Gonna try to be as realistic as possible with this offseason. Retirement/Cut/Gone to FA Brett Favre Eric Barton David Barrett Eric Smith Explanation: Let's cut our losses with Favre. We knew what we were getting, and it won't work with Rex's style. Our QB needs to be able to avoid big mistakes and hand off 25+ times a game. Barton is solid, but his play won't warrant his contract. Barrett is awful. Smith is awful. FA Signings: Jabari Greer Bart Scott Explanation: We don't have much money at all. The people expecting us to sign Lewis/Canty/Suggs are out of their minds. CB is the one position we must address via FA and Greer will be a very solid 2. With Barton and Favre off the books, this should give us enough cap relief to sign Scott as well. It shouldn't cost a ridiculous amount of money to nab these two in FA. Draft: 1) Jeremy Maclin. I've just recently warmed up to the idea of Maclin in the 1st. Unless Malcolm Jenkins miraculously falls to 17, CB shouldn't be the pick. Tyson Jackson would be awful here. Britt and DHB would be reaches. It looks like we'll be going with a young QB next season and giving him a Desean-Jackson type player in Maclin will be huge. Alternative pick: If Mark Sanchez is here, he's absolutely the pick. I like Clemens, but Sanchez will be a very good NFL QB. 2) Patrick Chung. We obviously have huge problems at Safety and instead of signing an average FA like Jim Leohnard, the Jets should nab the best safety in the draft in Patrick Chung. There's a good chance he'll be here and Chung could fit in nicely with Rhodes in the secondary. Alternative pick: Shonn Greene. If Chung is gone, we should go with Greene and take a safety in the 3rd round (Rashad Johnson). The Jets lack a true power back and Greene is one of my favorite players in the entire draft. He won't burn anyone, but Greene will be a Marshawn Lynch type of back in the NFL. Pure power. 3) Mitch King. I am a huge Mitch King fan. He ran that defense at Iowa and is a real leader on the field. King is an all-around solid DE and will provide a lot of depth at that position. Alternative pick: Ron Brace. I don't think he'll be there which is why this is the alternative. Also if we can't get Chung, Rashad Johnson is a nice pick here. 4) Jasper Brinkley. Value pick here, Brinkley will bring a lot of depth to the Lb corps if he's still on the board. Alternative Pick: Jeremiah Johnson. I think he can be a very solid NFL back. Not great, but he's solid. Depth chart: QB-Clemens-Ratliff-Ainge RB-Jones-Leon-Cauhlcrick (I like him a lot, even though I can't spell his name) WR-Coles-Cotchery-Maclin TE-Keller-Baker OL-Brick-Faneca-Mangold-Moore-Woody DE-Ellis-Coleman-King-Devito NT-Jenkins-Mosely-Brace (Hopefully he's there) LB-Harris-Scott-Thomas-Pace-Gholston-Trusnick CB-Revis-Greer-Lowery-Poteat S-Rhodes-Chung-Elam K-Nugent P-Graham Gano (6th/7th round in the Draft) Overall, that is a very good team. Clemens/Ratliff/Ainge won't be asked to do too much considering how heavily the Baltimore system relies on the run game. If we can get another good year or two out of Jones, he and Leon will once again be one of the best back tandems in the league. Adding Maclin to our receiving corps is huge and will allow the Jets to stress the field. Keller should only improve next season. On the defensive side of things, we're fairly balanced. Bart Scott will help out a lot and Harris should only continue to improve going into his 3rd season. Actually russing the QB under Rex should improve everyone on the defensive side of things. Our big problems in the secondary are addressed with Greer and Chung. Revis is shutdown and Rhodes will play an Ed Reed type role on this team. Special teams will be similar but I chose to go with Nuge for K. He was very good in 07 and is much younger than Feely. Hodges was ok, but Gano will give us a very solid punter. Wallace Wright will be signed to a new contract because he is an absolute beast. Despite having one of the hardest schedules in the NFL, this Jets team could win 10/11 games.
Mitch King is a nasty player, in a good way, but he's a phenomenal 4-3 DT. He's like Glenn Dorsey, I'd love to have him, but not in our scheme.
