Top free agents for next season

Maybe its time for the Jets to just bite the bullet and go into rebuild mode. I know that's harsh but lets look at it from afar.

The Jets have just gone through its most successful 5 year period in its entire history. The last 3 by committing to a win it now strategy. Well now its time to pay the price Right now the Jets are an aging, slower team, lacking impact players, and not have any cap flexibility.

Isn't NOW the time for the Jets to begin the "rebuild". Rex is a dead man walking Let him coach the next 2 years, while the FO builds on the core of players that are currently on their 2nd contracts (Harris, DBrick, Mangold, Revis) Take the next 2 years and get rid of your bad contracts, and worse players.

Then over those 2 years keep all your draft picks, Sign no name FAs like Rob Ninkovich, types, no names who have some potential and are good locker room guys. Create some cap space. THEN in 2014, when the TV deal kicks in, the Jets will enter the season with low expectations, a new HC GM, and QB. tons of cap space, plenty of high draft picks, and a ever growing core of hard working good guys, ready to make a run at the playoffs

I'm not trying to be mean here, just offering a strategy. Despite James Hasty's worthy effort, its not going to be that easy finding upgrades for all the players he's cutting to create cap space (even if we assume its possible).

Rex's situation isn't too much different from what happened in TB. That guy looked like the next best thing until reality set in, and his weaknesses exposed. The same has happened with Rex, though to a lesser degree. Maybe Rex will learn from his mistakes, but that will have to come in his next job.

Granted I think the Jets can be improved next year, but tjust think about the rest of the division. What will Miami be like with that defense and if Flynn works out. What about the Bills when they add more pieces. Finally do you think the Pats offense isn't going to be one of the best in the league again. And what happens when THEY improve their defense this off season. Plenty of high draft picks (5 in the first 3 rounds) Plenty of cap space

Again maybe its time for the Jets to bite the bullet and just REBUILD for the next management team

 

Or we can hope Wilfork nearly kills Sanchez, sends him to the hospital, and the all time great Era of Greg McElroy begins.

 

Well your diabolical plant to make the Jets a “contender” again it greatly flawed. We arnt missing a ton of pieces, don’t you remember it was us going to the championship game the last two years, not the Pats. Did they rebuild? No, you keep your core group of players (Brick, Thor, Harris, Revis, Holmes, Sanchez, Cro, Pouha) and pick up complimentary pieces in the draft and FA. Its all about system continuity and player development. The problem with the Jets this season was not talent level (I would argue we had more talent than “your team” this year as a TEAM). We had a moron coordinator who brought out the diva, #10 and who separated the Locke room. I blame the organization for continuing to show faith in schotty. Now we have a coordinator who’s M-O is keeping opposing quarterbacks off the field (bad news for you and the shit defense you deploy every Sunday). That my CHOWDA friend is not called Rebuilding, its called playing to your strengths. We will be just fine. You may want to start thinking about rebuilding after Brady…,OH Wait, you did that with that drug abuser Mallett! Great plan.

 

The Jets are not even in the top 10 of oldest teams in the league (and that's with Brunell who is about 100), the only position we are really lacking at is, sadly, the most important one on the field (and we can hope he shows improvement next year) and every team has cap flexibility, just some more than others.

 

Jets D is in serious shit though. Offense I'm not too worried personnel wise actually. With RT and Braylon onboard, they should be more than fine. It is the defense that worries me...

 

ahh, you need a legit prowl bowl calibor player at each level. If we resign Pouha (we drafted Mo Wilk who I think can be there in two years), Harris (yes we need another ILB to start next year), Revis/Cro, and yes we desperatly need a safty. So 3 of the 4 levels have High graded personell.

Can we upgrade Pace, Scott, Bthomas/Westerman/Maybin, yes! we do need some big time upgrades at LB (I dont want to overpay and get in the same delemia we are in now as we did with PACE and SCOTT).

Do we need to upgrade the Safty position...YES! I do like Poole, and thats about it.

 

..that might just work.

 

I would love to see you try and make that argument, but this thread probably isn't the best place to do that.

The Jets problem, moving forward, is that they aren't very talented. Let's look at the breakdown

QB - Obviously that's still a question mark, Mark Sanchez hasn't proven he is the franchise player the Jets need him to be.

Skill Positions - Two proven quality players, Holmes and Keller. After that the best players are Jeremy Kerley and Shonn Greene, pretty clear major upgrades are needed here.

OL - There is no RT, Moore has begun to decline, Slauson hasn't proven to be anything more than average, and Ferguson is coming off one of his worst years as a pro.

DL - With Pouha set to hit free agency what exactly do the Jets have left? Wilkerson was definitely very solid for a rookie, but it's not like he was some dominant force or anything. After him, who else do you get excited about? Devito? Dixon? Ropati? Maybe K Ellis will have a strong sophmore year, but there are an awful lot of unknowns here to feel comfortable with the talent level.

LB - Harris is very good, Pace and Scott are slowing, and then there is a pretty huge drop off. LB corp needs to be overhauled.

DB - Top 3 corners are as good as any team in the league, but there isn't one starting-caliber safety on the team.

Talent is a problem for the Jets, and a pretty big one. The players that are good, are very good. But they just don't have enough quality football players.

 

Sorry but I beg to disagree. The Jets have TONS of holes to fill, not just among the starters but in legitimate depth.

Lets just look at the offense

WR - you have a talented locker room killer who has now done it TWICE, so don't expect any changes. After that, nothing. You have a nice slot prospect, who had as productive a year as Julian Edelman did as a rookie, to put it in prospective. You it seems to me the Jets have to fill 4 WR slots. and that's IF you keep Holmes (and as a Pats fan, I hope you have to).

TE-Keller looked like a nice Receiving TE, but regressed this year. He's very one dimensional. And then you have a blocking TE who doesn't seem to be very good at Blocking Looks like you need 2 TEs

RB - Greene clearly isn't a bell cow RB - He's just your version of BJGE only he fumbles. McKnight was a good return guy, but not someone you could trust to run the ball. IIRC he had less than a 3 ypc average, and his lack of snaps was probably the result of him being untrustworthy as a pass blocker. Powell wasn't good enough to crack that pretty dismal group, though he gets an incomplete. Jets need to add at least one new RB

OL - You need more than just an upgrade at RT - you need to add or develop at least 3 more QUALITY back ups at the various positions so if the Jets are hit with the kind of injuries the Pats had on the OL, you won't have the horror show you saw in that 3 game stretch, where they couldn't survive even the short term Mangold injury - 3 quality players.

QB - You need to add a quality player to compete with Sanchez

I won't delve into your defense, you guys know what's need there, better than I. But I would point out that while cutting guys like Thomas, Scott, and Pace might create cap space, it doesn't guarantee you that their replacements will be as good.

BTW- I'll be interested to see how the Pats and Jets go about repairing their respective safety situation.

 

I don't know why you keep Rex a dead man walking for two years? That part didn't make sense. Essentially then you are rebuilding a team either for Rex so in two year when you plan on switching coaches, that coach may not like/need the players.
What happens if the Jets keep all their draft picks this year (I think they have 10 with 7 and 3 compensation) and sign Braylon for cheap (doable) and a serviceable RT (doable) and maybe a younger safety ( not anyone for big $ doable) and then resign their players. They wouldn't be over the cap and they would fill some of their biggest holes. They then target pass rushers/olinemen and BPA available in the draft. In essence the team hasn't changed too much except the coaching. This wouldn't be "rebuilding" and "blowing up" the team as you proposed but still could have a positive end result. If they wanted to I'm sure they could sign a big time FA and backload his cap hit til 2014 if they wanted.

What guarantee do you have that the Pats hit on their draft picks? They seem to miss a lot more than they hit. In theory they should have an amazing defense with all the picks Bill has every year, but it is lackluster the past few years since he misses over and over again. If I hear on draft day you guys are trading up, then I might be worried, but you haven't done at all so not really scared of the possibility.
Flynn going to Miami doesn't instantaneously make them better. We saw two games from him against probably two of the worst pass defenses. Is Flynn a guarantee and don' they have a rookie HC? Ever since 08 I hear every year someone predicting MIA to take over 2nd, and every year they fall flat on their face.
What guarantee is there that the bills progress? Fitz got his contract and looked bad ever since and they need to resign Stevie if he wishes to stay.They could better, but if Fitz doesn't step up then teams can stack the box on Fred and Spiller.

Of course there are no guarantees the Jets will get better following my plan above or a similar plan where they don't blow up the team, but I am just pointing out some flaws I saw in your post. It would be a very interesting year if somehow 3/4's of the teams in the AFC East got significantly better, yet the Jets are the only ones that regressed.I just don't understand "blowing up" a team that can be a playoff contender with a RT,OLB and maybe a S (pass rush makes secondary look better than they are) and that just got a new OC that can fit the HC's philosophy.

To sum up, I think we can get rid of bad contracts and build up weak positions with getting cheap/ "good" locker room guys and still be a playoff team. It seems you think the Jets won't be able to win and upgrade/get rid of bad contracts at the same time.

EDIT: just saw you post a minute before so going to address some quick things. A WR grouping of Tone, deep threat (Braylon?) and Kerley will be enough with the idea of running the ball more and not going 5 wide all the time. Thinking we need to replace Keller seems a little strong ,and saying he regressed is also strong. We know he cannot block well, but he still can be productive. Powell didn't crack the RB group since we had LT, Greene, and Joe. Not too many chances to plug in a 4th back in. Also, ypc ties in with improving the o line. 3 backups seems quite high for the O line. Getting a replacement for Hunter, then we get Turner coming off the IR and who knows how Vlad looks in man blocking. If he doesn't work we do have a draft and can sign cheap o linemen since we are looking for backups. Don't mistake your depth at O line with great QB play. I'm sure Brady would have done perfectly fine playing behind our oline.

 

Just a quick note on players in decline, it's often tough to time when to take out an older starter, but without sounding too optimistic I think Pace, Scott, Moore will continue to get it done next year. I am often surprised by negative comments here abou Pace, since he grades out quite well still. His contract becomes problematic next year, from the analyses I have read, though, but I think this coming year he will be back as a starter. Same with Scott, pretty much. I think this year the Jets will try and upgrade overall speed at LB by replacing Bryan Thomas, but will have to await the following year to do so at other LB positions.

And ftr I do not share the hatred here for Smith. I also expect him to be back as a starter next year. THe CS is high on him.

On the other hand I do not consider Keller a high quality skill position player.

 

First off, we dont need 4 WR’s. We can add Braylon for a very cheap price, and a WR through the draft in the middle rounds (Juron Criner). Then we resign Patrick Turner and our WR core is set for years.

As far as TE, Im not sure what the FO will do with Keller being that he is a misfit in our new system... But you sign a guy like John Calrson and draft a TE in the later rounds that can block and the position is fixed.

RB is the trickiest position, and think we have to add a guy. Doug Martin in the 3rd or David Wilson in the 2nd and Bam. Done.

As far as the OL, a RT can be added through FA (Levi Brown) or in the 1st or 2nd round.

And the defense- draft a passrusher, safety, add a safety through FA and thats pretty much fixed.

Tanny can do it in one offseason and the Jets are right back competing with the Pats. They have a lot ahead of themselves but it can be done. We have holes, thats a fact, but we were only 8-8 and one season removed from the AFC championship game. The Pats easily have as much holes as the Jets. Probably more. The difference is, is that we dont have a HOF QB carrying the team. Cant wait to see what happens once Brady is gone... Its gonna be fun to watch.

 

We should go after Raiders safety Tyvon Branch. He held Gronkowski to his lowest receiving game of the season. If not him, Michael Griffin. Would we have enough money for potentially both?

Signing a veteran RT would be nice.

TE Jon Carlson would be a nice addition if he's healthy coming off an injury.

Maybe we go after Pierre Garcon or Robert Meachum? Most likely we will fill the #2 or #1 WR hole in the draft if not through free agency.

 

Goldson all day

 

Re: Pace

Problem with this is, he grades out above average on the blind side, while Thomas also graded out above average on the strong side. Once Thomas was injured, Pace played a lot more strong side and graded out average.

If Thomas goes, what do we do? Find a strong side OLB and go with an aging but slightly above average blindside backer? We need a speed rusher worse than the alternative, if we want we really pressure the quarterback... which makes Pace obsolete.

 

It's a good point you have, there isn't an exact science to knowing exactly when a player is going to go into serious decline. I think there is good reason for different levels of optimism concerning Moore, Pace, and Scott.

Moore is a guy I would feel comfortable providing quality play at RG. I'm sure at least some of his struggles could be attributed to him still dealing with his hip issue, and if he can put that behind him and have a good offseason, he might look more like the player you are all accustomed to watching. I'm not sure he'll be able to be quite as good as he was 08-10 but he can probably still be a quality starter.

Pace is someone I would want on the field 65-80% of the snaps for. I think he can still be a pretty good all around LB, but his problem is the talent around him. At this point in his career he can't be the best edge rusher a team has, but on the Jets he's just that. I think he would be better suited in Bryan Thomas' old role, setting the edge, dropping into coverage, and being a complimentary pass rusher, rather than the guy a team relies on to create pressure. He's paid too much, but he can still be a good contributor.

Scott, to me, has fallen the farthest. This past year he didn't look like he was anything more than a role player, I don't think he belongs on the field more than 50% of the snaps. He is too much of a liability in coverage and isn't as explosive a blitzer as he used to be. He can still be effective as a two down thumper, but if the Jets don't find someone who can replace him in passing situations you're gonna see a lot of the same problems that haunted them this year.

But with all three players you're still running the risk they might slow down and become even less effective, especially as the year wears on.

As for Smith, it's pretty clear he is a limited player. He can do certain things well, but if you ask too much of him he'll be exposed. Maybe you can get away with hiding him considering the talent at corner, but if you go into 2012 with him as your best safety, I think you're begging for trouble.

I'm a little befuddled as to how you think the guy who lead the team in receptions isn't a quality player. I understand he has his shortcomings, and is certainly a terrible fit as the #1 TE on a ground and pound team, but that's not his fault, that's the team's. If they invested in a decent inline blocking TE to complement him, I think you would see him become a much more effective player.

 

Rookies to the rescue! Tannenbaum is gonna hit on every pick this year and they're all gonna be able to contribute year one!