Rex's message received: Perform or goodbye

FLORHAM PARK, N.J.

Rex Ryan's philosophy about who plays on his team is simple and unequivocal.

"The best players play," the Jets' third-year coach said Wednesday. "That's a thing that we've always stood by, and that's what we believe in."

No matter whether you're a 15-year veteran with some of the gaudiest receiving stats in NFL history and a long-standing relationship with the head coach, or whether you're a fifth-round rookie who barely knows the coach and is just looking to hold down a roster spot.

Ryan made that abundantly clear Tuesday night when he shipped that 15-year veteran to Houston for a seventh-round pick -- the draft-day equivalent of a ham and egg sandwich -- and promoted that fifth-round rookie to the regular receiving rotation.

Derrick Mason out, Jeremy Kerley in.

Message sent by frustrated coach looking for answers.

Message received by a locker room filled with players wondering if they might be next.

With the Jets off to a 2-3 start after a dispiriting three-game road losing streak, Ryan and general manager Mike Tannenbaum cut ties with a receiver who was initially brought in to fill the spot of popular slot receiver Jerricho Cotchery, who demanded his release in training camp. Ryan thought Mason could catch 80 to 90 passes in the Jets' offense, but he was on pace for just 42 catches before being dealt.

No matter that Ryan had known Mason during their years together in Baltimore, where Ryan was the defensive coordinator and Mason a receiving machine, catching 103 passes one year. With Mason not performing up to expectations, and Kerley playing beyond expectations, Ryan moved Kerley up on the depth chart for Sunday's game against the Patriots and sat Mason for the first half.

And then the move became permanent once the Texans called on Tuesday. In need of receiver help because of star wideout Andre Johnson's hamstring problems, Houston took Mason off the Jets' hands and provided further proof about Ryan's only priority in all this: winning with the guys playing the best.

Nothing wrong with injecting a little fear and anxiety into the equation to jack up the performance level.

"I think it has to ," safety Jim Leonhard said. "If you've been around long enough, this happens. Veterans are let go. Leaders in the locker room are let go. To have it happen right now, it's definitely tough and a shock, but they felt like a move had to be made and they made one."

The message to all: Produce, or else.

"I know a lot of guys do look at it like, if [Mason] is gone, anyone of us could be gone," tight end Dustin Keller said.

It's certainly not the first time a coach has made a move to shake up his team. Go back to the final days of the 2003 preseason, when Patriots coach Bill Belichick released popular safety Lawyer Milloy just five days before the season opener against the Bills. The move stunned the Patriots' locker room, especially after Milloy wound up signing with Buffalo and was part of the Bills' 31-0 romp over New England.

But it was Belichick who got the last laugh; the Patriots won the Super Bowl that season.

In 1992, former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson released backup running back Curvin Richards after he fumbled twice in a meaningless regular-season finale against the Bears. Johnson's message to his players: Don't get complacent. They didn't. They won the Super Bowl five weeks later.

Ryan made it clear that Mason's release had nothing to do with his critical comments after the Jets' loss to the Ravens, when he said there were "cracks" in the Jets' offense. And I believe him. After all, if Mason was playing the way Ryan had envisioned, he could have said just about anything and still been on the team.

This was about the diminished production of an aging veteran, combined with the impressive potential of a promising young player. And about trying to fix an offense whose stumbles need to be rectified for this team to return to the prominence expected of it.

Like Ryan says, the best players play, and Mason demonstrated he wasn't one of the best. In a business that is a true meritocracy where the only thing that matters is performance, Ryan and Tannenbaum sent the message that was heard loud and clear in a locker room filled with athletes who need to look at themselves and make sure they're not the ones to go next.