06/14 — Veteran left guard Pete Kendall returned to work and even worked with the first offense at times, but at other times he was with the twos. He was kind of a 1½. He started the day with the second team behind Adrien Clarke, then would move in with the first offense for a while before being replaced by Clark.

See Eric Allen's news story for today's comments by head coach Eric Mangini, GM Mike Tannenbaum and Kendall on his status.

Kerry Rhodes was excused from the practice.

The D had some strong moments. Early on, Smith blitzed — remember, these are no-pads, no-contact practices — for a backfield "tackle" of Thomas Jones on a draw. Free agent Leonard Peters made a nice diving breakup of a low Brett Ratliff pass for Chansi Stuckey.

Coleman had a nice rush that forced Kellen Clemens into a hasty incompletion. In the battle of the twos, David Bowens at RDE beat Adrian Jones at LT to force another hurried pass.

In the two-minute drive to end practice, Rashad Washington made a nice breakup of a Chad Pennington pass for TE Chris Baker, swatting Baker's hand and forcing the ball loose. But Pennington responded with a scramble and heave to Brad Smith, who double-snatched the ball away from Smith for the TD with 0:00 on the clock.

Mike Nugent finished by adding the tying PAT, then going 3-for-5 (hitting from 44 and 45, missing from 44 and 46) into a fair crosswind on field goals.

Jeff Weinstein of newyorkjets.com heard DE David Bowens commenting on the weather. With the breezes, overcast skies and temperatures in the low 60s, Bowens, who spent his previous six NFL seasons with the Dolphins, "It's time to turn the heaters on, man. Where are the space heaters?"

During the practice, Brian Mulligan — Dr. Bri, I like to call him — cranked up some different sound, alternating the usual rap and rock numbers with Mozart and, for the first time, actual downloaded crowd noise and stadium sound effects. Get ready for that in five weeks or so at training camp.