Here are five interesting, perhaps even buzzworthy, storylines we heard directly from the mouths of Jets players during their first week of training camp.

CB Brandon Stephens on the impact the Jets' three free-agent defensive pillars can have ...
Brandon Stephens, the sixth-year veteran NFL starter, appreciated a question about if Demario Davis, Minkah Fitzpatrick and David Onyemata can lead the Jets' culture to the next level.

"They have played winning football, they've been in the league for a long time, so they know what it looks like," Stephens said. "When you bring guys that have been in the league for a long time and know what good culture is, wherever they've been from, whether that was playing high-level football in college or in the NFL, it does something to us overall. Just having that leadership in the room, it just gives everybody else confidence, and especially the way that they work.

"At the same time, we're trying to build confidence in ourselves each and every day. But obviously having veterans like that, man, it's easy to go [all-out] for them." (Fill in your favorite four-word football phrase for "all-out" between the brackets.)

Jeremy Ruckert on the crowd of first-rounders in the TEs room ...
One might think that with tight ends selected in the first round the past two drafts, the TE taken in Round 3 four years ago might feel like he's down for the count. But that's not the way Jeremy Ruckert rolls.

"This year I was actually at an event, hosting a draft party," Ruckert said of the April draft that brought the Jets  Kenyon Sadiq in Round 1 one year after they drafted Mason Taylor. "it seems like everyone else has an opinion of it, more than I do. I'm confident in myself, I'm confident that I'm here for a reason, and once we start rolling and once we start playing, we're going to try and show the offense that we can all be on the field at the same time. As far as the reaction goes on draft night, I didn't really hear much of it. You have friends and family trying to check in on you, see how you're doing.

"I just got extended last year. I'm excited to be here. I really rock with AG, I rock with everything that's going on, and like I said, I'm confident in myself and the direction that we're going."

Demario Davis on how the Lego pieces in the run defense are snapping into place ...
"We haven't even had T-Sweat out there with us yet, and we know what type of monster he is," Demario Davis told Eric Allen and Bart Scott on **Jets Training Camp Live** this week regarding the injured interior force T'Vondre Sweat. "But Harrison Phillips in the middle, Jowon Briggs, David Onyemata, those guys are setting the tone, playing with great hands and great feet, the way [DL] Coach [Karl] Dunbar has taught it consistently. You can see it showing up on the field.

"Then Kingsley Enagbare and Will McDonald IV on the outside, they're setting the edge. A good edge is like a firm foundation. You can build a defense on that."

Braelon Allen on the padded-practice tightrope all Jets must walk ...
The Jets' 240-pound RB bruiser said it's great to be back in pads, as the Jets were Monday for the first time this camp, but there is still a thought process that every player has to go through each practice while wearing the extra protection..

"There's a balance for sure that you've got to find because you're trying to protect each other," Braelon Allen said. "I kind of look at it in the way that in a game, what's a DB going to try to do to me? They're going to try to take my legs out. Obviously, they're not doing that in practice. In a game I would try to run this guy over, so I'm not going to do that to him because they're not trying to tackle me the same way that they would in a game.

"So it's like how do I practice my style of running with protecting them? And I think that's just kind of honestly branching off and trying to work on different parts of my game and trying to make people miss in practice and maybe throw a stiff-arm here or there that's not like super violent, but I'm still getting the work in.

"Yeah, it's definitely a balance. My coach wants to see me do what I do so that way he can coach it up in the film room, but I can't be as physical as I would be in a game."

Olu Fashanu giving some love to his and Armand Membou's backup, "Uncle Chukes" ...
"I love Chukes," Olu Fashanu said of Chukwuma Okorafor, the ninth-year veteran entering his second season as a seasoned Jets tackle competitor. "Even though he's only 28, 29, we think of him like an uncle. He's been in the league for a long time and he has a ton of experience. Just having a guy in the room that, if you're ever skeptical about anything, you can just go up and ask him and he has a really good answer for anything, just having a guy like that in the room is really nice."