I haven't forgotten Taylor or purposely omitted him, Don. I did so because he had nothing to do with the draft, per se. We gave no picks for him. But yes, he indirectly affected the draft for us in a big way. Tanny said something yesterday about his acquisition being "the tie-breaker" between looking for a DE or taking the CB (Wilson). Were it not for Taylor coming here, Tanny was actually thinking of trading up for a pass rusher. So yeah, I guess in that way, he affected our draft.
two things: ending the draft early will give tanny a head start on calling/sweet talking players still on the board just in case they become udfa. while other gm's are worrying about one player, tanny is on the phone with 50 of them. leon? first, we had the #1 rushing game in the nfl last year without him. 2nd, he's coming off injury and playing behind 2 if not 3 RB's, so his touches will be close to zero even if we kept him. 3rd, he's gone after this season anyway and this is a goooood way to say fu to his agent.
Gholston In Rex and Mr. T's comments they mentioned having Gholston to back up Ellis. Clearly they have moved on from the notion of ever having that guy play OLB. Total bust at that. No idea how to play in space. No idea how to recognize movement. No idea how to defend the pass. And no idea how to play standing up. Ridiculous. But I have been saying for close to a year they should consider having him gain back the weight he lost and put him in as a DE. Hos success in college was as a 4-3 DE. He played with one or two hands on the ground and had limited reads to make. Just hold up and shed the guy in front of him and bull rush or swim around the guy on passing plays. Maybe as a rotational DE he can add value? Is that embarrassing for the #6 pick overall? Absolutely. But knowing he will be on the roster, and knowing the Jets need to add D-Line depth, maybe this is a solution that can work. Clearly they had to have this in mind (planning on him to spell Ellis) as they evaluated draft needs. Of course I hope it works but I would sure like some big UDFA's to be brought in just in case. It certainly is Gholston's last chance to contribute. Makes for interesting story line for Hard Knocks.
Is it true that the Jets had the least pass attempts in the NFL yet Faneca gave up more sacks than any other guard? Do people really need to know anything other than that? Long live Vlad the Impailer!
I look at it this way: would you rather have 1 year of an injured Leon Washington as your #3 back, or would you prefer 5 years of the top fullback in the draft?. To boot, we should save money this year, Conner gets a year to learn from Richardson, and Leon's value was further diminished when we drafted a dynamic return man in Kyle Wilson.
I stopped having an emotional attachment to the players on my favorite teams a long time ago, so none of this is at all gut-wrenching for me. I also find some of the comments on the board in other threads about how the team somehow is showing a lack of class by moving out players because they think it will help performance hysterically funny - this is pro sports, people. The plan here is pretty obvious - Ducasse for Faneca, McKnight for Washington, Connor for Richardson. Maybe not all this year, but certainly by next year. Depth comes from undrafted free agents and people cut in training camp. If it works, it was a great idea; if not, the team will be disappointing. Either way, Tannenbaum and Ryan aren't going anywhere for a while, so if it doesn't work out they'll be paying the price. As for me, I'll be rooting for the team, but I sure won't be losing my heart to anyone on the team.
I think the more we hear and see with Connor, the more we're going to like. I mentioned in another thread about OJ Simpson's FB the year he ran for over 2,000 yards with the Bills. Most Bills fans never gave the guy much credit, but he was half the reason OJ got those yards that year. What a freakin' blocker. Connor can be that guy for Greene and they're both very young. It's scary.
We lost guys who are just not very good any more. Washington is done as a major contributor, and Jones was done as play-off showed, and Faneca's allowance of sacks makes him a huge liability. We may lose our QB to injury if we keep this guy. I don't see what the problem is with letting these guys go. We dumped old trash and picked up good young talent. Terrific draft.
For sure. I was just referring to rookie contract (I think it's 5 years altho I guess we don't have to sign him for that length) compared to Leon's current contract situation.
Letting go of Feneca and Leon is going to come back to bite us in the ass. Especially the Faneca one, He had 1 year left in him and who's going to replace him? Slauson, the Rook?
Faneca did one thing well - Pull to the right around Mangold and hit the guy in that gap. Everything else he did was below average. You don't pay a guy 7Mil to be below average. Dont give me anything about cap space and there being none. If its your money your spending, you'd understand he's not worth the cost.
Yes. The reason we did not dump him before is because we just wanted to make sure we can get someone good to compete with Slauson in the draft. Once we did, there was simply no reason to keep Faneca. It's simply dangerous and irresponsible to have a guy on the team who provides the WORST QB protection in NFL. He had to go, and getting a replacement in the second round made it pointless to wait any longer to release him.
I was of the same mindset early this afternoon but have since calmed down a bit. Leon must not be very far along in rehab, but even if he were, how many touches, really, would he have gotten this year? And certainly no returns either. Faneca's play at the end of the season was borderline horrendous, not to mention that Faneca's contract was huge in terms of setting up with other key players. No, believe me, we're okay with these two. The lack of adressing the D-line is my biggest concern, far outweighing Faneca and Leon's departure.
i'm not sure you truly understand the nature or specifics of these type of injuries. Surgery on an ACL is an extremely easy procedure from a surgery standpoint the way its done, enables a player to rehab themselves to nearly 100% most of the time. The problem with ACL surgery however, is the rehab time. it's not very complex and most people, even athletes despite the enormous amount of wear and tear, regain full function . The ONLY caveat about ACL function is that the rehab process is extremely long and there is a very specific protocol that has to be followed. However afterwards you're pretty much fine. Now, if you tear other portions of your knee also...including your PCL, MCL...then you might be fucked. Jenkins has already recovered from an ACL injury on his other knee, and like many players it didn't really slow them down. Had he torn the same ACL, well then yeah...it would be a much bigger complication. Or if we were talking about microfracture surgery, then yeah...i doubt he'd be the same player. Leon's injury on the other hand is more complicated because of the type of fracture(and magnitude) he sustained on such a large bone in his body. Unlike the ACL which is very small and is essentially replaced with other ligaments (like from your hamstring), it requires you to heal a specific way. There is definitely more room for complications in a injury such as his than a rather simple procedure like an ACL tear. It's not like he had a stress fracture or it was a small bone in his body. it was on the largest bone in the body. The amount of stress that has to be continued to be placed on that bone (unlike the ACL) can be a huge issue for a football player that relies on his speed.
Not to mention, Leon a RB whose strength is cutting and mobility. There is no comparison here. Jenks has much better prognosis for next year than Leon. There isn't even a debate on this one.
