Mike Westhoff, the Jets’ demanding special teams coach, does not toss around compliments as if they were flower bouquets at a wedding. They don’t come easy.

Westhoff has as much perfectionist in him as any coach you’ll find in the NFL. So when he offered unsolicited raves about free agent kickoff returner Albert Johnson, his words were to be taken rather seriously.

“Albert Johnson has been outstanding,” Westhoff said. “I can’t be any happier with what I’ve seen.”

This is excellent news, albeit early, for the Jets, who’ve been devoid of a kickoff returner since Chad Morton defected to Washington as a free agent in the tumultuous Jets’ offseason.

Johnson, who’s coming off consecutive torn ACL knee injuries while with the Dolphins, appears to be the leader in the clubhouse at the moment to take over for Morton.

While he’s looked explosive in some camp drills, the next step for Johnson is Japan next week as he gets a chance to show his stuff against the Buccaneers in Tokyo on Aug. 2.

“Oh, man,” Johnson said yesterday, his eyes widening, “I can’t wait to get back on the field, because of the way I went out. Kick returning to me is an adrenaline rush. You get to open the game with all eyes on you, and if you make a big play you can change the momentum of the game.”

Johnson, 25, said he’s watched all of Morton’s tapes from last year and vividly remembers seeing Morton score on those two KO returns in Buffalo on opening day last year, the second one winning the game in OT for the Jets.

“I remember watching that,” Johnson said. “That’s what you live for, you live for those moments.”

Johnson said of the Morton fiasco, during which the Jets thought they’d matched the Washington restricted free agent offer and then were overruled by an arbitrator, “I don’t know what happened with that whole debacle, but it opened up a door for me, and I want to take advantage of it.”

Johnson deserves a break.

He blew out his right knee in August of 2001 early in training camp with the Dolphins. He missed the season, made the team in 2002 and was ironically second to Morton with a 27.5-yard KO return average through the first four games of the season when he blew out his left knee against the Chiefs and missed the rest of the season.

“The ball hasn’t bounced my way the past two years, but God gave me another chance to play football coming back from both of these injuries and I just want to take full advantage of that,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s chief competition is coming from two rookie RBs – Ohio University’s Chad Brinker and CW Post’s Ian Smart, each of whom has also had strong respective starts to camp. Running back, however, is a very deep position already for the Jets, while it would seem a receiver like Johnson would have a better shot at the numbers game.