12/27 — Among other themes, this is Jerricho Cotchery week. J-Co, with an injured right index finger that you'd figure is crucial to catching any given pass and with an injured Laveranues Coles that we all know is crucial to other receivers catching a lot of passes.

Yet Cotchery cranked it up a notch during his eight-catch, 152-yard, one-TD day.

Some question whether Cotchery is a "No. 1 receiver." What about what he has done this season would say otherwise?

"I don't know what the average is for No. 1 receivers in terms of yards for a season or catches for a season," head coach Eric Mangini said today, "but I'd have to imagine that over 1,000 yards is pretty good for a one or two or whatever you want to place him. ... I've been extremely happy with him."

I love the way Cotchery expresses himself to make simple football matters poetic. He could have a future as an NFL Films scriptwriter after his playing career is over. Today, for instance, he was asked again about clearing 1,000 receiving yards for the first time in his career.

"When you think about 1,000 yards, it’s tough because you don’t know if it really happened or not," he said. "The team hasn’t won as many games and you’re sitting there looking at 1,000 yards and three wins and wondering what the 1,000 yards have done. The mixed emotions are running wild."

And I love the way J-Co maneuvers through crowds, as he did on his 41-yard reception at Tennessee when he turned on that deceptive speed we saw for the first time last season, specifically on, say, the 77-yard TD play in the playoff game at New England.

"I really like his run after the catch," Mangini said. "He's a strong runner and an elusive guy. He's more elusive than you may even gauge on tape, just with the amount of people he makes miss."

Let's just say that the Green Bay Packers, who were featured on a Sunday morning ESPN piece by my good friend Greg Garber, aren't the only receivers who know how to YAC. Cotchery's 5.6 yards-after-catch average as compiled by Stats Inc. checks in at seventh among NFL wide receivers this season.

My YAC figures are more conservative, because, I suspect, I define the stat differently than Stats Inc. and its legion of correspondents. By my definition, you don't get yards after a catch until you establish a catch — two feet down, control of the ball. A receiver striding downfield or juggling the ball can cover 5 yards between first touching the pass and establishing a reception.

Because of that, I have Cotchery at an average of 5.2 yards after catch. But I've used the same standards since I began covering the Green & White in 1994, and if Cotchery can hold that average, it would be tied for the fourth-best figure among Jets wideouts in that span. Here's how Jerricho's season compares with the top five WRs in YAC (20 or more receptions; YBC–Yards Before Catch):

We haven't forgotten Thomas Jones' 1,000-yard season. Shortly after TJ speaks with reporters during his usual Friday locker room visit, we'll pop up a story and some numbers on Jones' grand achievement.

See Ya!

John Beattie has been a fine reporter for newyorkjets.com, so it is with a heavy heart that I tell you that John will be leaving us soon to return home to the Boston area and become a production assistant for NESN, Beantown's version of YES and MSG.

"They've said I'll be doing a little bit of everything," Beattie has told Eric Allen and me, "but I'll be working a lot on the Bruins until the Red Sox start up again."

Oy, the Red Sox. And can the Patriots be in young Beattie's future as well?

"Could be," he said. "The worst part is what am I going to do with all my Jets gear?"

Four letters, John: E-B-A-Y.

Don't feel obligated, but if any of you Radarheads remember a story of John's that you liked from the 2006-07 seasons or just want to give him some congrats or a little grief for heading up I-95 to New England, send your comments here and we'll give JB a little sendoff of our own.