JET NOTES

There was something important missing from the Jets’ morning practice yesterday: Chad Pennington throwing passes with the first team.

No worries, though, Herman Edwards gave Pennington the morning off in an effort to preserve his arm, though Pennington was perfectly eager to practice in full.

“Chad is young, but with all the throwing that he has to do, we want to make sure he gets his rest,” Edwards said after Wisconsin rookie Brooks Bollinger handled a lot of the morning throwing. “We have always done that with our quarterbacks. We don’t want to wear them out. You just have to give them a day once in a while, because we throw the ball a whole lot.”

Pennington estimated that he throws anywhere from 100 to 130 balls during two sessions of practice.

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Speaking of quarterbacks, Tory Woodbury, who’s been with the team for three years, is in for a colossal battle to win a job this summer now that he’s been reverted back to his original position at QB.

Unless Bollinger, a draft pick, falls on his face, he’s mostly likely to be the third QB, leaving Woodbury out of the mix.

Edwards said he decided to switch Woodbury from WR back to QB while he was on vacation right before training camp began. His reasoning was that Woodbury couldn’t keep himself on the field as a receiver, constantly picking up nagging leg injuries.

“His legs weren’t ready to run and be a receiver every day and that caught up to him,” Edwards said. “It was killing the kid, not doing him any good, not doing us any good.”

Edwards said he spoke to Woodbury about some scenarios, one of which had Woodbury playing in NFL Europe next year to get quality experience at QB.