Recently, he's looked like that for the last 3 years at least. Dude is jacked. Problem is, his Achilles heel is his Achilles heel. =/ Sorry He refuses to have surgery on it. I live in the DMV area. Rumor is, it's hanging on by a thread.
Agreed, I think getting 2 young, fast OLBs this offseason is the way to go. I'm no football analyst, but it seemed to me that the defense lacked bite this season because teams have figured out how to counter Rex's scheme. Everyone talks about how he's been able to build a formidable D without having superstar players (outside of Revis) by fooling the offense with exotic looks. I think you can only get over on that for so long and it's starting to show. The Jets' blitzes just weren't as effective this season. At some point we need a guy that can line up and get to the QB even when the offense knows what's coming. It would help out every other aspect of the defense, especially the DBs. The achilles heel of the defense, IMO, has been giving opposing QBs way to much time to sit back and survey the field. I'd like to see OLB addressed in one of the first two rounds. Of all positions I think this is one where youth and speed is most needed for the Jets.
Again, the Jets don't NEED an elite pass rusher. It sure would be great to have one though. Your thought process here is how teams get themselves in trouble in the draft with reaching or trading up. You plug the holes in FA with starter quality players, then draft BPA. You take that young OLB and let him beat out the starter quality player. Then have good depth either way. As of right now we don't have a starter, let alone depth.
The thing the Jets need to do this off-season is get a plan. This knee-jerk reacting to what went wrong last season mode that they're in every year is killing the talent base on the team. Tell me what the Jets core strategies are. You know, the things that have made them successful over the years and put them up in the NFL's elite division. The answer is they don't have any. And that's why they've never been among the NFL's elite. The Jets are like a pathetic reality show only it's not even Jersey Shore, its Get Me Out of Here I'm a Celebrity.
no-one really has any core strategies beyond "get lucky with landing a top tier QB", which the Jets have never really managed to do (Namath was way beyond my time so I have no real idea what he was like), in my time as a fan we have had good to servicable QBs but never anyone really good. you thinks of teams in the NFLs elite division and with one or two exceptions they all had a top tier QB and that is a very big part of being a really good team on a consistent basis and you cannot just decide "right lets go out and get a franchise QB" as there are only ever a few of them around at any time and they almost never hit the market.
Fair point, and talking about the D, Royce and others have posited that Ryan's approach to D schemes seem to be figured out to some extent, at least by some. I get that impression, too. And it's not just attacking with the TE, either. I would therefore think a core strategy should be anticipatory adaption, not settling on a set of absolute principles, but always wondering how your team's strengths might be overcome with a different strategy. Bringing that back to this season, improving speed at linebacker and capitalizing on how that can change the D's approach is not just a short term stop gap but is really what I think you are talking about.
I'm talking about Parcell's linebackers and the Steelers linebackers and the Ravens linebackers. I'm talking about the Steel Curtain and the Doomsday Defense. I'm talking about Smashmouth Football and the West Coast Offense. I'm talking about the team doing something really effectively for a decade for a change. The reason the Jets are an also-ran in the annals of the NFL is that they never commit to doing anything with excellence. They have no organizational plan that extends beyond trying to win the off-season tabloid wars. They never think two or three years in advance, instead they are always in reaction mode. They plug players into a non-existent framework and then they are surprised when everything falls apart because those players can't just wing it to a Lombardi Trophy. The closest thing the Jets had to an organizational philosophy before Parcells came to town was the Sack Exchange/Gang Green Defense in the early 80's. That was really effective for them except that Joe Klecko kept getting hurt and taking the heart out of it. They need to build an organizational philosophy centered on being excellent at the things they do and projecting that excellence on the field. Right now they're flailing from year to year at the management level and not surprisingly that flailing extends to the field.
The epitome of the FO's reactionary decision-making was drafting Mike Nugent after the debacle in Pittsburgh.
Nugent. Taking Kyle Wilson right after Peyton beat them in the AFCCG. Taking two small school defensive linemen right after the Steelers ran all over them in the next AFCCG. The Jets strategies are always based on looking at last season, not at the two or three seasons in front of them. The offensive line keeps collapsing on them because unless it was a problem last year they're not going to worry about next year or the year after that. It's just so repetitively nauseating watching them flip and flop at this point. Take the Best Player Available. Do this every season. Soon you have a roster full of very good players instead of people just good enough because you drafted them at a time of need.
I still remember exactly where I was and who I was with when that pick came in. 2nd round on a fucking kicker and the guy was average at best to boot.
2005 was Bradway's last hurrah and screwed the pooch in so many ways that off season we can all agree. This new regime is a different conversation. They are competent and have been consistently putting a good product on the field. They have been unorthodox, but they have results to back it up. If they recognize like most layman fans do that now is the time to build depth under the core and not do anything drastic, we are in good shape. I just don't see the reason to jump ship on the best regime in (arguably) franchise history because we have a few holes. Solid owner, solid GM, solid coach. They all have weaknesses I'm sure but that's human nature. Tannenbaum has done tremendously well with the situation laid before him.
Well in 2010 the Lions took Jahvid Best right after the Jets. The Rams took Rodger Saffold, The Chiefs took Dexter McCluster. The Eagles took Nate Allen. The Bucs took Arrelious Benn. The Browns took T.J. Ward. The Patriots took Rob, well yeah... 2011 you can't call yet but Wilkerson was the third person in Temple history taken in the 1st round of the NFL draft and the first since 1987. If Kenrick Ellis becomes a star he'll be the first person ever drafted from Hampton College to earn that distinction.
If you like Gil Brandt, he had Kyle Wilson ranked in his "tier 3 (21-30)" prospects for the 2010 draft. Wilkerson was in the same tier in 2011. Considering the Jets picked 29th and 30th I'd say they came away with a pretty solid pick if you consider Brandt to be knowledgeable..
Sorry, but I think you're flat out wrong that the Jets don't need an elite pass rush. To get where we all want them to be, they HAVE to have a very strong, consistent pass rush. They only get that with an elite pass rusher. To say anything else just isn't being realistic, imo. To begin with, we aren't that far apart. Normally, I prefer the approach you mention. If the Jets had plenty of cap space this year, then I'd be all for signing Johnson or another cheap stop gap OLB and following that philosophy with all of our holes. Unfortunately, the thing is they don't have lots of cap space, so they have to pick and choose where they're going to spend their limited cap $s. Needing two safeties, they HAVE to get one via FA. To expect that they will be able to get two good Safety prospects in a weak draft for the position is unrealistic. I think it's also unrealistic to expect Hunter to turn into a solid starter or for a middle round OT draft pick to be able to step in and start. So imo, those are the two positions where the FA $s the Jets have to spend has to be spent if at all possible. Only if they can't sign both a FA S and RT, or one of them, should they then turn to OLB, WR or the TE positions. You seem to believe in BPA regardless of position. I don't. I don't think it's wise to follow any single draft philosophy or practice slavishly, with one exception. I don't believe it's ever wise to "reach" for a player. That's where we diverge. Each year and each draft presents different scenarios, opportunities and challenges, and I think you have to be creative and sometimes go with your gut instead of mindlessly following some set of rules. I think the Jets already have too many high draft picks invested in their OL. First and second round picks need to be used on playmakers not on grunts on the OL (with the exception of the LT position), particularly when your team is critically short on playmakers. It might be one thing if the Jets had a great, deep WR corps, a great RB tandem, great TEs two deep, and playmakers at both OLB and both safety positions. Then it might make sense to take BPA if he is an OL. We all know that they not only don't have playmakers at all those positions, they barely have any playmakers at any of those positions. So in the first two rounds, I think the picks either have to be OLB, S or WR and no other position. If there's not one of those players at #16 and #48 that they have rated worthy of that pick, then they should trade down to where they can take a player that would be a value pick and not a reach. No, my thought process isn't how teams get in trouble if their GMs know what they're doing. IMO Tanny obviously doesn't. You don't see Kevin Colbert, Ozzie Newsome or the GB GM constantly trading up year after year to have to get talent, and they're able to address their needs in the draft. What gets you in trouble in the draft is falling in love with a handful of players and thinking they're the only ones who can help your team or thinking you have to make a big splash and get stars at every position. That's what Tanny does. Then you do feel you have to trade up or you can't address that need. Wise GMs identify a number of players they can use to address a need. If they see that they're not going to be in a position for one of the prospects they like to fall to them, then they focus on the one they like the next best. If he is rated close to the other, then they take him if it isn't a reach. If taking him at their spot would be a reach, then they trade down and take him, or they address another need, and then start planning for the next prospect in the next round.
It's definitely a risk. There is a small sample size. Even though Flynn pretty much has prototypical size at 6'2" 225 lbs, he doesn't have prototypical arm strength. Still, teams are desperate for QBs. Look at some of the absolutely horrible QBs who keep getting signed by teams year in and year out. If Flynn would be willing to set for a year rather than sign a contract elsewhere, then he's stupid and lazy, and that probably would effectively be the only big contract he ever got. His value the next year would be a lot less. Would you want a player leading your team who really didn't care if he starterd and who was content to sit on his ass and just collect the money? I wouldn't.
This is clearly the case. The Jets talent evaluators and GM are essentially lazy. That's the only thing that explains the need to trade up for a few players in each draft. The Jets haven't done the hard work of identifying 100+ players that can play at the NFL level and so they are constantly moving up to get that one guy that they need. This has to stop. It's going to take the Jets to ruin at some point and it's going to heavily cap their ability to compete at the highest levels along the way. If the Jets were competing with a bunch of idiots in the talent identification and selection game then that would be one thing, but they're not. They're competing against smart talent evaluators and they're just not getting any advantage out of exercising fewer picks than the field every year.
If that is true, then he's a moron and no one should offer him any kind of big money. Not getting that fixed just doesn't make sense.
This is the second time recently I've seen it alluded to that getting an elite QB is just a matter of luck. That's rubbish. I believe in wise leadership and Karma. Of course, there is some luck involved, but mostly teams make their own luck. They put themselves in position to get the players they need and attract good fortune through wise actions and decisions. A prime example of this is the Jets needed a QB when Bill Parcells was in charge. Peyton Manning was coming out of Tennessee and would have signed with the Jets, but when Archie Manning asked Parcells if he was going to pick Peyton, Parcells said no, that he would trade the pick for a boatload of picks. Result? Manning stayed in school another year, and the Jets were screwed. That wasn't luck, it was just a stupid decision by that jackass Parcells. The Jets could have drafted Dan Marino, but passed on him and took Ken O'Brien instead. O'Brien wound up being a very good QB, but was no Marino. To compound matters, they then made the foolish choice to ignore the OL, and O'Brien took such a pounding that it ended his career prematurely. When a team needs a new starting QB, they have several options. One, if there's a player that they think will be that guy in the upcoming draft, they can trade future picks to try to move up and take that player, but they better not miss. Two, if another team has a backup QB who is a prime prospect as a starter and who has shown flashes in preseason and spot duty (if he has played), then the team can try to trade for that player, or if he is a FA (RFA or UFA) they can sign him to a big deal. If neither of those approaches works then they're left with basically only two options. The first is to identify another QB in the draft and seek to take him either by staying put, or trading up or down as necessary. The second is to sign or trade for a stop gap veteran (if you don't have one), for a year and then look to get that QB the following year. Before the decision is made to take the second approach, one has to know which QBs will likely be available in the draft the following year. If there isn't a QB prospect that you're high on in the next year's draft, then another decision has to be made. You then have to decide if you're going to take a QB somewhere in that year's or the following year's draft and see how he develops, or if you're going to try to trade for or sign a different FA QB the following year, or hold on for two more years with a stop gap veteran and then draft your new QB the following year. This is where a lot of teams screw the pooch. They panic and reach for a QB rather than being patient and taking another another QB in the same draft, waiting for a better opportunity, or they overpay for a player in a trade who isn't worth it. In addition, they may not do a good job of scouting the prospects or in coaching the players they get.
