HOUSTON – The return of Plaxico Burress will have to wait. Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez has work to do with his other receivers anyway when New York opens the pre-season against Houston on Monday night.

The Texans, meanwhile, are eager to see how well they’ve learned Wade Phillips’ new 3-4 defensive scheme. Houston’s defence can only improve after ranking last against the pass last season (267.5 yards per game), the main culprit in a 6-10 record.

Monday’s game would’ve been notable for the resurfacing of Burress, who signed with the Jets on July 31 after serving a 20-month prison sentence on a gun charge. But Burress won’t even make the trip to Texas after spraining his left ankle in practice last week.

The other stars on both teams aren’t expected to see much action, either.

Jets Pro Bowl centre Nick Mangold will not travel, either, after hurting his neck Thursday, and Arian Foster, the NFL’s leading rusher in 2010, is also not expected to see action because of a hamstring strain.

In his limited time Monday, Sanchez can focus on building chemistry with free-agent pickup Derrick Mason, who was brought in to essentially replace Jerricho Cotchery, who was cut.

New York also lost Braylon Edwards and Brad Smith in free agency, but re-signed go-to receiver Santonio Holmes.

“I’m well prepared. I think this team has the potential to surpass what we did last year,” Sanchez said, “but it starts with this first game.”

Mason, entering his 15th season, has been hastily learning the playbook after spending his last six years in Baltimore.

“It’s going to take a lot of work,” the 37-year-old Mason said. “It’s going to take countless hours in the classroom. And then once we get into the classroom, we got to make sure that we take what we learn in the classroom onto the field.”

The Jets ranked 22nd in passing offence last season (202.6 yards per game), and Sanchez ranked 27th in passer rating among starters (75.3). Mason is projecting major improvement in the passing game, though he acknowledges that it may take some time to click.

“It’s not going to happen overnight. I wish it did,” he said. “It’s going to take a minute, but I think me knowing the system the way I do, I think it’s going to be quicker than what a lot of people anticipated.

“And then Plax, he’s only been here a week or two, and he’s picked up on the offence very well,” Mason said. “Once I get the nooks and crannies of the offence, I think we’re going to be very good.”

The Texans are hoping for a dramatic turnaround, too.

Houston overhauled its defensive personnel, acquiring cornerback Johnathan Joseph and safety Danieal Manning in free agency, and using six of eight draft picks on defensive players, including end J.J. Watt in the first round.

And with no off-season to spend with his players because of the lockout, Phillips has been working overtime to teach his new scheme.

“Defensively, I think Wade is very basic in what we’re fixing to go do Monday night,” Houston coach Gary Kubiak said. “We just want to see guys play, make sure they’re in the right spot. We’ve come a long way here in the first two weeks and we’ve got a grasp of the base stuff. That’s what we’re looking for.”

At the moment, Kubiak has more concerns on the offensive side, specifically at running back. Along with Foster, backups Steve Slaton and Ben Tate are also nursing hamstring injuries. That will leave most of the carries Monday night to Derrick Ward and former Texas star Chris Ogbonnaya, who’s impressed coaches in camp.

Kubiak says Matt Leinart will take the bulk of the snaps for the Texans. Leinart, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner, was a free agent and chose to return for a second season in Houston because he was comfortable with Kubiak and familiar with the system.

Leinart is expected to back up Matt Schaub this season, but openly says he wants to work his way into a starting role in the near future.

“I hope to carry over what I’ve been doing in practice to the game, just move the ball and score some points and play confident,” said Leinart, who didn’t throw a pass in 2010. “I want to get the guys in the right situations.”

Jets backup quarterback Mark Brunell travelled with the team but won’t play after injuring a finger on his left hand during practice Saturday. With the starters likely just going a quarter, that should leave most of the snaps to Greg McElroy, the team’s seventh-round pick, and undrafted free agent Drew Willy.

___

AP Sports Writer Dennis Waszak Jr. contributed from Florham Park, N.J.

By Ed Valentine

– Regional Editor

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Aug 14, 2011 – 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.

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FLORHAM PARK, N.J. – LaDainian Tomlinson looked around quizzically when asked if this year’s New York Jets were the NFL’s version of a dream team.

Tomlinson, who restructured his contract to help the Jets sign more players, then laughed and said the obvious:

“We don’t have LeBron, D-Wade or Chris Bosh on the team.”

Still, LT wasn’t dismissing the notion the Jets are among the Super Bowl favourites as the most unusual preseason in NFL history begins following the 4 1/2 month lockout. Nor was Jets coach Rex Ryan, who called this the best roster he’s had since coming to New York, holding back.

“In my mind, there’s a great opportunity for us to win and that’s the No. 1 thing, in my mind to be somewhere where we have a chance to win the Super Bowl,” Tomlinson said Monday after the team’s first workout, a slow-paced walkthrough in 90-degree temperatures. “I have said it all along (about restructuring) and this was my being able to prove the words I’ve said.”

As usual, there were lots of words escaping rapidly from Ryan and his players. Re-signed receiver Santonio Holmes echoed Ryan’s previous bold proclamations when the Jets were reaching the last two AFC championship games, and new receiver Plaxico Burress seconded the notion that this is a team on the rise.

“I’m pretty sure Coach will tell you the same thing that I’d probably tell you — we are the team to beat,” Holmes said. “But that’s for us to feel like, and that’s what we’re supposed to feel like when we go into any game, that no matter who steps on the field, you have to come and beat us because we know we’re tough.”

Added Burress, who hasn’t played since 2008 and spent much of the last two years in jail on a gun charge:

“I looked at what these guys have here. They have a great coach that everyone wants to play for in Rex. I want to be able to show loyalty from the other side and help take them to a championship.”

Ryan, sporting a new tribal-style tattoo on the side of his right calf, reiterated his belief this is the Jets’ year to win their first NFL title since the 1969 Super Bowl. He also issued a challenge to 30 other teams.

“I think we need to find someone else besides the Jets to beat the New England Patriots,” Ryan said, noting New England won the division the last two seasons, forcing the Jets to play all their playoff games on the road. “Are you good enough to beat the New England Patriots? I’m challenging the league.”

New York beat New England twice in 2010, including a second-round playoff game. To enhance their chances of overtaking the Patriots and making that final leap into the Super Bowl, several Jets reworked their contracts, allowing them to keep Holmes and cornerback Antonio Cromartie, grab Burress and even be in the sweepstakes to sign cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha until he landed in Philadelphia.

Other than Burress, the Jets’ core is relatively the same as in 2009. Ryan expects further growth from his key players, particularly Mark Sanchez, who he now calls “our leader” after making the quarterback a team captain.

“Part of it is based on what I think our leader is going to do, the strides I see him taking,” Ryan said.

Sanchez, 4-2 in playoff games, all on the road, says he welcomes the responsibility. Of course, what else would he say?

“As a third-year quarterback and team captain, it’s time to step up and convey to them what it means to be a Jet and to play like a Jet,” Sanchez said, mentioning the Yankees’ Derek Jeter as “the best captain you can think of in New York.”

“My improvement determines any kind of ceiling this team can have and our potential,” he added. “It’s time for me to step up my game.”

Notes: Ryan said recently re-signed Eric Smith will be a starter at safety opposite Jim Leonhard, replacing the departed Brodney Pool. … Burress will wear his old number, 17, a further indication WR Braylon Edwards won’t return … Cromartie was travelling early Monday and arrived just after the morning walkthrough ended. … In their flurry of weekend moves, the team signed cornerback Donald Strickland, who played for the team in 2009 but went to San Diego last season as a free agent.

Updated Jul 31, 2011 3:11 AM ET

The New York Jets will not be re-signing wide receiver Braylon Edwards because of financial constraints, the New York Daily News reported Saturday, citing a source.

On Wednesday, the Jets agreed with Santonio Holmes on a five-year deal reportedly worth $50 million, which Edwards knew was not a good sign for him. He said later that same day that while he wanted to return to the Jets, he was afraid they did not want him.

“I would love to be a Jet but the feeling doesn’t seem to be mutual with the management,” he wrote on Twitter.

The Jets will reportedly now shift their focus to re-signing cornerback Antonio Cromartie after they missed out in the race for Nnamdi Asomugha, who signed with the Eagles.

Edwards avoided jail time this week in a probation violation hearing in Cleveland Municipal Court. The 28-year-old was given 100 hours of community work service and one year of active probation.

He had pleaded guilty the previous week to a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated and was on inactive probation in Cleveland at the time of his DWI arrest stemming for a fight outside a nightclub with a friend of LeBron James, the New York Post reported.

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New York Jets wide receiver Braylon Edwards pleaded guilty Friday in his drunken driving case, pleased to get the case settled as it appeared the NFL’s labor dispute was nearing resolution.

“I feel good. I feel like it came to a fair conclusion,” Edwards said as he left a Manhattan court.

He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated charge and won’t face jail time or probation if he fulfills various obligations, including remaining in an NFL substance abuse counseling program that he’s been in since October.

“We’re happy that it’s past us, and now it’s really time to focus on football again,” he said.

Edwards, who must pay a $500 fine, will also have his driver’s license suspended for six months, and he must install a device that prevents a car from starting until the driver blows into a breath alcohol detector.

The 28-year-old, who will soon become a free agent, reiterated on Friday that he wants to stay with the Jets.

It’s not clear whether his guilty plea will prompt any suspension by the league, or whether it will affect his probation in Cleveland, where he pleaded no contest in January 2010 to misdemeanor aggravated disorderly conduct.

Edwards, who was with the Cleveland Browns before being traded to the Jets in October 2009, had been accused of punching a friend of NBA star LeBron James outside a nightclub.

Police pulled Edwards over in Manhattan before dawn on September 21, saying his Land Rover’s windows were too dark.

When tested, Edwards’ blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit, police said.

Edwards had challenged the reason for the traffic stop as well as the accuracy of the alcohol breath test.