Since the day I opened this site, Twitter has always been an important resource. It’s kept me fresh on the latest Jets news, allowed me to connect and communicated with our die-hardiest of fans, and has provided me with an immeasurable number of pointlessly wasted hours of brain rot. In fact, I’ve come to the program I once maligned that I even volunteered to scream into the echo chamber by writing an entire article for Jets Twit about how valuable it is. But never has Twitter proven itself to be as useful as it has this past week during training camp. Whereas once reporters skulked about with tiny flip notebook in hand (and properly credentialed fedora on head), now they carry Blackberries, logging their story 140 characters at a time. The payoff for the fan at home is enormous, as we not only get to learn of each big play as it happens, we get to hear about it 15,000 times over! It’s like being at the practice, minus the optics and scent of fresh air!

Of course, the news that I just linked to was the big story of the day, as Sanchez hit LaDainian on a 30 yard pass for a 70 yard touchdown on the very first play of the Green and White Game scrimmage, to the delight of the 9,500 fans who took the time to put down their Macbooks and show up in person. The play further validates my belief that LT was brought in to be a pass-catching option as much as anything else (between that, the cutting of Faneca and picking up of Santonio Holmes, what offensive move this offseason wasn’t designed to help the pass?). Jane McManus’s tweet implies that it was David Harris who let the TD through, but I know he’s not great in coverage and I trust the defense at large not to give up very many long-distance touchdowns – or touchdowns at all, really – in real games. Obviously, in a scrimmage, every positive play on one side of the ball is a negative one of the converse side, so if our defense had to blow it, I’m glad they did so on a play that should help quiet the mob of LT haters out there. Remember: there’s a reason Revis was asked to cover him at several points in that Chargers game.

Now that the Jets have assembled a team of Marks to compete with Miami’s all-Chad duo (Brunell was clearly preferable over Marc Bulger for spelling purposes), most of us have wondered, if only for a minute or two while in the shower, what Kellen Clemens’ future in the NFL looks like. From what I am reading, a lot of you would like to see the former Oregon Duck remain in New York, due to his knowledge of the playbook, popularity in the clubhouse and serious concerns regarding Brunell’s playing ability. Of course, with five QBs now on the roster, the retention of Clemens, Ainge and O’Connell has become untenable; it is a sure bet that at least one, and likely two of those three will be scrapped. Remarkably, of the trio, it is Clemens who is most likely to be released, even ahead of O’Connell, whose presence on this team has long mystified me. The reason being is of course that it is more economical to carry a scrub like O’Connell in the three or four spot than to plug a backup of fair-to-good quality like Clemens at third string. It is also a sign of respect to Kellen, whom we (the team, anyway…like a lot of fans, I was never sold on him) once considered to be the post-Pennington future, that we allow him to pursue his goal of earning a starting job elsewhere in the league. I may be jumping the gun, but it has been apparent to me for months now that this relationship will end, and end soon. All the better then that Clemens and the Jets part on mutually friendly terms, and that No.11 be granted his right to seek a better life outside the Big Apple.

But if Clemens is a goner, on whose shores can we expect him to wash up? It’s not an easy question to answer, although a general dearth of respectable depth at his position across the league assures us that he will be no more than a single injury away from meaningful time on the field. As for getting a whack or two at the day one starting job, well, the prospects are far thinner, and Clemens doesn’t exactly have a mind-blowing track record when it comes to training camp competitions, having lost three in a row now. He lacks the speed and instinct to play serious pro football – more Byron Leftwich than Kevin Kolb – and there was a time when most Jets fans were legitimately more enthusiastic about Brett Ratliff than this kid. That’s not a good sign. Moreover, if the jury was out on his initial starting effort in 2007, playing behind one of the NFL’s shakiest O-lines, then Clemens erased most doubts of his suckatude against the Buccaneers last December. Despite a massively dominate effort by much of the team, Clemens barely outplayed rookie Josh Freeman, and at times seemed almost completely lost.

But he’s got to get signed somewhere. So which five teams offer the cattle rancher from Burns, Ore. his best chance at redemption? Let’s have a look under the hood.

Nay, friends, I have not fallen into a permanent vegetative state, nor driven my ship off the edge of the earth, to the abyss where the great dragons dwell. It’s actually just kind of been a really busy week for me. As soon as I wrapped up my summer camp work, I was asked to do a near 180 and repack my bags for the Garden State. In the interim, I also happened to come down with bronchitis, or at least that’s what my doctor has told me. I still believe I’ve been stricken with consumption, and they’re going to have to do more than fling a few stethoscopes my way to convince me otherwise. While I was gone, my usually firm handle on the latest Jets news lessened a bit, to the point at which my father, upon picking me up from LaGaurdia, had to break it to me that we had contacted Terrell Owens’ agent. I didn’t believe him. About ten minutes later, he turned on WFAN and Don LaGreca delivered the grim news himself. My assumption at the time was that the team was merely doing their due diligence to investigate a prominent free agent, and that our consideration of him was no more serious than it was concerning JaMarcus Russell. In fact, signing JaMarcus would have made significantly more sense, given that we actually have need for a backup quarterback, whereas I can think of no role for T.O. on this team outside of making people hate us even more and presenting David Clowney with a huge raised middle finger just days after returning from his charity work in Ghana. No matter how serious our interest may have been, Owens indeed wound up in Cincinnati, which was always the only real, logical place for him, and I look forward to watching Cromartie blanket him on Thanksgiving night, while Revis silences his prolifically Twitterish compatriot across the field.

Now that Sanchez has been with this team for a year, let’s take a moment to zoom in on the quarterback depth chart and see what further changes can be made to beef ourselves up at the game’s most important position. Do not take for granted that the identity of our starter is obvious; this is the first year since 2007 that this has been so, and that was the year Clemens got the majority of his career starts once action got underway, so it’s actually a departure from our previously sad norm. Sanchez is, of course, still healing up after a surgical procedure to repair a ligament in his left knee which stemmed from an injury suffered before the start of his junior year at USC (I remember hearing about this on the radio in the Bronx on the way to Yankee Stadium and saying, “Good, screw that guy.” Ha.). Trainers say he’ll miss all of the pre-training camp workouts as a result. That’s a steep price, but none is too hefty to outweigh the benefits of mobility and good health. My expectation is that Mark is in for a very productive season, and his new “Christmas presents” can only help him out.

Like it or not, it’s starting to feel more and more like Jason Taylor and the Jets are going to be shacking up after all. Taylor, whom may speculated was simply using the Jets as a means of gaining leverage in his efforts to resign with the Dolphins, has lost patience with Bill Parcells, who has held something of a grudge against the former Defensive Player of the Year since arriving in South Florida. The Fins say they’ll play ball with Taylor, but likely not until after the draft. Meanwhile, Taylor has seemed genuinely receptive to the Jets’ advances, and, if I had to guess, has probably come under Rex’s spell like all of the rest of us. Beat reporters are calling this a ‘done deal,’ which would mean that, due to the Final Four restrictions that force him to adopt lost free agent Jay Feely’s financial status, we will be playing him $1.5 a year, presumably in a two-year contract situation.