"I might be the jinx," the wide receiver said with a chuckle. "Last year, I wasn't the captain and we actually won some games. It might be something where I might have to step down and maybe it'll change things and get it turned around."
It's going to take a lot more than that to rebound from a 1-5 start, but Coles is doing his best to keep things loose in the locker room. He regularly cracks jokes with his teammates, and drew some laughs Thursday as he wrestled with linebacker Jonathan Vilma.
There's also serious time, of course, and not only on the field. Along with the other five team captains - Vilma, Shaun Ellis, Chad Pennington, Brad Kassell and Mike Nugent - Coles meets with coach Eric Mangini after practice every Thursday to discuss issues affecting the team.
"The captains' meetings have been pretty consistent and those are important, too," Mangini said. "Sometimes guys may not want to say what they think and what they feel and they'll go to the captains and express it. That's important to be able to openly talk about what's happening and have the give-and-take."
Some aspects of the sessions have been particularly eye-opening for Coles, a captain for the first time in his career.
"I was surprised we got food," he said, laughing. "Anytime you go somewhere and get a free meal from outside the building I'm thankful."
The players like to rotate the menu for the meetings, which take place in an office at Jets headquarters.
"But Vilma likes Hooters all the time, so that's kind of been the main thing," Coles said. "He likes shrimp and crab legs, so it's been what we've been eating every Thursday."
Not so, said Vilma.
"I like the crabs and he likes the shrimp," he said. "He sometimes tries to bring pizza along."
Coles then saw Vilma looking over at him from across the locker room.
"Why you looking over here?" the wide receiver playfully yelled. "You're going to get whooped!"
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