Burress could be major factor for Jets

It was nearly an hour after the Jets' 27-24 comeback victory over the Cowboys on Sunday night, and Plaxico Burress was about to leave the locker room after his first regular-season game in nearly three years.

There was a swirl of emotions for the Jets receiver, who last played a regular-season game Nov. 23, 2008. There was relief over his long-awaited return, which followed a 20-month prison sentence resulting from a self-shooting at a New York nightclub five days after his last game. There was excitement over scoring a touchdown with a dramatic fourth-quarter catch. And there was contentment at helping his team win the first of what he believes will be many games this year -- and perhaps a Super Bowl championship.

But the emotion that may have transcended the rest: disappointment.

"I left a few plays out there," Burress told Newsday before joining his family and returning home. "I know I didn't come to the ball on one play, which was my fault. I left a couple other plays out there, and I still have a lot of work to do. It's good to make mistakes and still win, but I know there's a lot more for me. I've got a long way to go."

Attention, NFL: Burress believes his four-catch, 72-yard, one-touchdown performance was just the start of something much bigger.

And who's to argue? Burress may be a 34-year-old with plenty of rust to shake off, but if Sunday's performance was a sign of things to come for the former Giants star, then the Jets may have gotten themselves one of the NFL's most dangerous receivers at the relatively inexpensive price of $3.017 million for this season.

And yes, the .017 -- in honor of Burress' uniform number -- was general manager Mike Tannenbaum's idea, part of a recruiting strategy that convinced Burress the Jets were the right fit. "Just wanted to do something nice," Tannenbaum said.

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Motivation not an issue

There are no guarantees for what lies ahead; there never are in football, where every player is one play away from being lost for the season. And it's possible Burress will wear down over the course of the season, especially after being limited through much of training camp by a sprained ankle.

But don't bet against him. There is just too much talent in his body and too much "want to" in his mind-set to think that Burress will be anything short of a big-time player on a team with legitimate Super Bowl aspirations.

"I don't have anything to prove to anybody," Burress said. "All I'm doing now is just getting into football shape, and the better shape I get into, the sharper I'm going to get and the better it's going to be. If I can go out and make plays, then defenses are going to have to do some things to not let me make those big plays. That's what I'm trying to get back to. It's going to take some time."

But it may take far less time than even some of Burress' suitors during free agency could have imagined. One high-ranking executive said he considered signing him, but only if it also tied him to the team in 2012.

"You can't expect a guy who hasn't played in more than two years to get it back overnight," he said. "Look at Michael Vick. He needed a year to settle in with Philadelphia as a backup, and then get his muscles twitching like you have to when you're ready to go full out."

The Giants apparently had similar reservations, although they were willing to give Burress only a one-year deal heavy on incentives for playing time and receptions. The Jets thought Burress could be more of an immediate threat and were the only team to offer him a fully guaranteed contract.

"It's good to be wanted," Burress said. "The Jets showed they were willing to take a chance on me, and that meant a lot. This is the right spot for me, no question."

In the mix immediately

The Jets had no qualms about giving Burress a significant role right away, even with his limited practice time. He was targeted on nine passes against the Cowboys. Only Santonio Holmes (10) was targeted more often.

Two of Burress' biggest catches came at a point in the game when he had wondered if he would have enough endurance to be effective. When asked last week about his biggest concerns, Burress pointed immediately to his conditioning late in the game.

"Probably the fourth quarter," he said. "I know I'll probably be winded, but that's part of getting in shape."

As it turned out, the fourth quarter was when Burress showed flashes of the kind of receiver he was with the Giants. On his 26-yard touchdown pass off a back-shoulder throw down the left sideline from Mark Sanchez, Burress made a terrific adjustment on the ball and just got into the end zone for the touchdown that cut Dallas' lead to 24-17 with 11:56 to play.

On the Jets' next drive, Burress made another fine catch. On second-and-4 from the Jets' 9, he ran a post route and caught Sanchez's pass down the middle for another 26-yard reception.

So at a time when Burress was concerned he would be out of gas, he was actually at his best.

With Burress and Holmes as big-time targets on either side of the formation, and with tight end Dustin Keller and slot receiver Derrick Mason ready to take advantage of double-teams on either wideout, offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer has his most formidable aerial threat since coming to the Jets in 2006.

"Obviously, some teams want to try to shove the coverage and get up over the top," Schottenheimer said of the way teams will try to cover Burress and Holmes. "If you do that, you isolate someone on the back side, whether it's the tight end like Dustin or Derrick Mason or somebody like that. You'll see those guys in a lot of different spots. That will continue to grow, and we'll try to feature some matchups and things."

Plenty of options for Schottenheimer and plenty of upside for Burress, who already has made his presence felt after such a long layoff.