12/06 — David Harris' hot rookie season goes on. Today Harris got the first of his NFL awards when the league recognized him as the Defensive Rookie of the Month for November.

"I'm honored to win it," Harris said during today's locker room session. "I have to keep going in to work each day, keep going hard and take it one day at a time."

By the Jets coaching staff's breakdown, Harris' month, which began with his career-high 20-tackle game vs. Washington, produced 44 tackles in four games. What's most impressive about the tackle totals is that even though he had no tackles in the season's first two games and 16 through six games, he now leads the team with 82 tackles.

Also in November, Harris had two sacks and the forced fumble and recovery at Miami.

Head coach Eric Mangini praised Harris not for his singing voice but for his playcalling voice in the defensive huddle.

"It was important during training camp for him to work with the first group as well as the second group so they could hear his voice," Mangini said. "Jon was the voice for a long time. Now suddenly he isn't there. But I thought the work David got during training camp and even the OTAs was important. He's gotten better and better each week. There's a little more bass in his voice each week, he's a little more authoritative."

"I'm a quiet guy. I don't know where that's coming from," Harris said, explaining his basso profundo reputation as simply the result of  "the more you play, the more you go out there with the guys, the more comfortable you get."

The only other time Jets were named Rookies of the Month came in 2004, when S Erik Coleman got the DROM award for September and Jonathan Vilma claimed it for November.

"The Hitman" is also in the running for the Diet Pepsi Rookie of the Week award, for which fans can vote, although in this tally Harris is well behind the leading vote-getter, Buffalo QB Trent Edwards, whose five field goal drives helped the Bills to a 17-16 road win over the Redskins.

Brad at the Controls

I mentioned the design and execution of Brad Smith's 19-yard touchdown reception from Kellen Clemens, and Smith today had to agree it was pretty neat.

"I think when we practiced that play, it always looked good," Smith said. "I can imagine how tough it is for defenses when we put Leon [Washington] at receiver or Jerricho [Cotchery] in the backfield and all that stuff."

But I also wanted to know if there was any difference for Smith when he actually was "the QB" for two of those gadget plays the Jets ran against the Dolphins.

Usually when Smith has handled the snap with the Jets, either Chad Pennington or Kellen Clemens is also in the formation, as a "flanker" or a "tailback." And on one of those plays at Miami, Clemens was flanked wide. But on the other two, Smith was the only QB in the huddle.

"Those are all just part of the package," Smith said. "I hadn't even thought about it like that. It was pretty cool, though, I'll say that."

National Spotlight for Leon

Leon Washington has not been avoiding the media this week, but he has been scarce in the locker room as he has been doing some national TV interviews this week in advance of his run-in with the Browns and their own returner par excellence, Joshua Cribbs.

We'll have a feature on that battle on newyorkjets.com during Friday's news cycle, but if you have NFL Network on your cable system, you can get a glimpse of Washington, Cribbs, Devin Hester and others on tonight's weekly "Who Is ... " program that airs at 8 p.m.

Kudos for McCareins

Before we get to Cleveland, it should be noted that Justin McCareins' 51-yard reception from Kellen Clemens over the Dolphins' Will Allen at Miami was his longest in his four seasons as a Jet. Here are Justin's five 50-yard catches in his six-year career:

Sweet 16 for Nugent

I'll have more on Mike Nugent's role at Miami and heading into Cleveland on Saturday, but what may have gone by the boards was that the Dolphins game was one of Nugent's best as a pro. He scored a career-high 16 points by going 4-for-4 in both field goals and PATs, and in fact scored sweet 16 in a game for only the second time since his college career began at Ohio State. (Do you Buckeyes fans remember when that was?)

Nuge also muscled five of his kickoffs to the goal line or into the end zone against the Dolphins, another career high, which helped control rookie speed man Ted Ginn Jr.