LB Vernon Gholston missed practice after tweaking his left hamstring in a drill during Monday’s walk-through. Ryan and Gholston were uncertain whether he will be able to play Sunday.

“I don’t know yet,” Gholston said. “We’ll wait and see.”

You have to wonder if the coaching staff looks at this as a ‘golden injury’ and would allow them to dress someone else in his place like Murrell or Westermann. I wouldn’t be surprised if the team takes an injury to Gholston “extra carefully” to use any excuse to the press and fans.

Gholston has done some good things for this defense, but things that don’t necessarily show up in the box score. Still by now Gholston should be gaining playing time, not losing it, and that’s been the trend since Pace’s return.

The New England Patriots tried out three free agent running backs today, according to a league source. The Patriots tried out Allen Ervin, Jehuu Caulcrick and Kestahn Moore … Caulcrick is a 255-pound fullback who previously played with the New York Jets.

Interesting, and with the Jets a week and a half away, not surprising. This seems to be a long-standing tradition between these teams, and Caulcrick is the latest pawn.

It might mean that the Patriots think that Fred Taylor will take longer to return to health than previously expected, but it also could be a move to take a peek at the Jets playbook. I was sorry to see Caulcrick go, but at the same time, I’m not sure he had converted well enough from tailback to fullback as the Jets had hoped.

This does bring to mind that the Jets are carrying four QBs (Kevin O’Connell former Patriot) on the roster right now, and I’d be surprised if someone doesn’t get shelved at that spot soon if the Jets are truly trying to make a playoff run. There’s other places where they could make some changes, like at running back, tight end, defensive line and having a fourth QB offers you nothing.

Thanks to Johan H. for sending this on …

Despite an initial call from his agent, the Bears have decided against adding Johnson, a source tells La Canfora. Two other teams where dots could be connected – the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Jets – appear to be out. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin refused to discuss free agents earlier Tuesday, and the Steelers declined interest after being approached by Johnson’s agent, Peter Schaffer. The Jets also have no interest despite losing Leon Washington for the season, sources tell La Canfora.

Between soaking up most of their cap space, and adding a guy who by nature isn’t interested in fitting in, there’s enough reasons for the Jets to stay away from Johnson.

A league source tells us that Washington suffered a fractured fibula in the first half of the Jets’ Week Seven game against the Raiders.  Washington will have surgery in Oakland because the bone broke through the skin, raising fears of infection.  He’s expected to be back to full strength in 2010, with a projected recovery time of 12 weeks.

This is a major blow to the Jets as they will lose a great special teams man and compliment to Thomas Jones in addition this now poses a huge question mark for his contract status come the end of the year (despite his stubbornness he should get what he deserves personally). The bright spot of this whole ordeal is Shonn Greene whose two-touchdown performance running well over 100 yards could be a sign of what we might expect out of the rookie.

This is going to be another hard loss to swallow but hopefully Leon will be ready to roll in 2010 and the Jets will continue to do their best with what they have.

Cimini also noted that Damien Woody and Lito Sheppard both were not on the field today. Watch to see if Lito practices tomorrow, that could determine whether he can go this weekend.

We’ll see how things go, but hamstrings are tricky things, and generally can take upwards of a month to get right, especially for someone like a wide receiver, where crisp running is extremely important. Wathcing Cotch go on the Monday night game had me concerned that he would.

As we have all been expecting, Hutch reports that the Jets have signed RB-turned-WR, Danny Woodhead to the roster however not much else is known as the person who revealed this information is not allowed to speak publically.

The Jets have signed practice-squad running back-turned-wide receiver Danny Woodhead to the active roster today, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to speak publicly.

The move was likely prompted by the injuries to wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery (hamstring) and Brad Smith (quad). Cotchery is out and Smith isn’t expected to play, either.

While David Clowney will get the start the Jets are still short a receiver in the slot and I’m sure the team doesn’t want to use Wallace Wright often due to his work on Special Teams (and his non-stellar preseason on offense) which leaves it up to Danny Woodhead who was said to have excelled in his new position. Danny will finally get his chance to showcase his talent in regular season action and hopefully he will be able to make some good plays.  

Edit: DT Howard Green was cut to make room. Does this mean another young gun (Ropati Pitoitua) will get his shot?

It seems that Jerricho Cotchery who has been battling a hammy injury will take a seat against the Bills (even if he doesn’t his participation will be limited) and while we are all wondering who will be able to step up and take the reigns (i.e. Mr. August, Brad “Butterfingers” Smith or Wallace Wright), PFT says that Danny Woodhead could see some time as he has “impressed” at his new position.

Practice squad running back Danny Woodhead, who became a PFT favorite during training camp, is learning wide receiver.  He could play the slot Sunday against Buffalo.

Woodhead impressed the Jets while pretending to be Wes Welker on the scout team before they played the Patriots.  In the process, Woodhead may have earned a role as Ryan’s version of Troy Brown.

Obviously the Jets want to get Danny Woodhead involved somehow because of his ability to make plays and it seems that he has been doing so at wide receiver as of late. Though he has made impressions as a running back the position is filled (of course the inconsistency might drive “Schott” to use Danny at some point). Needless to say this is an interesting turn of events for the little guy but my issue is his height, how effective will he be against a usually tall secondary for opposing defenses? If Cotch hits the bench we might soon find out.

The team flew down to Miami in the early afternoon on Sunday for tomorrow’s prime-time game against the Dolphins.

Cotchery, the Jets’ leading receiver with 23 receptions for 356 yards and one TD, has undergone hours of treatment over the past several days. The extra day should bode well for his chances of playing. Cotchery has told friends he expects to play.

The short week could come back to bite him next week depending on how the game goes, but that Cotchery is telling his friends he expects to play means that the only thing from keeping him on the field is his coach. If he plays, Cotchery could benefit quickly from Edwards’s addition, as the new WR acclimates to the team.

Before Goodell was even able to dial Deion Sanders number, Sanders stated that the 49ers were the ones who said that two teams were interested in Crabtree and he had no knowledge what so ever of tampering by New York.

The truth, Deion Sanders said, is that he has no knowledge of any tampering by the New York Jets in the San Francisco 49ers‘ negotiations with the wide receiver, drafted 10th overall in the 2009 draft.

… “… Eugene Parker told me. That was my source. Eugene Parker told me that the San Francisco 49ers told him there were two teams that were going to trade for Crabtree but, guess what, we’re not going to trade him,” Sanders said in the interview.

… “I’m confused why there’s an investigation on Dez Bryant as well as Michael Crabtree. It seems like it all points back to Eugene. I think people are upset with his success. I’m elated about it, but I’m not helping him in any means. He has seven first-round picks in the last two years. I don’t know not one of them. Check the record. I didn’t even introduce Eugene to Michael Crabtree. You know how Eugene got Michael Crabtree? By Larry Fitzgerald. It’s common sense,” Sanders said in the interview.

While everyone continues to point fingers, I’m still trying to figure out why the 49ers would file these charges if they allegedly told Parker two teams were interested in the first place (I’m skeptic about that statement though). Nothing seems to make sense anymore but it seems that the Jets will be cleared of the charges which is good news for us fans and Mr. T.

Rex Ryan said in his presser today there’s a ‘possibility’ WR Jerricho Cotchery won’t play.

Cotchery, who was limited in practice Thursday with a hamstring problem, sat out today. When asked if Cotchery might miss the game, Ryan said, ‘I’m expecting him to play, but that’s a definite possibility’ that he won’t.

That would be a blow to the Jets considering that they are hoping to team Cotchery and newly-acquired Braylon Edwards as the starting wideouts. I would expect Brad Smith to start if Cotchery can’t go.

Having Cotch up for this game would make me feel a lot better, since Brad Smith has really struggled to be much of a legitimate option in the passing game. Right now, Cotchery is the glue of this pass catching offense. If he can’t go, then expect a lot of checkdown and short passing throws from Sanchez to account for his loss.

In other injury news, Damien Woody will likely suit up for the game, but Donald Strickland seems like a long shot to play nickel.