The New York Jets will take the field for the first time in the 2011 season in Monday's clash with the Houston Texans, though the team will wait to wait a little longer for the debut of its most notable new addition.
This preseason opener at Reliant Stadium was supposed to mark the NFL return of Plaxico Burress from a 2 1/2-year absence away from the game. However, the controversial wide receiver came down with a sprained ankle during the early portion of training camp and has since been ruled out by head coach Rex Ryan.
Burress last participated in a game in November of the 2008 season, while then a member of the crosstown foe New York Giants. He would miss the final five contests of that campaign as a result of an accidental gunshot wound in his leg while at a Manhattan night club, then spent the next two years out of football while imprisoned on charges stemming from that incident.
The Jets weren't overly concerned about the 34-year-old's absence, signing him to a one-year, $3 million contract in late July to become a part of a remade receiver corps that will be an area to watch for the 2010 AFC Championship Game participants this preseason.
Burress joins holdover Santonio Holmes, rookie Jeremy Kerley and 14-year pro Derrick Mason, a free-agent defection from Baltimore, in a new-look cast of targets for third-year quarterback Mark Sanchez. The Jets also lost key contributors Braylon Edwards and Brad Smith through free agency and released veteran Jerricho Cotchery shortly after the start of camp.
Ryan said he expects his first units to play about one quarter.