Dec 7th 2008 10:50AM by Ryan Wilson (author feed)
Filed under: Jets, AFC East, NFL FansJust prior to the season, when the Jets unceremoniously dumped Chad Pennington to trade for Brett Favre, one of Pennington’s closest friends on the team, wideout Laveranues Coles, wasn’t happy with the move. At least that was the perception because he really didn’t say much about it publicly.

With the Jets facing the 49ers this week, Coles was on a midweek conference call with the San Francisco media, and while Pennington’s name didn’t come up, his successor’s sure did. The ’s John Crumpacker writes that Coles “sounded almost bitter at the impact Favre’s arrival in New York has had on him.” “We’re in a quarterback-driven offense where he pretty much has control of everything, where before the offense was pretty much driven through me. … I just kind of become a role player instead of a guy that teams had to prepare for.” …

“This is his offense. When we do throw the ball, there’s really no level of importance, where at one point it used to be where I was the guy … in position to get the ball most of the time.” Hmm. Sounds like Coles, who by all accounts is a swell dude, is less happy with his diminished role than with who’s occasionally throwing him the ball. Fair enough; he’s an established veteran used to being the feature wideout in the Jets’ — and before that, the Redskins’ — offense. Keep that in mind as Coles continues:Continue Reading