Jets' eventful offseason ends with question marks

The wild, nearly five-month journey is finally complete, a trek that included a bevy of unforeseen personnel moves and got cranked up a notch the last month when two stars expressed a desire to get paid - immediately.

Their offseason is essentially in the books, capped Wednesday with a practice in front of an estimated 12,000 boisterous fans at their sparkling, $1.6-billion new digs. The Jets said hello to New Meadowlands Stadium and goodbye to minicamp and Organized Team Activities, setting their mental clocks for Aug. 1, when they report to training camp in upstate Cortland.

"It really is just a great conclusion to what I think was a tremendous offseason for the New York Jets," Rex Ryan said. "I'm excited. This is where we wanted to be."

But that excitement could morph into stomach-churning anxiety not long after Ryan returns from his two-week Baltic cruise with his family and the in-laws. With All-Pros Darrelle Revis and Nick Mangold chirping about their contracts and doing nothing to quell speculation about holdouts, things could get ugly. Quickly.

Revis is set to earn $1 million this season and Mangold, in the final year of his rookie contract, will pocket $3.3 million. The contract situations surrounding both appear to be leaving storm clouds over a team that's loaded with Super Bowl aspirations, but Mangold said his teammates aren't harboring any negative feelings toward Revis or himself.

"I think everyone in the locker room understands the business and what is going on," said Mangold, who will wait until camp nears before deciding on his next move. "And you don't hold any ill will against anybody doing anything that's going on because you know at some point it could be your turn as well.

"I think everyone understands that. We have a good foundation to make sure that it isn't a problem."

Still, there's no doubt the players would prefer everything to be resolved by August, which would allow them to concentrate on just football.

"That's the goal, and both sides are working hard to make that happen," quarterback Mark Sanchez said. "So we are hoping for the best. We're excited. We are excited about this camp. We'll watch the film and get ready to go for August. We're expecting everybody to be there and, hopefully, it works out that way.''

If not, those behind-the-scenes conversations that might make their way into HBO's "Hard Knocks" could get a little interesting.

"There's distractions, there's all these kind of things," Ryan said. "But all we have to be is ourselves. All we have to [do] is go out every day and be a New York Jet. Play like that, prepare like that and have fun like that. And I think our team is ready to do that."

With expectations loftier than the Empire State Building's observation deck, Ryan is aware they better be. Or else.

"We are loaded as a football team," Ryan said. "I keep going back to what my dad said: 'Just don't mess it up.' And I don't think we will. I think we are heading in the right direction, and like I said, this team has no excuses. Our team knows it. We are chasing a Super Bowl and that's it.

"I believe this team can be special, and I'm not hiding from it."