ets betting big that Plaxico Burress still has it

If the quarterback down the turnpike hadn’t gone from behind bars to the middle of the MVP conversation last season, the return of Plaxico Burress to the NFL might carry a bit more of the air of the unknown, the scent of a novelty act.
Instead, there is an oddly immediate precedent as the 34-year-old wide receiver comes back to professional football after missing two seasons while serving a prison sentence. While Burress was pondering post patterns during his time at Sing Sing, Michael Vick came back with the Philaelphia Eagles, gradually emerging from behind Donovan McNabb and Kevin Kolb to emerge as a more polished version of his old highlight-reel self.
Now it’s Burress to the Jets after two years away. When he last played, Burress was less than a year removed from his Super Bowl-winning catch against the Patriots. He had a brand-new, big-money contract and the Giants were 12-1 and in great shape for a championship repeat. All that disappeared when Burress accidentally shot himself in a night club.
“A guy that was ready for a second opportunity,” said his new teammate Santonio Holmes. “He was pretty much in his prime, really reaching his peak.”
Burress is not Vick. He’s five years older than Vick was in 2009, plays a different position, is a different type of athlete. The speed and quickness that always made Vick special is the type of skill more likely to fade with inactivity and age. But Burress was never a quicksilver wide receiver. His 6-foot-5 height set him apart, and the man didn’t shrink.
Before the Jets played the Cincinnati Bengals in their second preseason game, coach Rex Ryan approached Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis, the defensive coordinator in Baltimore when Ryan was an assistant there and Burress was playing for the division rival Steelers.
“Hey, Marv,” Ryan said, “look how big this guy is.”
That’s the primary reason that Burress is here, that the Jets snuck in and swept him up with a guaranteed one-year deal while he was on his way to the West Coast after meeting with the Giants.
Last season the Jets were dismal in the red zone, 28th in efficiency in the NFL. And the closer he got to the end zone, the worse quarterback Mark Sanchez got. Sanchez completed just 47.7 percent of his passes inside the 20 and 29.6 percent inside the 10.
Burress is supposed to be the solution to that.
“It’s a nice bit of insurance there having a big player like that, a big body, somebody who knows how to use his body,” said Sanchez. “He’s a great target.”
“He’s got that mismatch every time he goes up,” said Ryan after Burress caught a touchdown pass diving for a fade in the end zone against the Bengals in his first action as a Jet. “You see we beat cover one and we beat cover zero throwing the ball up to him and I don’t care who you are playing corner, you could be Willie Brown or Darrelle Revis out there, it’s gonna be tough.”
Ryan needs to be right. The Jets may be betting their season that Burress can be the player he was three years ago and lift their passing game up from the bottom half of the league.
They let Braylon Edwards walk, choosing Burress instead. Edwards ended up with a one-year deal in San Francisco for around the same money the Jets gave Burress. Last season Edwards led the Jets with 17.1 yards per catch and seven touchdown catches.
They agreed to release steady veteran Jerricho Cotchery, a reliable receiver who apparently tired of all the new faces — Holmes, Edwards, Burress, Derrick Mason — brought in to play ahead of him through the years.
Mason is the 37-year-old who will step into Cotchery’s No. 3 spot, his numbers steadily declining since he caught a career-high 103 passes in 2007.
And while the Jets were chasing cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha in the opening days of the free-agent frenzy, versatile fourth receiver Brad Smith bolted for Buffalo.
The Jets didn’t bring in Burress to be a complementary guy or a No. 3 receiver. They’re expecting a receiver dangerous enough to keep the pressure off Holmes. They’re expecting Burress to be the player he was three and four years ago.
Not surprisingly, Ryan sees big things coming.
“We’ve got a lot of weapons,” said Ryan. “I think it’s gonna be something when you put Plaxico out there with Santonio and Derrick Mason. That’s gonna be a special group I think.”
The start was promising enough. In his Jets debut against the Bengals, Burress closed the first half with a spectacular catch, laying out to grab a 26-yard fade over the shoulder.
“Once a ballplayer,” said Holmes, “always a ballplayer.”
That was preseason. Sunday against the Cowboys, the Jets will start to find out if Burress was worth it.
“It’s football,” said Burress. “It feels normal. Nothing about the game has changed.”