08/07 — This was going to be an advance of the Jets' long-awaited preseason opener tonight against the Browns in Cleveland.

There were some really interesting Green & White storylines: first look at the Jets' rebuilt defense going against the Brownies' up-and-coming offense, the pro debuts of first-round rookies Vernon Gholston and Dustin Keller, the Jets debuts of Super Bowl-winning O-linemen Alan Faneca and Damien Woody, Woody's reunion with Romeo Crennel, the Cleveland head coach and former Patriots assistant whom Woody calls "a great man" ...

And the next phase of the Jets' latest quarterback competition.

Scratch that last item, and put all the others on the backburner for a while. Brett Favre trumps all.

That is not to say that Favre, traded to the Jets by the Green Bay Packers late Wednesday night, is now the only Jet that counts or the most important Jet. Far from it. He is the latest piece to the puzzle of the 2008 New York Jets team that takes the Cleveland Browns Stadium field in a short while.

But while there is no "I" in "team," there is expected to be a Favre frenzy in Cleveland. The three-time NFL MVP, nine-time Pro Bowler, one-time Super Bowl winner and future Hall of Famer will be part of a news conference in the basement of the stadium alongside Lake Erie beginning at 6 p.m.

The news conference is scheduled to have Favre, Jets chairman and CEO Woody Johnson and general manager Mike Tannenbaum in attendance. Because the threesome flew out of the New York area this afternoon, their appearance will be dictated by the logistics of air travel between Teterboro Airport and Cleveland/Hopkins International Airport, and then traffic flow between airport and the stadium.

(Favre was flying out of Teterboro near the Meadowlands because he was going to take a tour of the new Atlantic Health Jets Training Facility in Florham Park, N.J. Favre never made it to the facility. He met Johnson and Tannenbaum inside a hanger of Morristown Municipal Airport this afternoon. From there they took an aerial tour of the facility, then flew to Teterboro.)

But there are an awful lot of news organizations gathering at the stadium in the hope of getting Favre's first public utterances as a full-fledged Jets QB. Among them are the following television entities — NFL Network, ESPN, SNY, AP-TV, ABC, CBS, WCBS, plus several Wisconsin TV stations — plus all the New York area newspapers, many with columnists parachuting in today to join their beatwriters, and yahoo.com.

And when Favre's news conference gets under way, at least four New York TV stations are expected to interrupt their 6 o'clock newscasts to bring the news conference back to their viewers live.

From there, Favre is expected to watch the game (no, he will not suit up) from inside the stadium, along with a crowd estimated at 50,000 very optimistic Browns fans who have had a little extra electricity added to their team's preseason opener.

In a way, with all the cameras on hand you could say this will be the Jets' first nationally televised game of the season. However, the news will be more about Favre and less about the game.

The Jets have made no announcement, but with the release of Chad Pennington announced earlier this afternoon, you can expect Kellen Clemens to get the starting nod.

And KC will be running an offense that will feature the running of Thomas Jones and Leon Washington, a competitive wideout corps topped by Laveranues Coles and Jerricho Cotchery, a tight end group fortified by the off-season additions of Bubba Franks as a free agent, Dustin Keller in the draft, and by the return from the PUP list this week of Chris Baker.

At some point, perhaps as soon as the Aug. 16 preseason home opener against Washington, Clemens will hand the keys to the offense over to Favre, who will be then be in uniform No. 4 in green and white, not green and gold.

The defense, for at least the first quarter, will send Jenkins at RB Jamal Lewis, linebackers Calvin Pace and perhaps Gholston at the pocket protecting QB Derek Anderson, and a secondary featuring S Kerry Rhodes and CB Darrelle Revis up against a Browns pass-catching corps featuring WR Braylon Edwards and TE Kellen Winslow.

We at newyorkjets.com will bring you news stories on the Favre news conference and the Jets-Browns game, and I'll try to save some time to provide some important Radar observations in each quarter. Then I'll wrap up the blogging with a postgame report from the Jets' locker room, where you'll hear the first comments from the Jets about saying goodbye to No. 10 (Pennington) and welcoming No. 4 (Favre) into the fold.