So I read an article today and it was basically about Sanchez's struggles and stated that the pressure is on because the Jets "are a team everyone knows is built to win now". That may not be th exact quote but you get the idea. I have heard that stated a lot last year which was understandable because we had guys like Ellis, Jason taylor, Woody, jenkins, and LT. What I think people overlooked however about that team is that out of those guys, one was a key player (woody), and the rest were role players or on the downside of their careers where the name brought more respect than the game did. This year we cut a lot of age from the team and have went younger at some key positions so even though I hear ot less frequent I was still surprised to hear some refer to the Jets as a win now team. It got me thinking so I did some research. According to ESPN;s Mike Sando the Jets were ranked the 7th youngest team in the league following the 53 man roster cuts from this past september (http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/44505/2011-nfl-team-age-ranks-at-53-man-cuts). I wanted to take it a step further though and took the current active roster and looked at the players I consider to be key players or role players on this team now or in the future. I then broke it down into 4 categories. The rookies(guys with less than 3 years experience), the early career vets (guys in their prime with a good number of years left), the late career vets (guys in their prime but unlikely to play at a high level much longer). Right after the position you have age/experience. The late career vets: 21 Tomlinson, LaDainian RB 32/11 - free agent 17 Burress, Plaxico WR 6-5 34/10 - free agent 57 Scott, Bart LB 31/10 -signed through 2014 97 Pace, Calvin LB 31/9 - signed through 2013 65 Moore, Brandon G 31/9 - signed through 2012 91 Pouha, Sione DT 32/7 - free agent 78 Hunter, Wayne T 30/8 - signed through 2014 36 Leonhard, Jim S 29/7 - free agent 30 Strickland, Donald CB 31/8 - free agent 58 Thomas, Bryan OLB 32/10 - free agent The early career vets: 24 Revis, Darrelle CB 26/5 - locked up 74 Mangold, Nick C 27/6 - locked up 52 Harris, David LB 27/5 - locked up 10 Holmes, Santonio WR 27/6 - locked up 60 Ferguson, D'Brickashaw T 27/6 - locked up 81 Keller, Dustin TE 27/4 - Signed through 2012. A little down on him lately but based on our TE depth and continuity w /Sanchez we should lock him up longer. 31 Cromartie, Antonio CB 27/6 - locked up (unfortunately) 70 DeVito, Mike DE 27/5 - signed through 2012. Should lock him up longer. 22 Pool, Brodney S 27/6 - replaceable 2 Folk, Nick K 27/5 - replaceable 33 Smith, Eric S 28/6 - replaceable The Rookies: 6 Sanchez, Mark QB 25/3 96 Wilkerson, Muhammad DL 22/R 20 Wilson, Kyle CB 24/2 23 Greene, Shonn RB 26/3 68 Slauson, Matt G 25/3 93 Ellis, Kenrick DT 23/R 11 Kerley, Jeremy WR 23/R 25 McKnight, Joe R 23/2 79 Pitoitua, Ropati DE 26/3 51 Maybin, Aaron LB 23/3 50 McIntyre, Garrett LB 27/1 55 Westerman, Jamaal LB 26/3 38 Conner, John FB 24/2 29 Powell, Bilal RB 23/R Based on this you can see most of our key players in the early years of their prime are locked up through at least the 2014 season. The so called core 4 and santonio. We then have a bunch of guys with 3 years experience or less that are making major contributions and are only bound to get better. So the group to focus on is the late career vets on this team. Is there anyone on this list that would be really tough to replace? I would say Pouha and Moore are playing at the highest level, however I think both of these players have a good 2-3 years left playing at that level so we still have a window to win with them while we plan their replacements. Pouha however is a FA after this season and Moore after next. It will be interesting to see what the Jets do with these guys. Personally I feel we need to focus on linebacker, safety, RT, and TE in the draft so I would extend the contracts of these to to buy us some time to focus on other areas. Next we have the 3 linebackers Pace, Scott, Thomas. All solid starters, all probably can play another few years but are starting to slow down, all good against the run, all not particularly good in coverage or at rushing the passer. I think we all agree we need to get younger and faster here. Only Thomas is a FA. So we have time to instill youth into this unit while Scott and Pace playout the rest of their contracts. Linebacker is a position where rookies can generally step in quickly and contribute. If we had to let some of these guys walk or cut them to save a few dollars we could probably replace them without much of a drop off and maybe even an improvement. Linebacker will need to be a focus for this team in the draft and FA over the next year or two. The last 4 to evaluate are LT, Plax, Leonard, and Hunter. LT has been a great option in the passing game and a leader on this team. I see him sticking around another year or two as a good 3rd down back as long as the jets want to keep him around. If not it may mean we are ready to pass that torch to McKnight. Plax is a young 34 since he didnt play the previous 3 seasons. He relies on his hands and size more than his speed so I would expect he has a few more good years in the tank. We have been much better this year in the red zone even though we have a hard time getting there and I think that has a lot to do with Plax. Will he continue to be a jet? I dont know but even if he isnt there always seems to be a problem child wide reciever out there the Jets can take on on the cheap and get production out of. Leonard will likely be back since he is the playcaller in the secondary and a Rex disciple.He also is the youngest at 29 in this group. Safety is another position though that we are not getting a lot of production out of and need to address in FA and draft. Lastly Hunter. He's not playing at a high level and this is a position we need to address for next season. To me it looks like we are set up to be a very good team for at least the next 4 years. There will be some older contributors that we will need to replace over that time but thats the life of the NFL. There is no reason with proper management by Tannenbaum and Rex we can't address these needs while continuing to compete at a high level. In fact the production we are getting out of a lot of older players has not been that great so if anything with the younger guys improving and as we get more athletic and faster at some of the positions discussed I think the jets may be built to win over the next couple of years rather than built to win now.
with a QB that was ready to lead a team to a championship then this wouldn't be an issue. Sanchez was asked to jump into a situation and lead a team to a super bowl at a young age. He is not ready for that responsibility, he is not getting the chance to go through growing pains etc. He has to be great and when he isn't living up to expectations the fans get irrate. It's not all his fault to be honest.
We need to surround sanchez with a receiving core, a good O Line, and our D needs better safeties. We have 2 white safeties who are slow as hell.
^contrary to popular belief.. Eric smith is black. Either way he does suck in coverage. He also does hit harder than sherry Rhodes.
Thanks for this post......I was thinking along the same lines...the Jets should be competative for the at least the next 4-5 years based on the core of 'early career vets'. Most of the 'late career vets' will be gone over the next 2 seasons. The Jets do have some work to do as we all know and I hope it is mostly done through the draft next year. As of now the Jets have all of their 2012 picks which I hope are used to continue the rebuilding job on the defensive front 7 and finally draft that elusive pass rusher or two plus a couple of building blocks for the right side of the OL is a must also. A couple of fast skill players are also needed so this may be a two year project but the main thing is the Jets should still be competetive while they fix the holes.......
Yes, its obvious that the reason Smith can not over Gonk or Chandler for the Bills is because he does not belive in white on white violence. What we need is a black guy with no problems starting a race war on the NFL gridiron.
That's a great OP. We have a really solid core of young players, but I count 8 starters in that top group that may need replacing/upgrade in the next year or 2. That's a pretty big turnover.
interesting read but if this season has shown us anything its that having a top tier QB is >>>>>>>>>>>> everything else. If you have one then the quality of the rest of your team is a lot less important and if you dont then its very difficult (but not impossible) to find success. our near term future = sanchez's development
The Jets were built to win from 2008-2010. They're built to decline and rebuild now. We may get lucky and avoid that but I doubt it. There's too much chaff and stuff that needs to be replaced soon and not enough upside potential in the current roster. If you double down every season you go broke pretty fast.
I think you're right on that. A few teams are built to lose now every season and a few teams have good enough management that they are in perpetual win-now mode but most of the NFL is kind of in stumbling through the season and hoping to get lucky mode. The Jets of 2008 were clearly built to win-now, although until they got Favre all the pieces were not in place. The 2009 and 2010 Jets were also definitely selling the future to get the present, however they had the key problem of a very young QB. The 2011 Jets are definitely in stumbling through the season and hoping to get lucky mode.
Good post. I think you're right on most points. Pouha should be locked up long term. You have to remember he is a young 32 cause he was 28 in his rookie season. He was in Mecca on a a religious missionary or something for 3 years so he's probably going to play to a much later age than most. Plax needs to come back, if for nothing else, continuity with the QB. Same for Moore regarding the OLine. I would prefer to see LT stay for at least 1 more year before passing the torch. His vet leadership skills are required as well. Same goes for Scott & Leonhard. Strickland has been pretty good this year and no injuries. He should get another year or two cause Rex will probably not draft another CB in the next year or 2 with Kyle improving and Cro locked up. That leaves Hunter, Thomas, and Pace who should probably have replacements waiting in the wings. We desperately need a pass rusher, a cover safety, and a do-all TE.
Good post OP. Was anyone else a little surprised by our "rookies" group? I was excited to see a list of our young guns, but looking at it laid out - I don't know if there's a special "gamechanger" in the group. I think there's some solid guys in that group with solid potential, but no true gems.
LMAO. Not to get on your case or anything, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't on a MORMON mission in MECCA. In fact, he did his two years in Pittsburgh. Sorry but I got a kick out of that. American Samoa isn't exactly an Islamic breeding ground.
The body breaks down biologically at 32 the same way football or no football. He's still 32. Kendick Ellis has to work out of else this DL is in trouble in a year.
You can't lock Pouha up long-term. He's not a dominant player now and he's about to turn 33. That's a recipe for "lost a step and is now no longer even average." See Jones, Marvin for the text book example of this scenario.
