Last night after the scrimmage, Jets owner Woody Johnson signed autographs for fans and chatted about how great Cortland was. He had flown in that morning, moved down the line of fans and eventually caught up to running back Leon Washington, who is unhappy about his contract and looking for more money from the Jets. Washington passed something for Johnson to sign.

I wondered how tempted was Washington to whisper, “Pay me!”

Washington stands to make $535,000 this season, the last of his four-year rookie contract, and wants an extension worth about $6 million a year. Later the owner addressed reporters and said he wasn’t sure when the contract negotiations would end.

“That’s hard to say,”  Johnson said. “You have to talk to Mike (Tannenbaum) about that.  Because until they happen, they haven’t happened.”

Washington, who held out of training camp for a day for a fine of $17,000, said he has been in regular contact with his agent Alvin Keels.

“He’s telling me everything he hears back from the Jets,” Washington said. “We communicate a lot, pretty much every day. We are just going to play football and we believe we’ve already earned our situation. We’re just going to play football and let everything else take care of itself.”

The two sides are still far apart. The Jets are wary of giving Washington more given the potential changes in the CBA next year, which would make Washington a restricted free agent next year, rather than being able to test his worth on the open market after this season under the old rules.

Still, the holdouts and eventual loss of C Pete Kendall and TE Chris Baker didn’t help the Jets on the field in the last two seasons.

Johnson also said he liked Cortland and would consider coming back.

On the pressure to name Mark Sanchez the starting quarterback:

“I think (coach Rex Ryan is) a second generation coach that has enough experience, with Brian (Schottenheimer), being second generation also,” Johnson said. “These guys are going to go with the program that they feel is best.  And I don’t think they’re going to feel like just because anybody wants this player or that player that it’s going to make any difference.”