CORTLAND, N.Y. — D’Brickashaw Ferguson never has been one to pound his chest, never someone to make brazen statements. He typically prefers to go the conservative route, usually refusing even to come close to saying something that doesn’t reflect his laid-back personality.

However, he apparently has been bitten by the Rex Ryan Confidence Bug. The other day, Ferguson stepped out of his usually reserved skin and spoke confidently about his prospects for the upcoming season, saying he’s definitely going to make the Pro Bowl after missing out last year as a second alternate.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the new Brick. “My last three years, it’s been a different approach,” Ferguson said after the Jets’ practice at SUNY Cortland Wednesday. “My previous coach (Eric Mangini), we had a different approach, we operated differently. I feel now with the coach that we have, it’s important to say what we are going to do and state the goals that you are going to obtain. And I’m adopting that philosophy.
“So when I say, ’I’m going to the Pro Bowl this year,’ “ the fourth-year pro continued, “I honestly mean it. When I say we are going to win the Super Bowl this year, I honestly mean that, too.”
With the way Ryan’s been giving glowing assessments of the 2001 Thorp Award winner (the outstanding high school football player in Nassau), he certainly believes Ferguson has all the tools to be a Pro Bowler. Ryan has been raving about Ferguson’s play throughout training camp, joking Monday that he wants to be his agent because Ferguson is on his way to collecting a boatload of dough.
Ryan even compared him to a tall Lomas Brown and thinks he’s among the top young tackles in the league, a group that includes Miami’s Jake Long and Cleveland’s Joe Thomas. The praise didn’t stop there, though.
“We were watching film and where most guys would cut off the defensive lineman, he climbs all the way through (the defensive line) and is cutting off the backside linebacker,” Ryan said. “I was like, ’I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.’ There have been some great tackles in this league, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen that.”
Said Ferguson’s father, Edwin, of all the praise: “I want at the end of the season for the coach to come back and make those same kind of statements. Then, I would say, ’Well done.’ “
Ferguson, down to 307 pounds, wants to shed two more so he can be back at the 305 he was last season. He’s not battling weight issues anymore, and can focus on the technical aspects of the position and draw on some of the veteran know-how he’s been picking up since he was drafted fourth overall in 2006.
“I know what it is to be beat,” Ferguson said. “I know what it is to lose. I know what it is to go 4-12 and these are things that I never want to go back to. I never want to have a losing season. I never want to feel that I can’t stand up against a defender against me. And so those are my driving inspirations and those things drive me to be successful.”
Notes & quotes: The Jets claimed WR Aundrae Allison off waivers. Allison, a 6-0, 198-pound third-year pro, totaled 18 receptions the last two seasons with the Vikings before he was cut last week. WR Mario Urrutia was waived to make room on the roster . . . Ryan proudly said he’s lost 20 pounds through the first five days of his new diet and is down to 322 . . . DE Shaun Ellis injured his back, but Ryan said it wasn’t serious.