threw himself into a regimen to reduce his weight, and one thing led to another ...

"I turned it on without the intention of coming back to the NFL," he said. "I started grinding. "When I first saw I was fat, I signed up for a boxing gym and I got a sauna built in my home. Then when I was losing weight, I started working out and changed my diet.

"I eat steak and eggs now. Really, that's my only diet. Like cheetahs and lions only eat to survive, that's what I do now."

And there is the opportunity for Cohen to feast again, if he can find a spot in the Jets' backfield and on their return teams.

"I think he's doing a nice job," special teams coordinator Brant Boyer said, who added that he has an "army" of six to eight candidates returning kicks this summer. "There are some things to clean up and and stuff, but he's a hell of a player and he's got really good vision, really good run skill. And they're working hard back there and we'll see how it all shakes out at the end."

Cohen hadn't been shaking and baking for a while before the Jets signed him off the street in late May. Three consecutive seasons lost to injuries will do that to a player — Cohen tore his right ACL and MCL early in the 2020 season, injured an Achilles while training in the '22 offseason, and pulled a hamstring while on the Carolina practice squad last season.

But before those setbacks, Cohen was cooking with gas as the Bears' fourth-round pick in the 2017 draft. In his first four NFL seasons as a spot RB starter and returner, he averaged 4.2 yards on 264 carries, 7.5 yards on 209 receptions and 10.3 yards on 96 punt returns. He totaled career highs of 1,169 scrimmage yards and 1,599 all-purpose yards in his Pro Bowl/All-Pro season of 2018.

Cohen is one of only two NFL backs since 2014 to record both a 70-yard reception and a 70-yard punt return in his career. Darren Sproles was the first. And the Jets were familiar with two of those plays, as Sproles' 89-yard punt-return touchdown for the Eagles came against the Jets at MetLife Stadium in 2015 and Cohen unleashed his 70-yard TD catch-and-run against them in Chicago in '18.

Kickoffs were never a big part of his Bears game. He had 26 returns for a 22.4-yard average as a rookie, then had only four returns the next three seasons combined. Now with the radically new kickoff rules ready to impact all NFL teams beginning this preseason, he's dropping back for kickoffs again.

"The potential, I feel like it's great for returners," Cohen said of the new rules aimed at increasing returns while keeping injury-inducing high-impact collisions to a minimum. "If you've got a good return team and great returners setting it up like [Xavier] Gipson and myself and a great scheme as well, I feel like there's a lot of different things you can do with it.

"It's very exciting for me. I feel like it's a custom-tailored position that they added to football that I can just get out there and compete and play and do well in."

Needless to say, a lot can happen with the Jets roster from now until opening night in San Francisco on Sept. 15. But Cohen said, "I definitely feel all the way back," and he's pumped about getting another bite of the NFL apple after not playing in a game for the past three years and 10 months.

"That definitely crept into my mind, that you're never going to play again," he said. "That's why I just treat every day like it's a blessing, put my best foot forward and just remember the times I was at home watching everybody on TV."

That was back, he said, "when I was eating everything." But whatever happens in the season ahead, Tarik Cohen is still fast, and he's fat no more.