The gap is not as significant as you make it sound. As I've already mentioned the Jets HAVE HOLES...but not as many as meets the eye.Even if they had a ton of cap space...they don't need to go on a crazy spending spree.This is a relatively young group with a lot of good players still growing. The problem this season is the holes the Jets HAD were acute and when combined created the perfect storm for losing. This proved especially true against the Pats. Lack of speed/pass rush in the LB corps combined with lack of coverage ability at the safety position was a BAD mix against teams like the Patriots who are able to attack to center of the field and the seams. Offensively, the lack of a deep threat combined with a suspect right side of the O-line allowed opposing defenses to stack the box, blitz from the box and play cover 2 on the back end.You combine that with a young QB who can lose confidence..and again..you have the perfect storm. The Jets overall are solid, young and still growing. They have 5 holes to address this off season. 1. Solidfy the RT spot 2. Find a deep threat/big play element on offense 3. Upgrade explosion/pass rush at LB 4. Find a safety who can cover TE's down the seam 5. Upgrade the overall depth Those aren't unattainable goals. Jets can't bother worrying about the rest of the AFC East. When have the Patriots EVER been known to go on a wild free agency spending spree? And when they have when has it worked out? Adalius Thomas? Roosevelt Colvin?Shaun Ellis? Ochocinco?Leigh Bodden? Buffalo & Miami may have the cap space..but when's the last time a major free agent agreed to sign in either of those places? Then again, maybe those teams DO upgrade...but the Jets can't worry about that. When they look in the mirror they see a solid roster that is still developing and 5 needs that realistically can be addressed via Free agency,players returning from IR, & the draft.
I TOTALLY disagree. Johnson is too old and too slow and would be too expensive. IMO that's a horrible idea. He would just be another Thomas, albeit perhaps a little better. The Jets need to go with youth and speed. They already have too many older and slower player at LB. Maybin is the only one with any speed at all, and he'll quite likely never be a 3-down player, only a role player. IMO you couldn't be more wrong on this.
As far as I'm concerned the best thing this team can do is plug holes responsibly in free agency, and now more than ever it is time to draft well. Tannenbaum's wheeling and dealing has gotten the Jets to a pretty good point when you look at the overall roster. Yes there are holes, and the holes combined caused disaster down the stretch. But there are holes every off season. Above all else, it is time to put up or shut up. In the past, Tannenbaum has appeared gun shy at letting the draft come to them, staying true to the draft board and drafting BPA. He's come around to the idea over the last couple years with picks like Wilson,Wilkerson,Mcknight & Powell. As a result, Jets have pretty good depth and certainty moving forward at those given positions.Even Ducasse was a very untannenbaum like pick. Debate the spot he was taken and his development to this stage all you want. But the more knowledgeable Jet fans have been crying for a young versatile O-linemen with upside to be drafted for a long,LONG time. However, He hasn't exactly had the ammo to make a splash come draft day that he has had in the past & although Wilson/Wilkerson were both BPA's..those were no brainer picks that filled long term needs. Tanny has worked hard to build this roster..now he needs to improve the back end and build this team for the long haul. This is not the time to grab headlines. It's time to trust the scouts, draft board and the process. Draft best player available like Rex wants and trust the impact players that are already in the building. Time to do things the right way.
Not true. Barron isn't all that. In fact, I don't want the Jets to even consider him. I think Markelle Martin and Trumaine Johnson could both wind up being better pro safeties than Barron. Also the Smith kid from Notre dame. I do agree that both teams should look to FA to improve the S position, but there is some talent in the draft.
Ideally the Jets will address safety in free agency. A guy like Reggie Nelson provides the Jets what they need and will not command major dough. I expect Safety,Deep threat and possibly RT to be addressed in FA. Pass rush/defensive speed, offensive playmaker and possibly O-line(if RT is not addressed in FA) will be the priority early in the draft. However, as I just posted...it's time Tannenbaum trusts his draft board and drafts BPA.
I submit that "making a splash" is not the way to approach the draft. That is the crux of the problem with Tanny as GM. He always has to make the big, dramatic splash rather than just quietly, efficiently, effectively, intelligently going about his job addressing needs and filling holes primarily with young, cheaper players. Instead, he has to go for the big name, big ticket, older players in FA and go for a few players in the draft that he is sold on. That's why the team has so many holes to begin with and why the team is so slow. He may be learning, but I doubt it. Look at last season. Whereas the point can be made that he tried to address the OL with younger, cheaper players for depth, imo that is the ONE area of the team where a team with SB aspirations, especially one with a young, still developing QB, cannot do that. One needs veteran depth on the OL, especially when one has a career backup playing RT, a marginal starter at LG and have been extremely lucky over the years with very few injuries to the OL. Sooner or later the injury bug strikes. When Turner went down, they had ZERO quality depth for C or OG and we saw what happened. Hunter was a disaster and they had no option but to keep playing him. Ducasse was NOT a good pick imo. Second round picks should be at least very good backups, if not solid starters by their sophomore season in the league, if not their rookie season. You don't pick raw projects who are perhaps borderline mentally handicapped in the 2nd round, I don't care how physically talented they are. Projects should not even be considered until the 4th round. Tanny picked the wrong year to address the OL in the draft. You have to look ahead at the talent that will be in the draft and plan accordingly, then draft to the strength of the draft. If you have a need and there will be no likely prospect in the draft over the next draft or two to address that need, then you go with a stop gap FA until you get the opportunity to draft a better prospect. In the interim, you can invest some mid or lower round picks in prospects at that position and hope that one of them pans out, but if not, then one hasn't lost anything. One can still address the need in a future draft where there is depth and strength at that position. Tanny doesn't seem to understand that approach at all.
I cant wait for Brady to retire so that the Pats cannot simply rely on the excellence of 1 player to mask all the holes on their team and we can stop listening to articles about the genius of BB or the Patriots Way when really the vast majority of that teams success comes down to one lucky draft pick in the 6th round - roll on 2015.
Excellent post, and I would only add that Tanny's mishandling of the OL the last few years, both in bad draft picks and failing to have/get adequate bench strength and a replacement for Woody, but also going back to the Kendall for Clarke/Bender fiasco, is a major indictment of his tenure as GM. Imagine what this line would look like without the two first round picks used on Mangold and Ferguson. But having used those two picks still on the squad does not amount to a justification for doing nothing substantive to improve the OL.
I'm not gonna get into another Ducasse debate but I disagree completely with this philosophy. This whole notion that " an early draft pick must produce by such and such a year" is ridiculous. It's one thing if you are drafting the player for the PURPOSE of playing early. Then I can buy that argument. But the draft is about building a team for the LONG TERM. Yes the salary cap era and modern day media driven demands to win have changed the public's outlook regarding this. But smart franchises do not draft on need and for today...they draft for the long term. When you draft for the long term you have to weigh/balance the player's current skill set as well as their long term projections. Back when Ducasse was drafted the Jets were in a unique position. They were long overdue to draft a versatile linemen w/ upside. At the time they were looking at arguably the best right side in football in Woody & Moore. There wasn't going to be a linemen at any point in the draft that was going to come in and beat them out. Yes they were getting older, but they appeared to have at least 2-3 seasons left in the tank. In comes Ducasse who had some things to work on both mentally and physically, but potential wise is likely a 10/10. If you saw his senior bowl footage, no way he was gonna last till the 4th round. So if your the Jets, you take Ducasse, let him learn and develop behind both Moore & Woody, and maybe if you're lucky a light goes on early and he competes at LG against Slauson. That didn't end up happening. But you see my point. The Jets did nothing more than invest in a position that coincides to winning where they saw some exposure in the next 2-3 years. Why take a more NFL ready guy with less upside, if he isn't gonna see the field for a 2-3 years? That logic doesn't make any sense. You take Ducasse, you work with him, and you believe in your development system he steps on the field in year 2 or 3 and becomes a pro bowl RT which he still has the talent to be. That's called Drafting for the future and I refuse to back off this argument. All this "you have to draft contributors early" is media driven logic that has CAUSED Tannenbaum to make a splash in the past. In a perfect world all draft picks start from day one for cheap contracts, get better every year and by year 3 are top 5 at their position. It doesn't work that way though. Never has and never will.
Well, its more "safe" to make a splash because youre giving up more but youre getting proven players. Imagine if he made little to no moves and did everything through the draft. He would be getting killed if every player drafted turned out to be like Ducasse. I dont always agree about going after the biggest splash every year. You can only do that for so long until you have too many old players and little to no depth at positions.
Ducasse was taken for the LONG TERM at a position where you always want to invest in young talent. He was taken in the 2nd round based on his Senior bowl performance, and again his potential. This is the kind of move people were criticizing Tannenbaum for NOT MAKING 3-4 years ago. People just have absolutely no patience for player development and refuse to take a step back and look at things with perspective.
Kurt//Thus, you are saying Tannenbaum drafted a kid that was supposed to be a 4th rounder with his 2nd round pick. Brilliant? I'd say so. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are the few criteria I look at: 1. Production at college 2. Level of competition he faced 3. Physical dimensions 4. Latest hype. (Combine/Senior bowl/etc) For OLs, #1 and #2 are swapped, but that's about all the exception I have for that. I am sure most scouts do follow the same criteria, with nearly (or exactly) same priority order. In case of Ducasse, he got good grades from #3 and #4. That is a marginal 3rd rounder and squarely 4th rounder, and if the kid stays undrafted, 5th or even 6th round material. In short, drafting Ducasse was not a problem. Drafting him with 2nd rounder was.
I think you may have meant to quote another post here since I had not addressed before the "splash" situation. But I will say on the issue of draft picks v. FA for the OL, that a high pick, as compared to a lower round pick, should be able to step in and play sooner, all things being equal. This of course concerns VD. Going FA is an acceptable approach for all the usual reasons, if they are present, such as needing a starter immediately and not being able to fill it with a high pick of some rookie who can play right out of the box. For example although the situation ended badly, going FA to get Pete Kendall was clearly a solid move. Getting Faneca was also good, if not quite as solid.
Tebow and McGahee ripped the Stillers' D (true it was crippled by in-game injuries), but couldn't do all that much against the Pats' D. Flacco played very well. Lee Evans dropped a TD in the endzone which would have won the game for the Ravens, and then Cundiff missed the FG try that would have sent the game into OT. Defenses still win championships.
That's spot on and I've heard friends who are Jets fans offer the same criticism. It seems like the front office is sometimes more concerned with getting on the back page than building a quality team.
That's YOUR assessment on Ducasse. Written well after the fact and given the short sighted consensus on this board, you are going out on a quite the limb.I'd like to see the evidence that Ducasse had a 3rd or 4th round grade. I follow the draft pretty close and I recall him carrying a consistent 2nd round grade. I maybe wrong, but show me. Let's bare in mind he was taken in the LATE 2nd round by a GM who has close ties to the school Ducasse came out of. If anyone was gonna have the inside scoop on Vlad..It's Tannenbaum. Under your OWN criteria for O-linemen. 1.Production at college- Was routinely the best player on the field at Umass. Flat out dominant 2.Level of competition he faced- Obviously not great and that's where the "Needs work" comes in. This is however offset by his performance at the senior Bowl when he DID face elite level college talent 3.Physical dimensions- 6'5 about 320. Good feet, long arms, good explosive movements within lower AND upper body. Check. 4.Latest hype- Again had a great Senior bowl. I couldn't tell you what he did at combine, but given his physical talent I'm willing to bet he fared quite well. 2nd round is routinely FILLED with high ceiling types much like Vlad. Let me ask you naysayers this: Weren't you all calling Brick a bust after 2 years? Didn't you learn your lesson from that? Players, especially linemen usually take TIME to develop. You're all basically giving up on a prospect 2 years into his development and are suggesting that drafting a linemen for the FUTURE is a mistake even when evidence suggests that investing in the position correlates significantly to consistent winning in the NFL.
I agree with a lot of this. I'm not willing to bet the farm on Ducasse, but it's not out of the question that another offseason and a new coaching staff on offense will do him some good. -X-
