HEMPSTEAD,N.Y. -Jets quarterback Chad Pennington will have surgery to repair an injured rotator cuff in his right shoulder. Sources have said Pennington has a tear in the rotator cuff.

Pennington was hurt against Buffalo on November 7 and played the season’s final six games with the injury, which the team initially said was a strain.

An MRI exam last week showed the extent of the damage, requiring surgery.

The date of the procedure was not announced. If there is a tear, Pennington might miss early workouts in May and the start of training camp in late July.

Pennington sat out three games with the injury, and when he returned he was not the same. His passes lost velocity and sailed long or fell short, and Pennington admitted off-season surgery was a near certainty.

Coach Herman Edwards said Pennington played with pain and soreness when he came back, but the $64 million franchise player was able to guide the Jets to the second round of the playoffs, where they nearly upset Pittsburgh.

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HACKETT LANDS IN TAMPA Less than a week after resigning as the Jets’ offensive coordinator, Paul Hackett was hired yesterday as quarterbacks coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The move reunites Hackett with Jon Gruden, who spent one season as an assistant under his former mentor when Hackett was the head coach at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1990s.

Hackett had been under mounting pressure and constant criticism because of his unimaginative play-calling.

An NFL assistant for 16 years, Hackett was with the Jets for four seasons. Although they made the playoffs in three of those years, he was always the target of criticism. Things only got worse in 2004, when the team finished 17th in the league in total offense.