“Tough choices. Probably the toughest was Jermaine Lewis or David Allen. They’re both good players. We gave strong consideration to whether we can in fact keep them both. Both are good football players. I like them both. The numbers just wouldn’t allow us to do it. So in the end, we made a decision to go with Jermaine. I obviously have a lot of affection for David Allen. He’s a very dependable guy, just one of these guys who does everything right. So, we wish him the best.”

Del Rio admitted that Lewis had a little more big play potential, but that was about it. With a year behind him, Del Rio has a better handle on what he’s looking for, and despite how young his roster is, he likes the potential it holds. “This is a young football team, one that I will look to see improvement in each and every week. We’re excited about the opportunity we have starting this week in Buffalo. We recognize that we’ve accomplished a great deal in terms of making it more competitive and adding some things to this roster, but we also understand we have some work to do.”

One thing Del Rio is trying to accomplish this year is a little stronger leadership on the team. Last year, things were in flux, with Mark Brunell on his way out, a new system in place and Del Rio in his first year trying to hammer his message across. He admitted it took a little while for the players to adjust to what he was asking them to do compared to what Tom Coughlin had asked them to do. Now that his system is in place, Del Rio knows he has to have veteran players buy into his message and pass it along to the rest of the team.

““I think in order to truly be effective as a leader you need to have people that, in my case, I need to have leaders carry the torch into the lockerroom for me. I order to truly be affective, they have to take it and believe it, repeat it, echo it and help reinforce it, and those types of things. I believe that we’re making strides in that area. I believe the guys understand how we’re going to get where we’re going and believe that we’re doing the right things to give a chance to get there. When you get that, that’s a good sign.”

Bill Parcells has made a career of carrying players with him to each team who were “Parcells’ guys” and having them get the coach’s message out in the locker room. Coughlin could never accomplish that. Del Rio is hoping players like Fred Taylor, Jimmy Smith and Mike Peterson can do that for him this year.

We opened our tenth season of “The End Zone” Monday night on Channel 4. DB Rashean Mathis is our host this year and brought along first round pick Reggie Williams as his guest. Both players were loose and glib and seemed to enjoy themselves. Both also told me off-camera that they think the offense will look very different this Sunday at Buffalo. “We’re opening up the playbook,” Williams said. “And we’ll have Fred,” Rashean was quick to add.