Jets can't afford any more distractions

Minutes after Drew Coleman's interception sealed the Jets' 31-23 win over the Dolphins on Sunday night, there Jim Leonhard was, standing in front of his locker at Sun Life Stadium.

His team had beaten Miami for the first time in three games in the brief Rex Ryan Era, leapfrogging into first place in the AFC East based on tiebreakers. Yet the initial questions being hurled his way weren't about the goal-line stand the Jets desperately needed, and how the secondary came up huge at the end after being torched for 363 yards by Chad Henne.

See, the Jets had won despite a week filled with the wrong kind of attention, because a player was arrested on a DWI charge and allowed to play five days after his arraignment. The situation surrounding Braylon Edwards brought an unwanted black eye.

"Just a lot of attention, negative attention toward the team and just the whole way we approached this game," Leonhard said. "We like to have fun. We are very loose, and most people see that as very undisciplined. That's definitely not the case.

"You look around this locker room and there's a lot of great guys. Everyone makes mistakes. We just have to learn from them."

And, to take it a step further, they must do so immediately.

"We are going to try to avoid all the distractions from here on out," Leonhard said. "We can't have that. We don't want to be that team."

So despite a hornet's nest of trouble all week, threatening to quickly derail them after the comeback win over the Patriots, the Jets got it done in a hostile South Florida setting. At some point, however, you've got to figure on that luck running out.

Anyone who's lost a few coins in the casinos after what may be perceived as a hot streak knows that. That's why the Jets would be wise to keep the self-inflicted distractions to a minimum, because they've had more than enough drama lately.

There was that incident with TV Azteca reporter Ines Sainz at practice two days before their season opener, which again put the organization under an uncomfortable spotlight. It left a cloud over the team until the NFL found no evidence of harassment.

These situations came up after cameras for HBO's "Hard Knocks'' chronicled the Jets' every move during training camp. The exposure wasn't always the greatest thing, especially with the backlash that came once the world got to hear Ryan let off a string of expletives.

Such transparency, as we saw with "Hard Knocks," reveals information that might be better left untold to the public, such as the staff and even a few players riding rookie running back Joe McKnight - hard.

McKnight had conditioning issues in rookie minicamp, when he vomited twice on the field. He had fumbling problems in preseason, and Ryan said that right now they can't trust him on the field.

That's another potential brush fire that needs to be put out soon, given the recent performances by those who were let go because the team put a lot of stock in McKnight's ability.

McKnight has yet to even suit up for a game because he has been on the inactive list. With the way Leon Washington and even Danny Woodhead looked Sunday, the Jets had better be right with their fourth-round pick. Because they're stuck with him. Ridding themselves of McKnight in the next year or two would be admitting a mistake, and they have to try to get something out of him first (see: Vernon Gholston).

Washington, the dynamic playmaker the Jets traded to Seattle because they were so enamored with McKnight, returned kickoffs 99 and 101 yards for touchdowns in the Seahawks' 27-20 win over the Chargers.

Woodhead, waived Sept. 14 and signed by the Patriots four days later, scored his first career touchdown on a 22-yard run in a 38-30 win over the Bills.

Maybe someone taped those news items in McKnight's locker or slid the footage of the highlights into his playbook. If not, someone should, and quickly, too.

On a team that's had enough distractions, McKnight should think long and hard about not being the next one.