09/05 — We're still waiting for the word from the football side of the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center about final cuts. Head coach Rex Ryan is expected to have a conference call with reporters this afternoon to announce the 22 player moves the team has to make to get down to the final 53 for the opener at Houston a week from Sunday.

(And needless to say, that "final" 53 isn't necessarily final, since it can continue to change throughout the coming week.)

But to tide you over until Rex speaks, here's some more Mark Sanchez stuff. My favorite football talk team of Pat Kirwan and Tim Ryan had Southern Cal coach Pete Carroll on their show, "Moving the Chains," on Sirius NFL Radio on Friday afternoon.

Needless to say, the subject of Sanchez came up, and Pete, the one-year Jets coach in 1994 who has gone on to bigger and better things with the Trojans, said he's been keeping tabs on his starter from last season.

"I just love the kind of success Mark's had," Carroll said. "I just wish he played more, got another 50 reps or something under his belt. I know he's feeling good about it. We've been communicating and he's been having a ball. That game against the Ravens, he got knocked around a little bit, which was great for him, and he came back and made some plays after that.

"It's still going to be very challenging start for him. If he can get off to a good start, it'll make all the difference in the world for these guys. So hopefully they can find some confidence early and have some success and then they'll get rolling"

Opposing NFL D-coordinators would love to get Sanchez on the run all season. Ryan asked Carroll if Sanchez will be able to survive in the pocket.

"There's no question he can. He'll be fine," Carroll said. "He's going to have to learn to throw it [on the NFL level]. As a young guy, he will flush more and flush quicker than a guy that's been around. But you've seen him already make plays with his feet, something he did very specially for us."

PK and T-Rock, who dropped in on Eric Allen and me high atop SUNY Cortland's stadium pressbox for a Jets Radio show last month, also had a 10-minute chat with Thomas Jones in the hour before brining Pete Carroll on. It was an enjoyable afternoon of radio as I made my way from Florham Park down to my Jersey Shore palace for one last visit before February.

For what it's worth, one more time for posterity's sake, here are the drive engineering stats for all four Jets QBs in the four preseason games:

One last note on Sanchez: Before I left Florham Park, EA and I actually got to sit down with Sanchez in the Jets' new studio to record a segment of Jets Radio with the team's new starting quarterback. And Rich Gentile, Ryann Ruzika and Chris Ubbens manned the cameras to provide a little Mike & Mike ambience. The radio show and Jets TV clip will both be going up on newyorkjets.com at midweek.

Stats All

David Clowney finished this preseason healthy and fast. His 243 receiving yards, on seven catches, were the most in a Jets preseason since at least 1992. His three receiving touchdowns were the most since Terance Mathis had three in '92. And Clowney's 34.7 yards per catch was the best in the NFL this summer for all receivers with at least two catches. ... A final note on the Jets-Eagles game. The last time the Green & White scored more than 38 points in a preseason game was in 1997, when they defeated the Baltimore Ravens (before Rex Ryan arrived there) at the Meadowlands, 39-29.