I don't consider Jenkins a major injury to the roster because he was always getting hurt and the Jets were prepared for it. Revis is a major player of course and the injury hurt the team but CB depth has never been a concern and it isnt this year because the Front Office doesnt ignore those positions' depth as much as they do the trenches Ferguson, Mangold, B. Moore, Scott, Harris, Pouha... anyone of those guys do down (and its very surprising that one of them hasnt the past couple years, perhaps luck) and we will all see what a major injury really is.
Our depth is about as good as you can make it (outside of QB). I am more concerned with some of the starters, namely Bryan Thomas, Plaxico Burress, and Shonn Greene. We will need lights out play all season from at least two of those guys to push us over the top.
Those are the positions you're worried about? Our o-line depth is excellent and we just drafted Pouha's heir-apparent. Moore's currently injured, but fortunately we have Rob Turner on this team. I think that you're assuming guys like Mauga, Turner and Hunter are all scrubs just because you haven't seen much of them. But don't forget that two of the guys you listed were UDFA's and Pouha was an unheralded back-up a couple years ago.
I know we are comparable to last season with our team as a whole, but I can't member a season where I felt as comfortable with our depth. We have many players that would have a shot to be starters on other teams or solid high drafted rookies that we don't need to force to start. My looks at our depth: D Pool - Has started and would start on other teams Gilbert - Jumped out of an F-ing pool, need I say more K. Ellis - 3rd round pick - lots of promise Marcus Dixon - Holy hell, had no idea about his story. Maybe he will develop into something special. Kyle Wilson - 1st round pick - would start on other teams Donald Strickland - Might have a chance at starting on another team Dwight Lowery - Not the best but could start on another team DaJuan Morgan - 3rd round pick. may still develop O Kerley - Would start (according to some on this site) on 31 other teams Turner - versitile backup Ducasse - 2nd round pick - projected to start someday - Some other teams would start him Mason - Old but durable pro-bowler Pat Turner - 3rd round pick. may still develop Brunell - Old as hell, but can't deny the man has some skills LT - the man - still has something left in the tank and wants a ring This ignores the fact that there will undoubtedly be some surprises from the other lower round picks and ufa, plus I'm sure I am missing some dudes.
It was both actually.. after Pool was signed Rex made a point to say Smith will still start but Pool will get a lot of time.
So your big problem with the D-line is that Shaun Ellis isn't around? Our backups on the DL barely played last season and contributed 17 tackles. We have two very promising rookies, Ropati is back...we have a REAL rotation this season. I really don't see how you feel we took a big step back on the DL. Don't be surprised if we pick up absolutely no one on either line in the next few weeks.
I just wrote the first two that came off the top of my head. Pace was hurt too. We had a slew of injuries last year. Somehow we were just a hair shy of the Super Bowl. You don't consider Jenkins' injury last year to be major? hmy: I don't care how deep you are at any position. When a guy like Revis, one of the top players in football at any position, it qualifies as major. As for your list of guys who the Jets can't afford to go down, come on. Just add Sanchez to that list and let's just call it obvious. If you're going to cherry pick the most important positions for our team, yeah, you're right, if they go down, we're screwed. I'd confidently state that if the same thing happened to every other team it would be the same story. We have running back depth. That's good for a "ground and pound" team. We have receiver depth. That's good for a maturing QB with big play potential. We have secondary depth. That's good for a defense whose coaches make the secondary the focal point of the scheme. We even have what could be very good depth on the DLine (which we can't say for sure until we see them in action) and some depth on the OLine as well. Can we replace starters with superstars on our lines? No. Can we replace any of our starters with superstars? Can any team do that?
The way you post makes it seem like you're subconsciously HOPING for a major injury so you can be proven right. I certainly hope that's not the case. You say the Jets were prepared for a Jenkins injury to the extent that it wasn't a major problem, but most people felt it would be a rather significant drop off from Jenkins to Pouha. He had a good season in 2007, but a lot of people figured the team just felt he couldn't start after they picked up Jenkins. You don't get a real sense of where these guys are at until they're actually pressed into action.
fair enough, good rebuttal my post was a little silly naming all those key players however it is very surprising that NONE of them have missed a single game in years. I just think the F.O. shouldn't take that completely for granted... thats not the norm. Obviously when a CORE player goes down there is going to be a dropoff no matter who you are, im not dumb enough to demand that they cover all bases so we can replace a probowler with a probowler, but look at team's that have been consistent winners the last 10 years, the Patriots, Steelers, Ravens, to name a few: they worry less about depth at skill positions and more about depth on the lines. The Jets have done the opposite and although we have been tremendously fortunate to not experience losses to the degree those teams or any (least amount of players on IR since 2001) doesnt mean risks aren't being taken. I like where the Jets are at, the starting lineup, like last year has the potential to win it all. I just have a real problem with the blind optimism I sometimes see on this board. Obviously this team like all teams has weaknesses, the Jets just happens to be depth, its fine but its a real concern. To see posters make claims that we have great depth is shocking to me as it is based upon a handful of twitter posts and/or blind faith that Mr. T. and Rex have it covered.
This is both belittling and just plain ignorant. People aren't claiming that we have solid depth at most positions because they're idiot sheep. They're claiming that we have solid depth at most positions because of on field play. I acknowledged that LB is a big unknown. Do I feel better about Mauga and Bellore because of the reports out of camp, both this year and last? Yes. Does that mean that I feel absolutely secure with the depth there? Of course not. Like I said, it's an unknown for me. What I DO trust is that if it proves to be a position of need, the FO will make the moves necessary to improve that depth going into the season. It's not blind faith that makes me feel good about our depth on the line. I fail to see how you can make an argument that we have poor depth on the defensive line. As far as the OL, Turner is an excellent backup for the interior and Ducasse was drafted to eventually start at tackle. His struggles at guard don't mean much to me in that regard. Most teams go two deep as far as backups on the active roster. If we lose guys on top of that, we'll be signing new OL off practice squads or off the street like every other team in the league. I also don't think you should be using the Pittsburgh Steelers as the example of a team that has excellent depth in the trenches on the offensive side of the ball.
I think Pool will back up Smith, which seems to be an interesting move. I always though Pool was the better safety, but I think Smith had a very nice progress during the season and jumped ahead of Pool.
Every team has injuries every year. Losing one good (but old and injured prone) defensive lineman for a whole season, two other decent starters (Woody and Leonard), and having no other season ending injuries to any half decent players is actually really good injury luck; most teams lose a lot more than that. Off the top of my head, the Packers, the Steelers, the Ravens, the Colts and the Pats all had a lot more injuries than the Jets. Maybe it's the conditioning staff, maybe it's how we train, maybe it's the guys we bring in, but this team just wasn't that badly hurt.
Even the Steelers, Ravens, and Pats fans didn't expect the 7th guy on their OL/DL to perform as well as they did because they don't know them that well. So to say "we have no depth" is something we don't know until they play. I hope they don't play because it means the starters are injured. I remember depth being an issue on this team for the past two years and each time the FO/CS has covered the positions that depth was needed, and those positions played much better. This argument holds no bearing because no one knows.
i read somewhere (probably on this site) that since woody became owner the jets have had the fewest players on IR in the league
Well to be honest no one knows how the starters will do. You predict depth the exact same way you predict how starters will do--look at who they have, look at what they've done in the pros, listen to what the coaches have, look at where they were drafted, watch them play and then take a guess. It's a bit harder because there's usually more guess work (I've watched Greene a lot; I've never seen Blaine Powell play) but it's not like we should just say "DEPTH? CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT."
Good post. I tend to be concerned about the drop off for specific players like Mangold, Ferguson, Revis and Harris. (And of course Sanchez.) But if you look at the six basic corps of the team, I feel better this year about the secondary, which in Rex's scheme is arguably the most important. E Smith seems like he's stepped it up, Leonhard is back, Pool is decent, so the safeties are I think going to help even more this year than last. Wilson I did NOT feel good about starting if Cro left, but as a nickel, he should contribute a lot more than last year. But running back and receiver depth is good (with the Mason signing I think likely to end up as a very good move). OL depth is generally good, it just being more of a drop off for Mangold and Ferguson. Really the corps taht concern me are DL and LB in terms of depth, and DL being more of a short term concern until the new young guys get up to speed. On the whole, in the NFL of today, the Jets do not stand out as being particularly thin, I think, unlike even some recent years for the team.
That's actually the exact opposite of what I said. You're the one who used that no-speculation logic ("This argument holds no bearing because no one knows.") EDIT: I'm all for speculating. Any my speculation is our depth needs a ton of help: our backups on the front seven are all, with the exception of Ellis, waiver wire guys and undrafted free agents with a total of about 50 career tackles, and we're just as thin on the o-line.
