Last season, we made Brees and Brady (twice) look pretty bad - 2 of the top 5 QBs. Do you even watch the games? Our CB play last season was far worse with less talent at safety.
You happen to watch any games last year? Just wondering because we made Brady and Brees look pretty human, and they are two of the best in the game.
http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/20..._one_of_nfls_five_worst_general_managers.html Too early to say one of the worst like the Sporting News, but he has dropped the ball in pursuing CBs and our draft this year by not bundling lower picks to get better picks in the draft.
I agree with the thrust of this post. Assessments of how much talent the Jets actually have remains to be seen in several areas, most significantly in Smith. What we can say, though, is that Cb is currently a mess. I don't blame Idzik for that entirely. As I have said the Revis situation is on Woody. Cromartie is slotted to start for the Cards, so will soon see if he still can play well enough to be a starting Cb. DRC is dissed by the FO Homers here, but the Giants seem happy with their signing, and may well field one of the best secondaries in the league. If they can get a pass rush, they will likely have a top ten D. And there were other moves hte Jets could have made. Those question marks include such players as Winters, whether Coples can now justify his draft status, whether Davis upgrades his game. Will Colon play well enough? Will Nelson step in as a solid starter? Milliner stay healthy and build on his late season performances last year? Imo, those are not unreasonable prospects. Add in Decker, Johnson and allowing Vick to start, and I think this team could have been a playoff team. But with the fiasco at cb, it looks not to be. And that is a shame. I think Marty will make this O look very good. It would likely be even better with Vick there, but we shall see. Meanwhile the pass D will likely be putrid. And that is not on Rex. It is frustrating.
I don't think it's too much to ask to not have the needs after the off-season be the same glaring needs you had going in to the off-season, especially when the needs are not that many, you have cap space and 12 PICKS to work with!
Yep, that sums it up. For some reason the FO Homers are okay with this. Part of the problem concerns the Qb situation, about which too much has probably been said here already for the off season. And Woody is also part of the problem. At least Idzik got Decker and C Johnson.
I agree with your first paragraph except I haven't seen a lot of glossing over of Idzik's bad decisions. As with anything else in life, how we view Idzik's moves and decisions has more to do with us, than him. Do we see the glass half empty or half full? While every move he's made certainly hasn't worked out, most have. The only move I can think of at the moment that I think wasn't a good one was bringing in Goodson. There was some evidence of his having some attitude and other issues with his other teams and also he had a problem holding onto the ball. I can understand why Idzik signed him however. The team had a woeful lack of speed and play-making ability, especially on offense. Idzik had no cap space to work with last year. If Woodson had worked out, he could have given the team a huge boost. What other moves do you see as bad moves, and what do you think Idzik should/could have done differently? How would you have had him address the CB position differently this year? Which FA would you have signed and for how much money and/or who would you have drafted? IMO the only better CB who even remotely fit the Jets' D system is the Colts' Vontae Davis. It was rumored that was the CB that Idzik really wanted and tried to sign, but the Colts way overpaid Davis to keep him. IMO he got insane money with regard to his play and ability. I'm glad that Idzik didn't pay him that kind of coin. He wasn't worth it and that contract would have destroyed the team's salary structure that Idzik is trying to put into place, and may have prevented Idzik from being able to re-sign some of the Jets core players. The former Titan CB (Alterraun Verner?) is a very nice zone CB, but as you know Rex doesn't like a zone system, so he would not have been a good fit, and imo it would have been nuts to pay big money to a player who doesn't fit the system and who would have constantly compromised what Rex wanted to do. I do think there is a point, however, that can be made that Rex could and perhaps should have been willing to be flexible and change his coverage schemes to more zone. He wouldn't/didn't and I think that goes on Rex. Idzik is on record as saying that Patterson is a quality CB, which he is. The problem is he has that injury history. As far as we know, he had never even remotely pulled anything like his going AWOL on the Jets and then accusing the team of lying. So Idzik rolled the dice a little on a player with an injury history, to get the best possible player at a reasonable price. Lots of players have injury histories in college then go to the NFL and never have a problem, or they have injury issues with one team, then go to another and never have another problem. There are those who have chronic injury issues. Since no GM has a crystal ball to see into the future, there's no way Idzik could have known if Patterson' injury issues would continue with the Jets or if he would have no further issues. The way I see it, Idzik is trying to do things in a professional way. He at least tried to address the position in a responsible, adult fashion. Tanny acted like a Madden GM just throwing huge money and draft picks at positions when he addressed them and otherwise ignored them. Idzik has done a lot to get the team in great cap position, has improved the team speed, depth and talent, has reigned Rex in, and has returned the team to respectability and removed the circus atmosphere that Tanny and Rex created. Those things alone are such a breath of fresh air after Tanny, Bradway and all the other incompetent GMs the Jets have had over the years that it has earned Idzik some good will and benefit of the doubt with me. That said, I'm not "all in" on him in terms of his judgment of draft prospects and how he handles FA. Is he too cautious as some suggest or does it just seem that way after the lunacy of Tanny? What kind of job did he do in overhauling the Scouting & Personnel Departments? Some of the people he brought in from the Cardinals didn't have a great track record or at best a mixed record. Only time will tell, and as you said, unfortunately, it will be hindsight that tells us. Personally, I'd feel better about things if the Jets had a better HC. I don't like or trust Rex. I think he has the ability to totally undermine what Idzik is trying to do, but because Woody's head is completely up Rex's ass, there's nothing Idzik can do about it.
I know you won't see this because your a vagina that blocks people who have a tendency to make you look like an idiot, but either way... You can pretend like we only had one glaring hole, but that's not true. The offense didn't just need more talent, it needed specific talent. Geno didn't need a guy in DeSean Jackson who could just run around and burn everyone, he needed a steady route runner in Decker. It didn't just need a guy who could catch passes out of the backfield, it needed an explosive playmaker who just needs the ball to touch his hands. It needed a specific type of tight end that could benefit from the attention guys like Decker and Johnson command. I also think some people (a lot of people) look foolish after years of "the offense just needs a receiving threat OMFG why are we drafting defense again?!". Especially when they try to flip it and now say it about the defense.
With all that cap space and all those draft picks, you don't Idzik could have done better at the CB and WR positions?
Better for 2014? Probably could have. Better for the Super Bowl window? That's a completely different question. The Jets don't have the same glaring needs they had last year. They have ONE of the same glaring needs they had. WR has been upgraded and will be better than last year. The OL has been upgraded and will be better than last year. Safety has been upgraded and will be better than last year. RB has been upgraded and will be better than last year. TE has been upgraded and will be better than last year. QB has been upgraded and will be better than last year. Balanced against that you have one position, CB, that might be worse than last year. This despite the Jets using a 1st round pick on a CB last year (who is now injured) and a 3rd round pick on a CB this year (who is now injured). Sometimes shit happens. You can't fix everything in a given year. The Jets tried to fix a bunch of things over the winter and spring and apparently succeeded with every position that was not hit by an injury run in training camp. What more can you ask?
I totally disagree. To begin with, the goal of a GM is to win and build a solid team that can compete every season, not just to have a top 10 defense. It's clearly established that Rex way overvalues CBs and that no CB is going to be the difference in whether or not a team wins a Lombardi Trophy. Idzik is having to change the culture here and force Rex to do things in a more reasonable way. That's never easy and rarely happens overnight. The CB position was not botched. That's absurd. Idzik, nor no other GM has a crystal ball. He couldn't foresee that Milliner would go down with a fairly serious injury. He couldn't foresee that Patterson would have gone off the deep end when there was nothing in his history in 9 years in the NFL to even remotely suggest that. He couldn't foresee that McDougle would have gone down with a season-ending injury. The draft is a crap shoot. There are no guarantees. Something like 50% of 1st round draft picks don't pan out. GMs can't know if draft picks will pan out and if so, how long it will take for them to develop. There are surprises every year, both good and bad, that no one could foresee. Again, like I have with others, I challenge you to explain how you would have done things "better." Who would you have signed and for how much? Who would you have drafted, and what positions that Idzik addressed would you have ignored as a result? Please forgive me if I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like you are yet another typical young Jets fan who thinks the sky is falling if the GM doesn't go all in every season even if it means mortgaging the future. If so, I'm not totally blaming you. You saw how Tanny did things and the excitement it brought and think that's the way an NFL GM should do his job. It isn't. The problem is his way was fool's gold. There was no solid foundation and it was a house of cards that fell in, leaving the team in a mess, as that way of doing things always does. Idzik might eventually prove to not be the best judge of talent, but so far at least he's doing things in a more professional, competent and solid way than any GM the team has had since the days of Weeb Ewbank. I'm willing to give him some time and take a wait and see attitude on his ability to judge talent. As another poster suggested, unfortunately, that takes time, and we'll only know in hindsight if Idzik has any real eye for talent and putting together a winning team.
The only thing I could've really foreseen him doing for the wide receiver position is draft someone higher on the board in the 3rd. They went with McDougle to try to solidify the cornerback depth as they had to have seen him as a contributor this year and a potential future starter with good leadership intangibles. As far as blocker's post goes, you clearly have no foresight when it comes to the future of this team and I guess you'll understand it when they spend much of their cap space rewarding Mo Wilk and Kerley with new contracts next year among filling in the rest of the roster. Has anyone seen the deal JJ Watt just signed?Mo Wilk is in that ballpark. Idzik's working on building a foundation and signing an average cornerback to an $8 million contract obviously didn't seem valuable enough to roll over $12 or $13 million rather than $21 million. It's more about value than it is the inability to fill the position. The market value of corners is sky high because of Sherman's elite play in the playoffs and Super Bowl. Why does that justify paying someone several tiers below him the same ball park amount of money? It doesn't justify ruining the cap space that has been built up to save so that they can pay their guys and load up for 2015/2016 in hopes that the offense and quarterback are stable. Just because you don't personally like it doesn't mean that anyone who can rationalize it is a homer. That's just an ignorant statement.
I disagree with a lot of this. IMO based on Geno's anticipation deficiency DeSean Jackson would have been ideal for Geno. Decker creates separation vertically and with his strong hands. While that helps Geno, it doesn't help as much as a guy like Jackson would. Jackson gets great space separation so it would offset Geno's tendency to wait for and throw at open players rather than throwing players open. By the way Jackson a "good route runner" and "an explosive playmaker who just needs the ball to touch his hands". Also I think the TEs we had w/o drafting Amaro would have benefited more from better WRs than our current WRs will benefit from Amaro.
nice post and reasonable to think this way.....my big chirp, all of your points considered, is they didn't appear to separate CB and treat it as the "urgent position" many felt it should have been - when u only have a second year starter on one side, an average slot corner, and a bunch of other non-established guys.... obviously its going to be the achilles heel of the D. i am afraid its going to limit the D's effectiveness when we need it the most - against the top level Qb's. wouldnt u know it - the jets have a real nice front seven and sabotage it with ultra caution in dealing with free agent CB's. i would much rather be in a position of maximum flexibility on the D and not be in a position that we cannot maximize the talents of wilk, richardson, harris, etc due to poor CB play.
There's just absolutely no way they were going to target a guy like Jackson whom has complained about his contract in the past. We just went down that road with Revis and it ended with paying him exactly his price when Tannenbaum almost shit himself in training camp after a poor corner preseason performance. Idzik doesn't work like that, clearly.
It was a panic move by Reese to sign up DRC. Prince is due for a contract extension after his rookie deal expires after the end of next season, I don't know how the Giants can put so much money into a single secondary with Rolle and DRC already on big deals. Especially not with the rules instilled in today's NFL. Add Eli's bloated deal, Cruz making some money and the possibility of resigning JPP, and the Giants put themselves in a hole with money committed to a certain few. Every team has those type of questions. Will the Patriots interior line step up following the Mankins deal? Will the 49ers be able to overcome the injuries/suspensions on the defensive side of the ball? Will the Saints be able to stop the run on a consistent basis? Who will become the no.1 WR for Chip Kelly and Philly? Every team has questions that need to be answered, that's the NFL as a whole. You can't have solid-great players at every position, not with free agency mattering so much every offseason. You always have to have young bucks coming from the draft who make chump change to step in and *fingers crossed* step up and outplay their rookie deal for the 1st 3 or 4 seasons. Our safety play should be miles better than last year, we actually have 1, maybe 2 guys in Pryor/Allen who can cover ground, hit hard, make some kind of play on the ball and not take awful routes. People forget how bad an Ed Reed was down the stretch for this squad, we replaced him with a far younger, talented and hungrier player in Calvin Pryor. The CB position everyone has a right to be pessimistic about......but in the NFL today, guys step up that you never expect just as guys let down that you would never expect. For guys like Darrin Walls, this is a golden opportunity to solidify themselves as a top 3 cornerback on a professional team. Especially now with the rules going against CBs, most if not all cornerbacks will get burned. Its just a matter of how many times you allow your corners to get burned. IF the offense keeps up their job(Which we agree got much better this offseason), where we can ground and pound our way to winning Time of Poss. and can make passing plays to keep drives moving and limit turnovers.......that defense does not get on the field as much as you want it to. The hopeful improvement of the offense will take so much pressure off of our defense, if Geno takes the next step into becoming a respectable QB and 1-2 guys step up at the WR/TE spots and our running game is reliable, we have something.
So is it your position that the Jets should have strong vets at every position on defense? Think about it. Strong vets cost hard against the cap. You really want them to fill every hole every year with the most expensive solutions available? That's how we got in this mess in the first place.
To maximize the talent of such players they need to be on the roster. Harris is a free agent and Wilkerson will be looking for a new contract as he enters his option year. 2 out of the top 10 passing defenses last year had what some would consider elite cornerback talent in Sherman & Haden. After that you have a quality corner for Cincinnati in Leon Hall and then after that you have defenses built in the box including Pittsburgh, Carolina, San Francisco, Houston and then Tennessee and Baltimore right outside the top 10. This dying need for a cornerback is simply an overreaction. It'd be great to have an elite corner but useless to pay someone mediocre elite money which is essentially what we would've had to do this offseason.
You can spare me the Jets had to many things to fix narrative. This was not 2006. IMO and according to the opinions of almost every media/fan source including this board it was pretty much a consensus that our 2 most glaring needs were WR and CB with the former needing multiple players. I would much prefer addressing those 2 needs rather than "upgrading" positions that may or may not needed to be upgraded. Personally, I could live with last year's QBs, RBs, safeties, OLs and TEs if it meant I could field 2 starting caliber CBs and WRs. The funny thing is Idzik had the resources at his proposal address those 2 "glaring" areas and still upgrade and/or add to the depth of those other positions.
The dying need for a CB is a media seller. It's an angle for the media to write critical stories and sell.
