New and improved Santonio Holmes could be NY Jets answer in playoff run

Santonio Holmes hopes to be flying high into the end zone this weekend when he returns from an injury.

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Santonio Holmes let down his seemingly impenetrable guard a couple weeks ago for just a few moments. For the first time in a long time, he sounded human, not angry or bitter or fed up dealing with people who were surely going to bend his words to fit their own pre determined narratives. "To have years like this and last year that are limiting (my) opportunity to help this team, (is) really challenging," Holmes said.

He has been painted as the team villain for more than two years. A well respected teammate once told me that Holmes was a "cancer" and that being around him was "like dealing with a 10 year old."

Holmes despises reporters. From the moment he proclaimed to me after an offseason workout in Florida two years ago that "the media don't make me and the media don't break me," I knew that he genuinely didn't care about his image. He just wanted to catch footballs, win games and be left alone.

"He is really misunderstood," wide receivers coach Sanjay Lal told the Daily News. "I can honestly say that."

Holmes still hates people like me (especially me), but the injuries that have robbed him of much of the past year and a half have given him perspective and made him a better teammate. He's expected to return this week from a nagging hamstring injury that sidelined him for five games, a welcome sight for a team in the thick of the wildcard race.

"He has been a model citizen so far," a Jets insider said. "Besides, we need him."

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Only Holmes, 29, truly knows whether he is a changed man from the petulant version of himself that symbolized the team's dysfunction two years ago. Mark Sanchez reached his boiling point during a players only film session with quarterbacks and wide receivers after Holmes became disinterested in watching plays that didn't involve him in the run up to the crucial 2011 season finale against the Dolphins. According to people in the room, Sanchez shouted at Holmes, "If you Jonathan Toews Red Jersey don't like it, get the f out!"

"If you don't know him, you'd think he's not a good guy," said right guard Willie Colon, who played four seasons with Holmes in Pittsburgh. "But if you do know him, he's very cerebral."

Robert Sabo/New York Daily News

Holmes walks off the practice field as he prepares to return from a nagging hamstring injury.

Holmes resides on Planet Tone (population: 1), a bizarre place where misinterpretation runs rampant. He may have good intentions, but his inability to clearly convey his thoughts and channel his sometimes warranted frustrations have been a springboard to controversies in his four seasons with the Jets.

Last month, Holmes' admission that "I can't throw it to myself and catch it. Otherwise I would" landed him on the Daily News back page with the headline: "Tone Loco." The next morning, Lal walked up to Holmes and asked him to autograph the paper. They both laughed.

"I'm not saying that he's handled it the best way, because I don't know," Lal said. "But I'm saying that it comes from a good place and maybe that's why he and I connect. He genuinely wants the ball because he knows he can make a difference."

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Lal has helped Holmes' transformation more than anyone in the building, thanks, in Duncan Keith Jersey part, to their shared love for the technical aspects of playing the position. Holmes is a stickler for details. He has become a player coach during his rehab, reinforcing teaching points to younger wideouts.

"When we're watching DBs in our (film) room," Lal said, "we're like, 'Man, we can run this route or that route on him.' Like any competitor, he thinks, 'I want to play so I can turn that guy in circles and catch 10 balls on him.' "

Holmes is unquestionably the team's best receiving option, but there's plenty of debate about his ranking among his position in the league. The statistical narrative is much different than the story your eyes tell you when Holmes is on the field.

He has averaged only 3.6 receptions and 52.4 yards with 19 touchdowns in 39 games with the Jets. He's never made a Pro Bowl and has had only one 1,000 yard season in his eight year career. Holmes' four catch, 73 yard performance on the Steelers' game winning Super Bowl drive five years ago gave him a reputation as a clutch performer, but look closer: He has averaged only 2.7 catches and 45.2 yards in his six other playoff games. Holmes has missed one third of the Jets' games (21 of 60) due to suspension and injury. He's had fewer than 30 receiving yards in an eye opening 33% of his games played for Rex Ryan. Holmes, of course, has been part of run centric offenses.

"What if he's in Green Bay?" Lal said. "We might be saying he's a Top 10 receiver scoring three touchdowns every week. I don't know. But he's extremely talented. He's competitive. He's a great route runner. In his heart, he's selfish in a good way, because he knows his wanting the ball will help the team."

People close to Holmes say the receiver has accepted the idea [url=http://www.hockeyblackhawksshop.com/duncan_keith_jersey.html]hockeyblackhaw... that he will almost certainly be released after this season. Holmes took a $3.5 million pay cut after missing the bulk of last season due to a LisFranc foot injury, but it makes no financial sense to keep him around in 2014, when he is due to count $10.75 million against the salary cap. The Jets are expected to release him before he's due a $1 million roster bonus in March. The team will save $8.25 million after parting ways with him. In the meantime, they both need each other.

Maybe the man of mystery can be the missing piece for a magical season.

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