"I forgot how cold it gets up here," he said.

That's about the only thing Jenkins has struggled with this season. The rest of his experience with the Jets has him feeling warm all over.

Jenkins has found a new home and a new lease on life with the Jets, who acquired him in a trade with the Carolina Panthers last February. He's as happy as he has ever been, and that happiness has translated into perhaps his most productive season.

The Jets rank fourth in the NFL against the run, and the biggest reason is the 6-foot-4, 360-pound Jenkins, who has been a dominant anchor to their 3-4 defense.

The eighth-year veteran has 37 tackles, 3.5 sacks, eight quarterback pressures, eight tackles for losses, one forced fumble and one pass deflection. But numbers don't reveal Jenkins' full impact.

A season ago, the Jets had the 29th-ranked run defense, allowing 134.8 yards per game and 4.2 yards per carry. With Jenkins clogging the middle, the Jets' run defense has vastly improved. In addition to yielding just 83.5 yards per game, the Jets give up only 3.5 yards per attempt (tied for fourth-best in the NFL).

His incredible strength (he can bench press 515 pounds) and uncommon quickness for a big man force teams to use two or three blockers on him. That in turn frees up his teammates, especially the linebackers, to make plays.

"What he has meant to this team, this defense, is hard to put into words," linebacker Eric Barton said. "I will say this, he makes the people around him better."

What Jenkins has done is all the more impressive considering he never played nose tackle. He was an "under tackle," who lined up in the guard/tackle gap, in Carolina's 4-3 scheme. But he fully embraced the position switch, and it shows based on his smooth transition to the 3-4.

"It's hard to do making the position change that he did, never being in a 34 system, whether it was college or pro Football," Jets head coach Eric Mangini said. "Kris has done a really sound job of understanding the technique, understanding the blocking schemes, but not losing his ability to make plays that he made in the other system."

Jenkins has adapted so well he is being mentioned as a candidate for the NFL's defensive player of the year.

After what Jenkins did to the Bills in the earlier meeting, he probably has their vote. He was a one-man wrecking ball in the Jets' 26-17 win, posting 1.5 sacks, three tackles (two for lost yardage) and three hits on quarterback Trent Edwards. Jenkins spent so much time in the Bills' backfield he should have been paying rent.

His disruptive play helped the Jets hold the Bills to 30 yards rushing (1.8 per carry), their 10th-lowest total in team history.

"He's the best I've seen this year, and I've seen some pretty good guys," Bills center Duke Preston said. "When he's on the Football field he's coming. There is no mystery about it. When he's off the field that's when he's taking his rest. But on the field he's not taking any plays off."

Jenkins downplays his performance, choosing instead to deflect credit to his teammates. To him, having an All-Pro kind of year is of little importance when compared to life's bigger picture.

"I'm getting old, so I don't even pay attention to that stuff, honestly," Jenkins, 29, said during a conference call with the Buffalo media this week. "I try to do the best I can and help my team win. After that I'm just glad to be able to do it year after year. I know at some point in time it's going to stop, so I'm just trying to enjoy it."

Football stopped being fun for Jenkins in Carolina, which drafted him in the second round out of Maryland in 2001. He earned two Pro Bowl berths in his first three seasons, but missed 27 of 32 games in 2004-05 because of shoulder and knee injuries.

Depressed and feeling detached from the team, Jenkins went down a self-destructive path that nearly derailed his career. He started drinking heavily, spending more time in nightclubs than at home. His eating habits changed for the worse and he ballooned to nearly 400 pounds.

The once fun-loving Jenkins, who wrote in his Maryland bio that his craziest ambition was to be stranded on an island with food, a TV and Halle Berry, had lost his zest for Football. He even considered retiring at age 26.

While he bounced back in 2006 and made the Pro Bowl again, Jenkins was no longer feeling the love in Carolina. When his weight pushed four Bills again after the season, the Panthers finally agreed it was time to part company after 2007.

Believing Jenkins was the missing piece to their defensive puzzle, the Jets gave the Panthers third- and fifth-round draft picks and then signed him a five-year, $30 million contract.

It was money well-spent. In shape and hungry to regain his Pro Bowl form, he has helped transform the Jets into a playoff contender. Just as important to him is how the Jets embraced him into their family. His peace of mind is back, his love for the game renewed.

"It was huge," he said about leaving Carolina. "Sometimes you can have tough times working in your profession, and sometimes you need a change of pace, a change of scenery to get back on track. So it was definitely a get-back-on-track year for me. It [the move to NY] has been monumental in me getting my life into perspective. I'm thankful for that."

e-mail: awilson@buffnews.com