08/25 — One theme that arose at head coach Eric Mangini's daily news conference this morning was that of Mike Westhoff and Internet rumors that had the longtime special teams guru returning to the Jets.

"Mike didn't leave because of anything in terms of him not being happy with the organization or me not being happy with Mike," Mangini said. "Mike's a great coach. I really like Mike a lot. He was in a really serious medical situation. That's what he's been focused on all summer.

"I've been in touch with Mike sporadically. I respect him a lot. He helped me a lot. I'm not opposed to Mike coming back in some capacity."

Mangini said it wasn't a matter of one side reaching out to the other on anything.

"Mike had to take care of things he had to take care of," he said. "He was in a lot of pain last season. He was kind of a model of toughness — look at the things he went through. It wasn't like he was off the Christmas card list or anything like that. He's still in the loop."

Mangini supported Kevin O'Dea, hired to coach the special teams following Westhoff's leave for the ninth surgery on his left leg in February,

"I'm happy with Kevin. I wouldn't have hired Kevin if I wasn't happy with him," the coach said. "It's never been a function of 'If Mike comes back.' It's never been a part of any discussion. It's never been a part of my thought process."

Another subject was first cuts. Teams must reduce their rosters to 75 players by Tuesday at 4 p.m. EST.

"We'll have to release four players. We've definitely looked at it and had talks about it with the staff, with Mike [Tannenbaum]," Mangini said. "A few things have to be worked out here. We'll do it in the allotted time."

Mangini also talked about the Jets running game and about Justin Miller and the cornerback position. We'll have news stories from Eric Allen and Stephen Haynes about those topics later today.