JET NOTES

The Jets, handicapped by injuries at linebacker and defensive back, will welcome back with open arms MLB Sam Cowart and rookie CB Derrick Strait tomorrow against the Ravens. Cowart has been out since suffering a knee injury the second week of the season at San Diego; Strait hasn’t played since Week 4 at Miami because of a foot injury suffered in practice.

With the Jets short at safety (Derek Pagel is out for the season and FS Jon McGraw is a game-time decision with an abdominal injury), Strait practiced back there this week and could see action both at safety and his regular dime spot, tomorrow against Baltimore.

“It’s good to see,” Herman Edwards said of Strait playing a new position. “His training at safety might help him in the long run.”

Cowart, who got off to a flying start with 19 stops in a game-and-a-half before his injury, will come off the bench to relieve Jonathan Vilma, who is excelling in the middle.

Both players have practiced the last two weeks, but because of the injuries sustained by the Jets last week at Buffalo, could not delay their return any longer.

“I practiced the last couple of weeks but it just wasn’t feeling good enough where I could go out there and compete,” Cowart said. “It’s all about having confidence in your leg and in your body. Right now I have confidence, but I’m not 100 percent. I have confidence I can go out there in case some guys get nicked up, or in case something happens, I can go in there.”

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QB Chad Pennington (shoulder), LB Jason Glenn (forearm), SS Rashad Washington (foot) are out. . . . DE Shaun Ellis (groin) is probable, according to Edwards, and McGraw (abdomen) is questionable.

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Following last week’s loss, Curtis Martin said it was the type of game the Jets needed to “bounce back” from. To that, Edwards said: “We’ll see on Sunday. . . . It’s a game we need to win, there’s no doubt about it. We’re running out of games now . . . This is one we need to win, and the only way you bounce back is if you win.”