Rex still not sure about Sione playing Sunday

Despite Sione Po'uha's optimism on Monday about his status for the season opener, Rex Ryan still isn't convinced.

"I'm still not there," the Jets coach said when asked about Po'uha's chances of playing Sunday due to his back injury. "We'll see. He did move around better (in Monday's practice) better than I thought. He actually moved around better than Mike DeVito (calf) did. ...But I'm still not sure of that."

Prior to Monday's practice, the Jets coach offered a rather grim outlook on the nose tackle's status, speculating that Po'uha "could very well" have suffered a setback. However, Po'uha was all smiles in the locker room a few hours later, and rather definitive about facing the Bills.

Ryan, however, tempered expectations Wednesday.

"I have to lean on the trainers and our doctors," he said. "You never want to put a player at risk. If he's going to be at risk, then you don't want to do that. And we don't want to do that.

"I think you have to get him out there (in practice). He needs to be able to hold in there. anchor in there on double teams. I think that's a big thing. Unless our doctors and trainers are convinced he can do that, there's no sense putting him out there."

During the 20 minutes allotted to media, Po'uha did individual and position drills with the rest of the defensive line.

*
Dustin Keller (hamstring), on the other hand, didn't practice. Instead, the tight end was in the rehab area Wednesday doing agility drills. At one point, Keller was spotted leaving the indoor practice field, toward the locker room.

Ryan told the media beforehand that he didn't expect Keller -- who injured his hamstring on the first play of their third preseason game against Carolina -- to practice. But if he did, the tight end would be limited. "You'd like him to test it a little bit," the coach said of Keller's hamstring. "But I don't think we are ready to test him full-go right now."

But Ryan said even if Keller is limited all week, the tight end will play if he can.

"We're not one of those teams that (say), 'If you don't practice, you don't play.' If you're ready to go, we think you're ready to go. And clearly, if you're a player like Dustin, with his kind of talent, you're going to put him out there."

*
LB David Harris (ankle), T Dennis Landolt (knee) and S Eric Smith (knee) were in the rehab group. All wide receivers were accounted for in practice today, including Santonio Holmes (rib/back), Chaz Schilens (high ankle sprain), Jeremy Kerley (slight hamstring tear) and the waiver-claim newcomer, Clyde Gates.