The next hurdle on the off-season calendar is cleared today with the start of the Jets' Organized Team Activity practices, a.k.a. OTAs.
Rex Ryan is kicking off his first OTA period as an NFL head coach. "D-Rex" has already welcomed in his veteran players this morning for the first of three one-a-day practices this week, which is also the first of 11 practices distributed over the next four weeks.
Next week the rookie class is allowed by NFL/NCAA rules to return to the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center, so top draft pick Mark Sanchez, scheduled to graduate from Southern Cal on Saturday, and his fellow first-year men are expected to mix it up with the vets for the first time beginning with the OTA session a week from today.
The only media availability during the OTA period comes on each of the next four Thursdays, so Eric Allen and I won't be reporting until this Thursday on practice activities this week. But we will be filing our usual Radar entries and news stories as we are able. I can tell you that the vets were already on the outside turf field this morning, stretching under the watchful eyes of strength and conditioning coach Sal Alosi and his staff.
The OTA and off-season stretches of the calendar conclude with the third of Rex's three minicamps, a mandatory full-squad camp June 9-11, all five practices of which at the AHJTC will be open to the public. This is being called "Jets Week" at the training facility, and we'll have more details on that as we get them.
Then once the mandatory mini has come and gone, so to will have the players as they scatter back to their homes for one last month of rest, relaxation and preparation before the Jets get started again in late July. It will be their first training camp at Cortland State in upstate New York and their first under their new football boss.
