Age of our starters

Barton won't come back cheaply enough. Bowens hasn't signed yet, and it currently in Cleveland for a visit.

I'd agree that monetarily, it would be better to invest in other positions, but if we feel that the WR or DE isn't there that we want, and we can't trade down, I can see this front office taking BPA on defense, which would be either a ILB or CB at our draft position. Abyzmul had a great point earlier, which was that the teams that win build depth up front without worrying about a surplus of players at certain positions. They take BPA and find a way to work that player in. Plus, Scott is a versatile player who has spent time playing outside. Another ILB could rotate in at the position and create different defensive formations to confuse offenses. Again, it's just something I could see happening.

 

Yeah that's true. You make a good point about Scott playing outside. We're kind of weak at OLB with Gholston an unproven commodity and Thomas being mostly worthless. I guess another stud ILB probably wouldn't hurt. Barton.. that was wishful thinking. Even if he isn't best suited for the 3-4, he's a player I've always liked for his intensity and awareness, but I don't that happening either.

 

I agree completely. I wanted him back, but I think it's become clear he wants more money than we're going to give a backup at his age. Hopefully that changes, but I'm not holding my breath. FTR, I'm hoping we go DE/WR in the first, but I'm rapidly becoming more ok with a CB as well as I look more into Lito Sheppard. Having a solid collection of CBs never hurt anyone, and we really only have 3 serviceable CBs right now.

 

Holy shit Keller is 25 already? What was he in college for 8 years? I thought that I was the only one who took that long to graduate.

 

Its impressive how young this team is, and most of those mid 20s players have been around for a while.

Look how young the receiving core is! I want to keep everyone.

Its good to see the stability. The front 7 is going to need two kids on it next year. Even if one is in the draft and another is a FA that is rotational. Bye Vernon.

 

Kroul and Ropati would actually make me think the Jets may not even draft a DLmen unless a top prospect fell into their lap. Kroul is still a year away and Ropati, if he comes back healthy, will be a heavily rotational DL in the DeVito mold, and he is enormous. 6'8 is tough to see over.

I think they'll go LB and S, because Rex knows he needs his Suggs and someone needs to make plays as a safety on this team.

 

DL is the priority for the draft.

 

The DL is not what gets the pressure in this scheme, its a LB who can do things on his own.

Jeremy Beal is a complete OLB who has plenty of experience standing up rushing the passer.

 

Age of our Roster* not starters



thanks for this, nice to see them all listed like that....we have a very young team.


This won't stop uneducated people from saying we are a "win now only" team.

 

EDIT: never mind

 

imo - Regardless of whether the DL gets the pressure in this scheme or not - we still need to draft a good young DL or 2.

 

100% on all accounts.

tons of youth on this team, and essentially a replacement for every aging player except at the DE position.

ducasse will eventually supplant Woody, same with Connor and Richardson.
31 isn't that old for BT and we'd probably sign someone. same with Pouha

 

IMO it had to happen this year because the Patriots you all hate are going to be better next year. The shitty D will get Ty Warren and leigh Bodden back. The Ghost will be back at PK and they have 2 firsts, 2 seconds and 2 thirds in this springs draft.
The sad news for the rest of the AFC East is that the Pats will win the Division and be the #1 seed this year in a season that was expected to be a retooling year. The Jets will be strong but not strong enough.

 

The idea scares me but in a league like this no one really has an idea what is going to happen. The patriots have a lot of young talent and draft picks, you'd expect them to be great. Thing is, a little over a year ago, the jets were looking at a season with Kellen Clemens at qb, Thomas jones and Leon Washington at RB, and Jerricho Cotchery and chansi stucky/David clowney at receiver.

 

Actually, there could be a reason for that. When you're in school your class is determined by your age on a certain date, usually in September; this means that if your birthday is in October, November, December there's a good chance that at 8, 9, 10 or 11 years old you're going to be one of the bigger kids as you're a piece older than three quarters of your classmates, and at that age it makes a difference in terms of size. You're therefore more likely to start playing a lineman type position which becomes set for life.

There was a study I saw a couple of years back that showed a significantly higher proportion of successful sportspeople were born in the last quarter of the year and it suggested this as a key reason. Sounds a bit screwy, but there's logic to it.

 

This definitely makes sense.

It's funny though because in the US state by state it might differ. When I lived in NY if you were born past the cutoff date, they started you a year early so you'd be much younger than everyone if you were born in Sep-Dec. When I moved out to NJ I found out that they didn't do it this way and they started you out a year later.

 

I was going to comment on this but you beat me to it. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, talked about this effect for Canadian hockey players, although there it is the first quarter of the year that is advantaged, because the cutoff is January 1. This has actually been known for a long time; Roger Barnsley and Gus Thompson wrote about it in a couple of papers in 1985 and 1988. This is called in general the "relative age effect," and people have found strong evidence of it in soccer, swimming, and tennis also. The effect is much smaller in baseball, presumably because the physical advantages in Little League wash out pretty quickly. Thompson has an entire web site about the issue at http://www.socialproblemindex.ualberta.ca/relage.htm.

I was born in December and skipped third grade, so I was much younger than my classmates for almost all of my school career (the second-youngest person in a high school graduating class of 967). It was a real problem socially (I couldn't compete athletically until I was a junior in high school, and 18-year-old high school girls aren't interested in dating 16-year-old high school boys, even if they're seniors), but at least the supposed disadvantages academically didn't show up (I would have been bored to death if I had had to stay in my grade, and being a 24-year-old PhD was kind of cool).

 

I think that the jets, while maybe not a "win now only" team, WERE designed to peak this year. You guys acquired Taylor/Tomlinson/Edwards/Holmes/Cromartie with the knowledge that Taylor & Tomlinson doesn't have a full tank of gas left, and that you won't be able to keep all of the other three if they perform as expected (which they generally have).

I see at least three positions which should be of immediate concern to the jets (OLB/S/K), and a handful of others where depth, age, and contract situations should be of moderate concern in the near future (WR/DE/CB/ILB, arguably RB/FB).

If you look at your picks in the upcoming draft, it is hard to expect more than two of those positions to be filled by a ready-to-perform rookie (not counting kicker).

There will still be plenty of talent on the team, but I think the FO will struggle to not see that talent decline from this year, and I think that the result will be that the team's success will rely heavily on Sanchez becoming the kind of QB who will carry the team (not vice versa as has happened in the past).