Camp Cortland: Day 4

The Jets are being billed as the team to beat, but they've already met their first match.

That would be Mother Nature.

A driving rainstorm and a lightening warning forced Rex Ryan to call off practice earlier than he would've liked, ending things after about an hour and 10 minutes.

"We never counted on this," Ryan said, "but it's a great opportunity because you have to be able to throw a wet football."

Ryan had already planned to go through goal line situational plays anyway, and the monsoon-like conditions was just the icing on top, perfect for his old school, Chuck Taylor mentality and approach.

One sequence, though, didn't exactly turn out the way the offense had hoped. 

"It was great to see LaDainian [Tomlinson] tell the offense, 'Hey, listen, don't worry about it. Just give it to me. I'll just put it right over the top,' " Ryan said. "He was all excited going in there and then we fumbled the snap. But I was like, 'God.' I was wanting him to score so bad because he's so passionate about it."

As you would expect, the defense couldn't get enough of the 'football weather.'

"That’s Buddy Ball," LB Bart Scott said. "That’s old school Buddy Ball. Playing in the mud, playing in the elements, hitting somebody, sliding in the mud and all that type of stuff. That’s what football is all and who knows? That may come up within the season and we have to understand and young guys have to understand what plays you are going to get, how the playbook is condensed, and reduce and what teams can do out of certain situations.

"Guys want to play safely, they don't want to throw the ball deep. The ball is slick. You want to try to get the ball out and create turnovers on defense. Put your hat on the ball."

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Don't think Kris Jenkins is fired up to be back?

Well, the NT slammed his helmet down to the turf after one particular play. An official threw a flag on Jenkins because that was an obvious no-no.

Even if it wasn't in a 'real' game.

"I can't explain that," Jenkins said. "I don't know what I was thinking. You saw I got a penalty and in my defense, I told the ref that it was practice, so you can't suspend me or fine me for what I do in practice now. I mean, this is different. I get the stuff that I can't do in the games out of my system during camp, so that way I go out on the field as a class act.

"But today I didn't want to be that guy."

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Neglected to mention this yesterday because, well, there really was no reason to. But just in case you saw the report in the National Football Post stating Kyle Wilson's contract, along with those of Colt McCoy and Matt Stafford were rejected by the league.

A source told me that Wilson's contract was fixed "days ago."

In other words, there was nothing to see here and that's why we kept it moving.