HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Hank Poteat has gotten used to keeping his luggage within easy reach.

The veteran cornerback has been waived seven times in his seven professional seasons, including three times this year, and hasn't stayed with one team for an entire season since 2002. Poteat is an NFL nomad — with a Super Bowl ring and big-game credentials.

"It all depends on the person," Poteat said. "You're either going to grow from it or you're going to continue to take it as a negative and just go under from there."

The well-traveled Poteat has suddenly found a home with the New York Jets. He already has a career-high 31 total tackles and had perhaps his best overall game at Minnesota on Sunday, when he had six tackles and defended a pass in the Jets' 26-13 win.

"I can't be mad at any of those situations because all things work together and it's helped me to be the person that I am now, and helped me be the player that I am now," the 29-year-old Poteat said. "Maybe if I never got cut, I might not be this guy now."

Poteat has started the last four games at right cornerback for the Jets, after starting just twice in his first six-plus seasons.

"Each and every time I work out, when I'm training, I'm never training to be just in the NFL or training to just be part of the team," he said. "I always train to be the best and training to be a starter. This is a reward for all my hard work and dedication and persevering and never giving up."

That could've been easy to do, especially early in his career. Poteat was selected by the Steelers out of the University of Pittsburgh in the third round of the 2000 draft and played 15 games as a rookie. He was a solid player mainly on special teams for three years and helped the Steelers to the playoffs in 2002, but they waived him late in training camp before the next season.

"It turned my life around completely," Poteat said. "You never think you're going to get cut. You always hear those things, especially when you're drafted and you go to the rookie symposium, they give you statistics on who's going to be here a certain amount of years. You never believe that's going to be you until it hits you smack in the face. Then, you're sitting out watching."

And waiting.

Poteat was out of work for nearly two months until Tampa Bay called.