09/30 — The good news is that Rex Ryan said at today's news conference that injured cornerbacks Lito Sheppard (quad) and Donald Strickland (ankle) are "certainly much better than they were last week."

The bad news is that Sheppard and Strickland were joined by Jim Leonhard (knee) among the five Jets who were held out of today's first practice to get ready for the Saints in New Orleans on Sunday. And Darrelle Revis (hamstring) and Kerry Rhodes (knee) were added to the injury report as limited at practice.

The bottom line as always with the Jets head coach is that he's asking no quarter and giving none.

"With all those DBs on the report, you would think I'd feel nervous, but we're only playing New Orleans, so I'm not worried about having to cover anybody with Drew Brees and company," Ryan said, tongue planted in cheek, of course.

"I'd feel a lot worse if this was Friday and those names were in that order. I feel we'll have guys ready to play this weekend."

As for the prospects of having to saddle up and engage in a shootout in the Superdome, whether due to his secondary injuries or the Saints' 40-points-a-game (so far) offense, Rex's reply was typical of a defensive specialist:

"I'm not comfortable ever in a shootout. That's just something that doesn't enter my mind. Do I have confidence in our offense that we could score and move the ball consistently? I absolutely am. But I would not be comfortable in a so-called shootout. That would be foreign to me."

"As much as I respect the Saints and all that kind of stuff, and we certainly do, I bet you they respect us, too," Ryan added about the road challenge ahead. "We'll see what happens. It's going to be a great challenge for us and it's going to be a great challenge for them."

Game Ball Redistribution

The Rex Rules are the rules, and one rule says that if you get a game ball on Monday for your play on Sunday but then you get a league award on Wednesday, you give the game ball back. Such was the case with Jason Trusnik, who received his second game ball of the season for his special teams play against Tennessee but then was honored earlier today with the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week award.

And so "after further review," Ryan and his staff have regifted Trusnik's game ball to ... LB Vernon Gholston.

"I thought Vernon did an outstanding job Sunday. He prevented a touchdown on sheer hustle," Ryan said of Gholston's solo tackle of Tennessee's Chris Johnson 30 yards downfield at the end of a fourth-quarter run that, had No. 50 not been so inclined, was ticketed to become a game-tying 73-yard TD run. Instead the Titans ran three plays and punted and the Jets held their 24-17 lead.

"We talk about the mentality that we want to have here," Gholston told me in the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center locker room after today's practice about that never-give-up play after he was double-teamed to allow Johnson to burst off the left side of the Jets' defense. "When you take the field, that's the attitude. Especially giving up a rushing touchdown that would've been 60 yards or so? You don't want to have that on your defense."

"It's just about getting in here and knowing your plays," he said of his growing comfort level in the Ryan/Mike Pettine scheme. "It's a little different situation from college, but that's always been my story. Once I get comfortable, get adjusted, know what I'm doing, I let my playing abilities take over."

Now Gholston had three solo tackles and has yet to get his first pro regular-season sack, and Ryan distributed about six game balls initially before handing Trusnik's ball off to VG. But the point of these awards are to recognize strong efforts and contributions among the Jets, and Gholston made some of those Sunday.

"He's starting to get it," the coach continued. "If he was a first-round pick this year, we'd all be happy with it, the fans and everybody. We're proud of the way he's playing. We really think he's coming on and that he'll be a major contributor in our plans moving forward."