Jets give once-promising Tuiasosopo new start BY TOM ROCK June 8, 2007, 8:26 PM EDT The NFL seemed to have great promise for Marques Tuiasosopo. He was drafted by the Raiders in the second round of the 2001 draft and went to the AFC playoffs as a rookie and the Super Bowl in his second year, all the while being groomed as the heir apparent at quarterback. But it didn't take long for Oakland to turn into a Black Hole of despair as the fluctuant franchise went from the brink of a title to the epitome of league dysfunction. He played on a team that won 24 games his first two years, but Tuiasosopo's Raiders won only 15 in the last four. Tuiasosopo started only two of those games and has played in only 11. So the once-promising protege was glad to find a clean slate through free agency with the Jets this past winter. "There are a lot of good guys there with the Raiders, but it's good to have a fresh start," he said. "There's a lot of young guys here, a lot of guys who are hungry to play football. The environment that's here, that's what I like to be in." Tuiasosopo is under no delusions regarding his role on the Jets. Chad Pennington is the starting quarterback heading into training camp and the team has a second-round pick invested in Kellen Clemens as his backup. Tuiasosopo takes the place of Patrick Ramsey as an insurance policy on the Jets' bench, albeit one who has thrown a total of two touchdown passes and seven interceptions in his career. Still, Tuiasosopo said he has taken the lessons of his early career and hopes to apply them to the Jets. "I learned a lot those first two years," he said. "I know what it takes to be a playoff-caliber team. I've seen that, I was a part of it. You never know when you might get back. You get there and you think you're going to be there every year." Experience has shown him otherwise. But with the Jets, hope for a return persists. Notes & quotes: Eric Mangini had praise for defensive end Shaun Ellis, linebacker Jonathan Vilma and safety Kerry Rhodes for standing out not only as players but leaders ... The Jets have been practicing in white helmets without the team logo on the sides. "I kind of like the look, so we'll just see how that goes," Mangini said. "We want to do it without the decals for now and figure out when we're going to give those out." ... The Jets will participate in the fourth annual Long Island Walk With Us to Cure Lupus in support of the Alliance for Lupus Research on Sunday at Hofstra. For information, call 1-866-925-5257 or visit www.nyjets.com.
I like him a lot more than Ramsey. Tui never got a shot in Oakland and was always set up to fail. Ramsey got a raw deal in Washington, but we found out there was a reason why. Tui, who knows.
