"As rain fell on Florham Park, N.J. shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday, Jets wideout Santonio Holmes and quarterback Mark Sanchez , fresh off a preseason loss to the Houston Texans and a late flight home, debated staying up or going to sleep. Holmes, who played minimally, opted to delay his NyQuil dose to lift weights at the team facility with Sanchez, who napped on the plane, and rookie Greg McElroy , the game's workhorse who attempted 39 passes. For an hour, they tore through repetitions and ran extra sprints.

"I think he's grown," Rex Ryan said of Sanchez. "I can promise you Tone would not have been (lifting early) last year."

For Sanchez and Holmes, fused together by the Jets' $50 million investment in the receiver and the insistence that the future is now with the third-year quarterback, the union of captains has accelerated both along their respective learning curves. Encouraged by the leadership displays to date, Ryan believes the team is already following.

"This is really Mark's offense," Ryan said."