One by one they shudder, sigh and squirm on their locker stool.
The subject yesterday was Jets defensive end John Abraham and the interviewees were Abraham’s offensive teammates being asked about playing against him.
Abraham, in his second NFL season, is short on career statistics and long on potential. Very long on potential.
Sure he played in only six games as a rookie last season before being knocked out for the rest by a sports hernia. But Abraham had four sacks in those six games and the Jets were 5-1 with him in the lineup – only as a part-time pass-rushing specialist.
Abraham enters Sunday’s season opener against the Colts as the full-time defensive end.
For the moment, he’s Peyton Manning’s problem as well as Colts right tackle Adam Meadows’, who’ll undoubtedly be receiving a significant amount of help on double and triple teams.
The Abraham-Manning matchup will be one to watch Sunday particularly because Manning, who is rarely sacked (only 20 times in 2000), is nursing a sprained right knee suffered two weeks ago in preseason and is certainly a hit away from watching from the sidelines.
“One-on-one?” Jets right tackle Ryan Young said. “Yeah, right. You can’t block him one-on-one. I’m serious. When I practice against ‘AB’ he gives me fits. By the time I get into a game it’s easy.”
Young paused and pointed to backup tackle Cornell Green, who faces Abraham the most in practice as a scout team performer, and said, “Ask Cornell. Cornell knows him.”
“I faced him in college,” said Green, who played at Central Florida. “He got a sack on me. But I got him, too. I’ve got a picture of me on top of him. I should put that up in my locker.”
Jets right guard Randy Thomas said there are times when he breaks from his rest while on the sideline with the defense on the field just so he can watch Abraham.
“It excites me seeing him go around tackles,” Thomas said. “When he’s out there I want to see what’s going on, because you never know when he’s going to get those sacks and get us the ball back.”
We asked Vinny Testaverde this: If you played against Abraham, would he have an eye on him across the line of scrimmage at all times?
“I practice against him every day and I have my eye on him . . . and I know he’s not going to hit me,” Testaverde said. “I’m glad he’s playing for us. That’s one guy I don’t have to worry about going against.
“He’s as fast as a receiver, as strong as a lineman. He has great quickness. He has everything. You compare him to LT (Lawrence Taylor).”
Strong words.
“He has that type of ability,” Testaverde said.
“We watch him from the sideline just like people watched LT,” Curtis Martin said.
“I don’t care how good you are or how long you’ve been in the league, he’s going to come up with something against you to make a big play,” Thomas said.
This will be Abraham’s challenge this year – making plays consistently – because teams are going to be game planning for him. He’ll surprise nobody.
“Obviously, he’s tremendous off the edge, but what he’s got to overcome now is he’s got some attention on him,” Herman Edwards said. “Teams are going to double him, chip him, people are going to try to run the ball right at him, cut him, make it ugly for him.
“If I’m on offense, I’m not running away from him, I’m running right at him. If you run away from him he’s going to chase you down from the back side and make the play.
“It’s one thing when it’s third-and-eight and they’re going to pass the ball 80-percent of the time, but now he’s going to have to figure out first and second down,” Edwards went on. “That’s when John is going to have to grow up. He has to get through first and second down and then, on third down, he can pay them back.”