09/03 — Sometimes you have to crawl before you can walk. And in the NFL sometimes you have to run with the P-squad before you can carry the rock for real.

But this transition is OK with RB Danny Ware.

"It feels good just knowing they felt good enough about me to bring me back," Ware said today after he was waived Saturday but then cleared league waivers and was signed to the Jets ' practice squad late Sunday. "Right now I'm just trying to work hard, learn everything I can, and give a great look for my scout team, whatever I can do."

Ware and six other practice squadders (names on the previous Radar entry) jumped into their look-team work at today's practice as the Jets kicked it up a notch in preparing for Sunday's Opening Day assignment against the New England Patriots.

Ware already has a jump on becoming a pro as he showed progress throughout the summer and began to separate from Alvin Banks in the free agent battle for carries behind starter Thomas Jones, mighty mite Leon Washington and FB Stacy Tutt.

"I started to get a little more comfortable as the summer went along," Ware said. "I was a little nervous starting out — you never know how you're going to do, you never know what to expect. Then it just started opening up for me. I kept banging, banging away, picking up the blitz. They had more and more faith in me, and it just felt good."

Possibly Ware's biggest comfort issue will be sitting at his locker while next-door neighbor Laveranues Coles holds court, now as one of the Jets' newly elected captains. But the rookie already has developed a fan base of his own, many of whom he's heard from and who have emailed newyorkjets.com to sing his praises and counsel the Jets to try to keep him around.

"You always want your fans behind you," Ware said. "You keep a good name, keep your name clean, do the best you can, and you'll have your fan base."

Some opening music for practice today opened was no surprise: Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train," which accompanies the Pats onto Gillette Stadium every home game and also has been among the loud music played at every practice before a Patriots game, home or away, for the last two years.

(Informal question for you Radarheads: Is there a song that you consider to be an unofficial, de facto Jets theme song? If not, what song would you nominate? No prizes here, just soliciting opinions.)

As for who's practicing this week, we'll leave that until Wednesday's first official injury report of the season. As head coach Eric Mangini said of RB Thomas Jones and his other players who were working through summer injuries:

"He's continuing to work hard, he's making progress, just like all those guys are. ... I'm confident that all the injured guys will do the best they can to be on the field on Sunday."

I can tell you this: Jones showed a good burst in one two-minute drill today. That was the drill in which Jones showed up in the locker room right before reporters were being informed, "The locker room is closed"