Boomer Esiason

CBS Sports NFL analyst Boomer Esiason made his weekly appearance on the Dennis & Callahan show Wednesday morning to discuss a wide range of topics, including the New York Jets and their quarterback situation. Boomer has come under fire in New York for his comments on Jets QB Mark Sanchez.

When asked about the the possibility of Peyton Manning being traded to the Jets, Esiason responded, “Everywhere you look, that’s what they’re saying. But first of all, we don’t even know if Peyton’s able to play. If Peyton is able to play and the new general manager and whoever they hire to run that team out there decides to go without Peyton Manning, then I’m sure that the Jets will be sniffing around. Because that’s what the Jets do. They’re trying to find their Tom Brady. They’re trying to find their Aaron Rodgers. And I don’t think in their mind they think that they feel like they’ve found the kid. If you watched Mark Sanchez the last month of the season, he was like a chihuahua standing on Madison Avenue and 36th Street entering the Midtown Tunnel, eyes bigger than you-know-what, and just so shaky.”

Hear the entire conversation by clicking right here. Esiason’s comments on Sanchez begin at the 10-minute mark.

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FOXBORO — The biggest game of the year is about to take place at Gillette Stadium but Tom Brady knows it isn’t the biggest game he wants to play in this season. The Patriots quarterback – asked about the level of importance of Monday night’s meeting of the 9-2 Patriots and 9-2 Jets sounded a reasonable tone.

“It’s a game, a regular season game against a division opponent that is 9-2,” Brady said. “I think we treat it just like that. This is not the Super Bowl. There are games after this game that are very important as well. This game for what we’re trying to accomplish and winning our division – which is always the first goal of this team – it’s a big game. You can’t expect to win the division and lose to the same team twice.”

Brady referenced the loss to the Jets in Week 2 when the Patriots were outscored 21-0 in the second half and lost 28-14 at the New Meadowlands Stadium.

“We’ve got to really execute at a much higher level than we did the first time we played them because they don’t leave you much margin for error and they’ve shown they take advantage of mistakes,” Brady added.

After watching the Jets on HBO’s “Hard Knocks“, Brady told WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan that he “hates the Jets.” But on Thursday – at the request of his coach – he backed off a little bit.

“Do I still hate them? Well, I promised Coach Belichick that I wouldn’t say anything derogatory, so, I have no comment.”

Still, he has always appreciated the rivalry between Boston and New York in any sport.

“I bought into pretty quick,” Brady recalled, looking back on his first season in 2000. “My first summer here was Red Sox-Yankees. That’s the way it’s always been around here. So you get acclimated to it pretty quickly being here in Boston, and the rivalry has really taken shape. It really started with baseball. But Jets-Patriots, there were so many players that were former Jets that had come to play as Patriots.

“Obviously, Coach Belichick and Bill Parcels, [but, also] a lot of different players that we picked up whether it was Bryan Cox, Roman Phifer, or Anthony Pleasant, Otis Smith or Rick Lyle – all these guys that came to be Patriots has really kind of stoked the rivalry as well. It’s been a fun rivalry; they’re a great team. They’ve really been playing great football this season.”