08/17 — One more neat note on "The Other Brett." Brett Ratliff leads the NFL in passing yards.

Yeah, I know. There are three games to go tonight and Monday night, and leading the league in preseason passing yards plus, I'm guessing, $50,000 might get you an NFL MVP award on ebay.

"I like his progress," head coach Eric Mangini said after Saturday's 13-10 loss to the Redskins. "There were a couple of plays early that he had that he didn’t make the decisions that I was looking for, but he was able to come back, regroup and move the ball down the field in a pressure situation. There was 1:09 left, we had the three timeouts, but to get us where he got us and give us a shot to win the game with throws in the end zone, that’s really positive."

Another who is pleased with Ratty's emergence is rookie WR Marcus Henry, and not just because he made his first four pro catches, all on Ratliff passes, for 42 yards and two third-down conversions, all in the game's last 10 minutes.

"I'm usually going with Brett a lot in practice," said Henry. "What I saw from him tonight was more of the same, but I can see him improving. In practice, too, he's improving a lot."

Ratliff even showed a little veteran moxie when I caught up with him outside the Jets locker room. I asked him about the last pass he threw that rookie WR Paul Raymond dropped in the end zone.

"I really didn't see it. I threw it and I got knocked down," he said. "When I was on the ground I heard the crowd go 'yay-boo,' so I knew we didn't score. But if I had another chance, I'd give it to him again."

Here are the top five NFL quarterbacks in preseason yardage. All of them have already played in their games this weekend (rookies and first-year players in CAPS):

Some Clemens and Nugent Support

I'm going to sound like an apologist and the two players probably don't need me to stump for them, but I feel QB Kellen Clemens and K Mike Nugent, despite Saturday night struggles, will be OK.

Clemens, who came in to run the Jets offense behind Brett Favre, completed five of 12 passes for 63 yards and twice stumbled dropping back from center. But Coach Mangini still stepped up for his No. 2 QB in advance of watching the game video.

One mitigating circumstance were dropped passes.

"Three drops would've been first downs," Mangini said. "We didn't have a very good third-down conversion rate offensively. We were 5-for-15. We could have easily had eight or nine third-down conversions had we held on to the ball."

Then for the center stumbles, anytime that happens you always need to check on what the center is doing as well as the QB.

"If the center steps on his foot twice, it’s not going to look very good," Mangini said. "I’ll have to look at the decision-making, where he went with the ball, things like that. It’s just a pretty unique set of circumstances there. It makes it harder to evaluate that part."

As for Nugent, the coach made it clear that Nugent's game-tying 23-yard field goal try that was emphatically rejected by the left upright was a "chip shot" and a "gimme" and that "those you have to make."

I didn't catch up with Nugent afterward but if I had, I'm sure he would've said the same thing. That won't atone for the miss, but Nugent is a hard worker and self-analyzer and he'll get it fixed. As ST coordinator Kevin O'Dea said when we were collecting quotes from the assistant coaches for this year's Jets Preview Book:

"Mike has a real strong leg, he's got really good mental toughness, his work ethic is outstanding and he's really easy to coach. He wants to be a Pro Bowl kicker, he has the drive, and that's half the battle to get to be No. 1 in your profession."

Before you pass final judgment on Nugent, wait for the next few preseason games and keep this fact in mind: Since the 2006 season opener at Tennessee, Nuge has gone 17-for-18 on fourth-quarter and overtime FG tries, which includes two last-minute game-tying kicks and three game-winners. And his only miss was in the somewhat inclement conditions at New England last year.

Schedule Changes

The original schedule called for a single training camp practice Monday afternoon, but Mangini canceled that, so the final two open practices of camp will take place Tuesday and Wednesday, both with 1:30 p.m. starts.

Even without practice Monday, Jets Shop and Jets Fest will both be open behind the Jets' Hofstra University practice fields from noon-3 p.m.

1050 ESPN New York will not broadcast the Michael Kay Show from Hofstra on Monday as planned but could come out later in the week.