Typically I only do this with my Penn State Lions, but the other day I went through each position group on the Jets, and weighed out if we are better or worse. Things look promising when broken down. Defense: Secondary: Revis should be better- injury slowed him, short camp from holdout. Cro should be better-- 2nd in the system. Wilson - 2nd year, could be stud nickel. Pool - 2nd year, should be better. Little Jimmy will hopefully be injury free. Rex seems to have found Smith a role. Cole should improve. Losses-- Drew Coleman, replaced by Strickland-- call that a wash. Overall, secondary should be improved. LB: Healthy Pace, Older Thomas, Loss of Jason Taylor. Harris and Scott should be solid as always. If Westerman can get at least 6 sacks as a situational pass rusher, we will be in great shape. Overall, equal, but Westerman is our X factor. Could see a big improvement if he works out. DL: Loss of Ellis should be negated by Wilkerson. Much better depth, more experience for the young guys. Our line will be fresh, and versitile. Wilk, Divito, Pouha and K Ellis can play any spot on the line. Dixon and Ripoti sound like really good backups with upside. Nice youth movement. Overall- Solid improvement Offense OL: Brick, Mangold are vets, but are still learning and getting stronger each year. Slausson actually played well last year, and with another year with calahan, he should be very solid. Good depth with Turner and Vlad. Moore might not perform as well due to that injury. Hunter should be solid- I like him a lot actually. Woody was a turnstyle in some games last year. Overall, the unit should be the same or slightly better with the added year together. WR/TE - Might have a slight downgrade here. Not as much contiunity as one would like. Plax has upside, but is unproven. Mason should be decent. Keller should have a big year, and will hopefully see more targets. Overall: Slight downgrade. RB: Another year for Green to mature. More of a balanced attack- hopefully a 3 back rotation with McKnight and LT getting 8 touches or so per game. Powell might surprise some people and earn some touches. Conner taking T Rich's place should be a wash. Overall: Equal to last season QB!!! Mark should be improving a substantial amount in year 3. 4000 yards, 25 TD, 8 picks 60% is not out of the question. If he can pull off numbers like that, we are going to be a scary team. To me, when broken down, it looks like both the D and the O should be improved. Take into account that we are retaining coaches, QB, not changing systems, and adding TOM MOORE, we've got an advantage over most teams. I can't wait to see my team this year.
I'm not sure how RB could be simply equal with the addition of another back and the improvement of Greene and McKnight. I can't see how Burress is "unproven". We may have question marks about his ability after prison, but he's certainly proven himself prior to that. I really don't see us having a downgrade in the WR corps as a whole. Mason is an upgrade over Cotchery, Holmes is here for a full season, and Kerley gives us a dimension we lacked last season. We had no reliable receivers last year after our top 3. We're solid at least 4 deep now. As far as Sanchez, those numbers may be a stretch aside from comp %. I'm sure not counting on 4000 yards (which would put him in the top 5-7 among QBs), and I'm not counting on a 25:8 ratio. He should improve on his numbers, and I'd love to see him take that big of a step, but it's unlikely. You're essentially talking about him becoming a Top 10 QB in every category and a Top 5 in most.
Good thread! I think we are better at WR then last year. Agree with everything else. Plax unlike Braylon can actually run a pass route and Mason is a very productive solid player. We also look like we have a nice draft pick who can contribute from day 1. We also didn't have Holmes for the first 4 games last year. I think having him from day 1 is a huge upgrade from what we opened with last year.
Absolutely, mainly because Sanchez is in year 3, and now is when we reap the benefits of starting him since day 1 of his career. He's gonna raise his game up to another level.
I think we are much worse at wide receiver, and we got worse at LB because of age, also for this year we got worse at DL but better for the long term. We got better at DB and better at QB
I don't think we are worse at WR. Holmes, Plax, and Mason should be able to match Holmes, Edwards, Cotch from last year. We will miss the big play potential from Brad Smith in the wildcat but overall the team should be better than last year. I like the new youth on the DL. Should be a great season!
I personally think that we improved in every single area, I would actually love to see what our average age this year is in comparison to last year, I think it could be like a half year younger
Absolutely. This time last year we had a new WR that wouldn't play for 4 games, no Revis, Jenkins taking up a roster spot, an injured Ropati, rookie #2 CB, a big question mark in Tomlinson, and not much depth.
agree with just about everything in this thread so far... as for the WR situation, i honestly believe that as long as the 3 of them can stay healthy they will be very productive and are all going to help sanchez improve this year... they bring some experience and responsible route running to the position... sanchez will be able to depend on these guys to be where they are supposed to be..... kerley could def add that young spark here and there if he continues to do what hes doing... with our offensive weapons, if you throw kerley out there for a play or two, theres no way a defense can keep too good of an eye on him... and as for keller, i def think he is going to have a monster year.. having plax take on double coverage should open up the middle for him big time... i have complete confidence in shonn greene and expect him to be a bulldozer this year.. we should expect a slightly better performance from our secondary this year, and as far as our defensive front goes, i expect to see some major improvements... throwing some big healthy bodies in the mix will go a long way for Rex.... i expect a big year for ropati and wilks... and if pace does what is expected of him we are going to be very dangerous... top 3 defense in the league without a doubt
The one area you miss out is Special Teams, where we have lost Weatherford and Smith, and Folk is in a battle with Novak for the kicking job.
I think having Tom Moore to help break down game film will help tremendously ..he might not be a sideline presence, but his ability to break down film with Sanchez in the redzone will be huge (remember the Colts have had the best redzone offense over the past 5 years) I think the WR corps took a step backwards - remember Plax has been in jail for 2 years, is 6'5 and not a natural athlete like Vick is, and remember how sluggish and lacking in explosiveness Vick was in his first year out. I think letting Edwards go was a big mistake. Mason is a wash but he'll have to start from scratch learning a new system. Kyle Wilson needs to show something to justify his first round investment - you don't draft a player in the first round unless you think they are going to make an immediate impact (other than a QB of course) and Strickland is probably about as good as he's ever going to be, which is a solid, average player. I think this year there will be alot of pressure and expectations on Sanchez to take that big step forward - he's shown he can get it done in the play-offs, now can he do it consistently to stop the Jets from having to play on the road all the time in the play-offs. ats_suck:
at best, i expect a 2:1 TD to INT ratio from Sanchez the fact that 10/11 starters are back on D leads me to believe that this D will be really good the running game should be even better this year and expect sanchez to improve in a number of areas with the afc west and a down nfc east on the schedule, i expect big things from this team
losing weatherford is probably a downgrade since the rule change on kickoff i honestly think we lost smith at the right time at least.. of course hes an asset to any team but i dont think hell be as effective anymore on special teams... as far as folk goes.. i never had any sort of confidence in him and although he made a lot of field goals for us, i personally was never happy with him as our kicker... if novak can beat him out then so be it, lets try him out
WR is the only position I am truly worried about. Mason's age was not an issue last season, but the Ravens knew how to use him and Flacco was familar to him. He may not be as effective in green and white. Burress is in a similar boat. He's had good numbers, but will age, a new system, and jail time hamper his ability to reproduce those numbers? Edwards and Cotchery both left feeling disrespected and will have a chip on their shoulder should they square off against us in 2011. In comparison though, Shaun Ellis is likely to have a 4x4 on his shoulder and we are guaranteed to see him twice.
I agree. I think a lot of people are downplaying or ignoring what edwards did last year. Plax of 2007 was better than edwards was last year, but who knows what he's going to be in 2011. Overall, I think the offense may take a step back, but the D will be better with a lot of good young players on the D line, 2 corners that have played together, Strickland, and wilson in his 2nd year. Harris has his deal, and Pace is healthy. This d will be scary good by mid season.
Marks numbers might have been a stretch, but not impossible. He threw for 3300 yards last year in 15 games. If he plays in 16 game, he could get there. Obviously Plax WAS a proven player- my conscern was the two year layoff. You are right about Kerley- I expect him to contribute, but Mason will probably get 90% of the slot reps. The backs are equal to me because I can't see LT performing at that level again, and we lose T Rich. The added experience of Green/McKnight and new legs in Powell should bring us back to even at least. I tried to be non biased with the evaluations. I could easilly find a reason to say we improved each unit if I wanted to be a real homer, but I'm trying to be objective. Either way, I'm feeling really good about this team.
