02/22 — It seemed everyone emptied into the hallway in front of the media room in the Indianapolis Convention Center at the same time. Certainly there were many reporters mingling with NFL front office personnel and NFL Combine athletes this afternoon. But they were joined by a good portion of non-accredited folks, many of them autograph seekers.

Into this maelstrom stepped Mike Tannenbaum. The Jets general manager had a date with Adam Schein and Solomon Wilcots on their Sirius NFL Radio show, "The Afternoon Blitz." Mike T. waited just a few minutes while RB Darren McFadden, the Arkansas headliner, was finishing up his interview, then took the hot seat.

The first thing Tannenbaum discovered was that Schein's trademark high-decibel voice had been neutralized by a throat situation.

"I was hoping you could give that laryngitis to a few agents I've been dealing with," he jested. Schein soldiered on for the rest of the 13-minute interview before Sirius signaled to the bullpen for my good friend Dan Leberfeld, who came on for the save of the last 2½ hours of the show.

As we all know, Tannenbaum reveals his information like a player on the World Poker Tour who peeks for a millisecond at the corners of his two cards, then plays out the hand wearing his best poker face. But "T" did talk with Adam and Solly about a number of the topics on the minds of Green & White fans these days.

On the work at the combine, Tannenbaum stressed the importance of the interview process.

"You try to find out as much about that person as possible," he said. "We play outdoors in the Northeast. You've really got to like football. It's tough to play in the elements. We think you need a certain type of guy. You look at the Darrelle Revises and the David Harrises, the year before the D'Brickashaws, the Mangolds, Kellen Clemens. Those are the types of guys we're looking for, to be able to play in our division where the elements are going to be a factor, especially coming down the stretch."

On Laveranues Coles' recent contract remarks, the GM stayed on the high road.

"I have a lot of respect for Laveranues," he said. "I've talked to him a lot recently. I saw his comments, obviously. We're going to just keep working hard and communicating. I think only good things happen when both sides keep talking.

"He's an important member of our organization. We're trying to keep these conversations private in terms of the specifics, but he's a wonderful player, a better person and I'm really glad he's a Jet."

Tannenbaum didn't deviate from head coach Eric Mangini's comments a day earlier about his QBs.

"I'm glad we've got Kellen and Chad," he said. "Quarterbacks are really important in this league. I expect both of them to be back."

On the report that Jonathan Vilma has been given permission to seek a trade, Tannenbaum wouldn't confirm or deny, but he repeated his and the organization's stance again:

"If opportunities present themselves, we'll carefully evaluate them," he said. "It's kind of a sensitive time with those things. But he's a Jet, Jon's done a lot of good things for us, and we'll see what the future brings."

The last major point Tannenbaum made was about how active the Jets will be in the unrestricted free agency signing period that begins 12:01 a.m. Feb. 29 — just one week from today.

"I know we're prepared," he replied. "We're going to work on what we can control. We can sign seven guys or not sign any. You just never know the vagaries of free agency, but we're prepared and we'll see what happens. We're working hard to put ourselves in position to react to the market."

"We were 4-12 last year," Tannenbaum said a few times about fixing what ailed the Jets. "It starts with me. We've got to do a better job. So we're evaluating every position."