08/19 — David Clowney will be sidelined for a stretch, Jets head coach Eric Mangini said at the top of his daily news conference today.

Clowney, who burst on the scene with two 70-yard touchdown receptions in the preseason opener at Cleveland and who still leads the NFL by a wide margin with 222 receiving yards (on eight catches), injured his shoulder when he was rolled over by Washington CB Justin Tryon.

"David won't be out there for a little while. We'll just take it day by day and kind of gauge it," Mangini said, confirming that he suffered a shoulder injury on the play. Asked how serious the injury is, the coach replied, "I don't know yet."

To replace waived S Nate Lyles on the 80-man roster and Clowney on the WR depth chart, the Jets announced the signing of WR Larry Brackins, an interesting candidate who just finished playing for a championship team — the Arena League's Philadelphia Soul.

Brackins was Tampa Bay's fifth-round draft pick out of Pearl River CC in Mississippi in 2005. The Bucs made him a last cut in '05 and an even quicker cut in July of '06, but the 6'4", 225-pounder found a home with Philly in the AFL.

Here are Brackins' Arena League totals:

 
Gaudy numbers, although of course they were compiled on the AFL's 50-yard fields. We'll see if Brackins' game can translate to the NFL gridiron in the coming days and weeks.

Mangini was asked about K Mike Nugent and top pick Vernon Gholston and he was bullish on both players.

"Mike's just a conscientious guy. Nobody's going to be harder on Mike than Mike is," Mangini said of his kicker, who missed 43- and 23-yard field goals, the latter to send the Redskins game to overtime on the last play of regulation. "That's because he's a perfectionist. He's always trying to improve his stroke, his mechanics. He doesn't miss very often from that distance. I told him we have to move forward. I don't anticipate that happening again in the future."

What Mangini does anticipate from Gholston is more improvement from the progress he saw against the 'Skins.

"I thought Vernon really improved in base," the coach said. "There was plenty of room to improve. I'm not saying it's here. But I thought there was a real sense of improvement there. He had a better understanding of the pass coverage element, where he fits. The sub, a lot of people feel, will be his strength. Now he's got to have that other pitch so that when he goes from speed to power, it's more impactful. It's something we'll keep working on with him. Each day he chips away a little bit. It'll break for him. It's just a question of when."

We'll bring you a practice blog after today's single session, which should run from 1:30 till about 3:30, plus a report on Brett Favre's in-week news conference and other features on this next-to-last day of training camp.