The highlights of Rex Ryan’s short news conference today was the announcement of two starting backfield positions for Monday night’s season opener against Baltimore and the shortening of his short injury report by one name.
The starters are Shonn Greene at tailback and Tony Richardson at fullback. There wasn’t much surprise to either declaration, although the reporters at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center today wouldn’t have minded a Rex surprise at either spot.
As it was, Ryan used the P-word — “probably” — in saying the second-year man Greene will get the ball first ahead of 10th-year Hall of Famer-to-be LaDainian Tomlinson.
“We’ll probably start Shonn,” Ryan said, “but both those guys are going to be heavily involved in every week’s game plan. I’m sure they’ll be in there about the same amount of time.”
For anyone expecting to hear a stunning start for rookie John Conner, Ryan had only disappointment.
“The Terminator? We’ll start him on special teams, probably,” the coach said. “But T-Rich will be our starter” at fullback.
I’ll have a story with Greene on starting the year as the starting tailback — which, interestingly, doesn’t seem to motivate him as much as helping the Jets put together a winning effort — at midday Saturday.
Pool, Ellis Doing Better
The injury report also got a bit of good news with S Brodney Pool being elevated from not practicing in team drills on Thursday to doing limited work today.
“It was good to have Brodney out there, so that was a positive,” said Ryan, although he didn’t declare Pool’s ankle news to be so positive that he would start alongside Jim Leonhard at safety.
Also on the report, LB Calvin Pace (foot) remains out and DE Shaun Ellis (knee) is off the list and ready to roll.
The Ravens are listing six players on today’s I-list, with three out — WR Donté Stallworth, T Jared Gaither and 360-pound rookie DT Terrence Cody — and one new addition, LB Paul Kruger, listed as limited in practice with a shoulder injury.
SNY Expands Its Green Roster Limit
SNY announced the addition of four Jets starters to its weekly coverage of the Green & White today. DT Kris Jenkins, Richardson, WR Braylon Edwards and T Damien Woody will appear regularly on the cable network’s Jets reporting. The specifics:
■ Woody will join host Jonas Schwartz, Joe Benigno and a panel of Daily News writers every Tuesday from 5-5:30 p.m. to talk “all things Jets” on Daily News Live.
■ Richardson sits down exclusively with host Gary Apple on Geico SportsNite every Tuesday from 10-10:30 p.m. to discuss the latest news surrounding Gang Green.
■ Jenkins will bring the heat to Loud Mouths every Thursday from 6-6:30 p.m.
■ Edwards steps into The WheelHouse every Friday from 5:30-6 p.m. with Brandon Tierney, Marc “Moose” Malusis and host Brian Custer.
Huddle Up, NJ and LI
Jets Huddle, our in-house TV show for Verizon FiOS Channel 1 viewers, will make its regular-season debut both on Long Island and in New Jersey this weekend. For future reference, the times in New Jersey are Saturday at 10:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. The times on Long Island are Saturday, 10 a.m., 5 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. and Sunday, 9 a.m.
