12/27 — The Jets locker room recently has taken on the feel of a truck stop, with wiry, muscular men coming and going every week. This can be a good thing if the bodies coming in are better than the bodies going out. As Mike Tannenbaum and Eric Mangini said when they first arrived here early in 2006, they'll be looking under every rock all year long to find their kind of players, and the looking continues.

Perhaps they found some good ones in Robert Turner and Clint Oldenburg. Turner has been around the Jets since May, Oldenburg since September. Both were practice-squadders until being signed to the active roster a week ago, and both made their NFL debuts in O-line rotations at Tennessee. I visited with both in Wednesday's locker room session to check out the cut of their jibs (to paraphrase Montgomery Burns).

Turner, alternating with Will Montgomery at left guard, actually helped hold Pro Bowl DT Albert Haynesworth at bay Sunday, but he's a low-key guy who could pass for one of those thoughtful folksy, bluesy singers from his hometown of Austin, Texas, so he wasn't jumping for joy in front of his locker over his NFL unveiling.

"I think it was a good experience getting my feet wet," he said. "Obviously there are things I personally can improve on, whether it's the game plan or technique or just being a better football player. It was a good start. I wish we would've won, regardless of whether I played or not. That's the biggest thing is getting a 'W' and I think just self-improvement, everybody taking it one step at a time."

For those reasons, Turner had a few blocks he liked but he wasn't thinking in terms of a great play as the highlight of his big day.

"I don't think in a situation like this you can really look at an individual highlight when we have three wins on the season," he said. "It's more about getting better as a team within the scheme. That could be a personal highlight for me, getting better within the scheme to help the team."

Oldenburg has that same kind of mindset. But he had less exposure in coming in for Anthony Clement at RT than Turner had at LG, and one play stood out for him.

"Obviously, I gave up that sack," he said, reflecting on Titans DE Travis LaBoy's takedown of Chad Pennington in the second quarter, "and you never want to do something like that ever, especially not in your debut, so I'm disappointed in that."

But Oldenburg, the Patriots' fifth-round pick this year, is happy he's contributing to the Green & White program, something he didn't know he'd be doing in Nashville.

"When you're on the practice squad, that's always your goal, to get activated and play, but you never know when it's going to happen so you have to stay ready," he said. "I actually had no idea, but I was preparing myself for that every week. I was ready to go, and I appreciate the opportunity from Coach Mangini. Now I've got to go out there and do better."

That's part of the Mangini philosophy. If you stay, it's a good bet you'll play.

"I've liked both those guys," head coach Eric Mangini said at his Wednesday news conference. "We had a chance to bring them up, something he had done with [Jason] Trusnik earlier on and Chris Davis. Those guys had reached that point where I thought it was the right time for them.

"They both really have earned the opportunity," the coach continued. "It's more a function of them creating the chance to play, and then once they get in the game, seeing how well they're doing and evaluating that as you go."

Does that mean we'll see more of Turner and Oldenburg in the season finale vs. Kansas City? I really don't know, but I sense talking to them today that they have the right mentality for the Mangini plan.

"If they're going to bring you in," Turner said, "you've got to be ready to go, physically, mentally, emotionally and within the game plan itself."

J-Co One More Time

Another wrinkle to Jerricho Cotchery's eight-catch, 152-yard, one-TD game at Tennessee was his double centerpiece to the day, a pair of 40-yard receptions. The first was the 48-yard post in the second quarter, 35 of it in the air from Chad Pennington. The second was the 41-yard catch-and-run — mostly 37 yards of run — in the third quarter.

It was Cotchery's second double-40 game of the season (you remember Game 2 at Baltimore, of course). And it is sobering to consider that J-Co equaled the number of other double-40 games by all other Jets pass-catchers combined since 1995. Here's the short list of those performances: