Because the way some people are talking, it's almost like the great Kotite purge of 1995 all over again. Where we traded Rob Moore for that pos Ron Moore. Monk retired with no replacement, and we essentially put all our eggs in the Ryan Yarborough/Stevie Anderson basket (remember those two bums?) If Chrebet didn't emerge out of nowhere we could've been looking at back to back 1-15 seasons. What I see is a defense that will finish at least in the top 10 in rush defense, and top 5 in pass defense. It will shock nobody if the Jets end up with the best pass defense in football So with that said. What kind of offense do we really need? We still have Santonio and Keller who could catch 120 balls between them. Schilens, Turner, and Hill are tall targets, all 6'4 and above who are solid red zone threats and can also help out catching some of Mark's overthrows all over the field as well. Greene should contribute a solid 1100 yards. Tebow is the wild card who can do a little bit of everything, but at heart he's an elusive runner but also a bruiser with the football as well. McKnight adds the Leon Washington element. I think this offense will be average...and with what the defense is putting on the field, average is enough to get us into the playoffs.
No...The way I see it is if a dominant unit is supported on the other side of the ball with a 14 - 16 ranked unit great things can happen. Look at the Packers last year...Great offense, terrible defense, 1 and done. If that offense had an AVERAGE defense they win the superbowl end of conversation. And yes, I believe this years defense has the ability to be GREAT. so great post.
When you have a team like this, for the most part how your season will end up is decided by how you do in the close games because you're not going to blow the tires off of anybody. Now, in a perfect world this offense will click and they will really bring it to the next level. However, most likely what will happen could be very similar to the past 3 years where they scrap and scratch wins here and there, and shut down the less than spectacular offenses to a respectable record. Heck, last season was really a few bounces away from being 10-6 instead of 8-8, and the season before that was a few bounces away from being 8-8 and not 11-5. Thats football, gentlemen. Lets watch them play the games.
I have no expectations of this offense being elite...I'm simply looking for them to be 14 - 16 overall...If they can fall within that range (which I believe to be a realistic expectation) and our defense does what it's expected to do we are looking at an 11 - 12 win season. If the offense flutters around 21 - beyond we are looking at a 7 - 8 win season. They quite simply need to improve upon last year.
Rex has said it takes 11 true players to play defense. You can't hide a weakness on defense like you can on offense. On offense you have the ball and control where it goes and can hide a weakness much easier. A weakness on defense will be exploited by every other team. Rex will use every draft pick and FA possible to build a 100%, zero weakness, dominating defense. We finally have a HC with a vision and a will to see it through. Can't rush the passer? Rex brings in Wilkerson and Coples, both with 1st round pics. Slow LB's? Rex drafts Damario Davis. Weak safeties? Rex drafts two safeties in the later rounds AND brings in Bell and Landry. Once the Defense has finished feasting, the platter will be put on the floor for the Offensive to fight over the scarps. Bears. Ravens. NY Jets....dominating defense, best offense possible.
That build only Defense, forget the offense is a flawed strategy . These defensive minded head coaches that know nothing about offense, will hold us back. You have to be balanced. Something we are not. If the O side sputters this year, we will be a .500 team.
Very well put! With the way Rex is building the team, any progress that the offense makes is on Sparano. What Rexy is worried about is getting back to the way things are really supposed to be done in his defensive system. His system in Baltimore was a dominant system, and its proven to be dominant here until this last season. Therefore, his focus was on getting that dominant unit back in stride, because if you have that scary good defense, it makes your offense's job a lot easier with the (a) good field positions and (b) points generated defensively. So while the offense (specifically "ground and pound" which is important because it keeps the defense on the sideline longer) may not be something very "sexy" and "pretty" to you right now, it shouldnt be. They tried that last year and the bounces didnt go their way in the end, Sanchez sputtered in the last 3 weeks and they missed the playoffs. I mean, Sanchez threw the ball over 60 times in that Giants game....60 TIMES!!! Does that not scream at you how badly this offensive coordinator and head coach were out of touch with each other. I see big things this year. I see big things from Rex, because the evidence backs it up. I see big things from Sanchez because he is taking command and I think he will enjoy playing in a simpler offense that gives him a lot of playaction opportunites as opposed to playing spread. I really just see big things. But thats just me.
In the 80's, 49ers did have one of the most dominant offenses in Montana-led WCO, but don't forget they had Ronnie Lott, Charles Haley and the like as well. Their defense was equally ferocious - only not as dominant as the offense.
The offense just needs to complement the defense. In 2009, the offense wasn't even average, but we ran the ball, controlled time of possession, didn't turn the ball over that much and snuck into the playoffs. 2010 wasn't that much different, except the offense was a little better and we made the playoffs comfortably. Just don't turn the ball over, and make enough plays to win games. Last year, the offense put the defense in a ton of bad situations. That has to stop if we want to win games. The defense is going to be top 10 barring a major implosion. The defensive line and secondary are very good, and it's not like the Jets are weak at linebacker. I've been assuming all offseason we would bring in a right tackle to compete or a blocking tight end. I'm surprised we haven't til now. Tannenbaum will certainly be busy around final cuts because he's going to have some work to do. This offensive line isn't that bad. If Brick plays up to his previous standard and Slauson and Moore stay healthy, they should bounce back. The problem is if Hunter is a disaster again, we don't really have an alternative other than Austin Howard. And there's no blocking tight end on the roster that can help out. But no, the offense doesn't have to be more than average. Baltimore and San Francisco were one or two plays from the Super Bowl, neither one had a great offense. If the young players (runningbacks, depth receivers) and the proven weapons (Holmes, Keller) are used correctly, we should be able to have a decent enough offense. Hopefully, Sparano figures out a good way to use the Wildcat because I could definitely see that being a weapon. If you put Hill and Schilens on the outside with Keller, Baker and McKnight/Greene/Ganaway in the game, you can't just play to stop the run and leave Hill/Schilens in man coverage with no safety help. They could burn you with Tebow. Of course, the biggest key is don't turn the ball over. That's why the Fish made the playoffs in 2008, they had one of the fewest amounts of turnovers in league history. I don't expect us to be THAT careful with the ball, we don't have Chad Pennington, but if we can keep it to about 1 per game on average, that would go a long way toward a winning season.
The Jet offense does'nt have to be great - it has to be opportunistic! We pin a team back and they punt out of their end zone - we get the ball at midfield - we must be able to put points on the board consistantly in those scenarios. We sack the QB and recover a fumble on their 30 - we need to score TD's here. Also our turnover amount from last year needs to be cut in half. I remember we had Denver beat until a Sanchez interception in the 3rd quarter got Denver back in the game. We had horrible turnovers on special teams last season - every one almost back breaking. The formula is simple for the Jets: play great agressive defense, eliminate costly turnovers and play oportunistic offense and maybe the Jets have a good season.
The offense doesn't need to be elite, I agree, but they definitely need to improve over last season and I think they've addressed at least two of the three major problems that existed. The first problem they addressed - Schotty is gone - nuff said and probably the single most important move of the offseason. The second problem they addressed is the lack of playmakers/speed. Between Tebow, Hill and Schilens they now have at least the potential for some big plays and the speed and size to keep opposing D's honest (not stacking the box constantly). Sure, we're not sure how Tebow will be used, Hill is a rookie and Schilens has yet to prove he's durable or consistent enough to be a starter, but at least the raw potential for big plays is there. The problem they did not address is protecting the QB. Not only is our Oline basically unchanged (perhaps the younger guys have improved some but the vets are also a year older), but we still don't have a RB who can reliably pick up blitzes. Then of course there's the whole WFH issue. If Mark gets lit up like he did last season things could get ugly really fast. My hope is that the improved playmaking ability will offset the lack of pass protection ability by keeping opposing defenses on their heels.
I don't see much to get excited about and would take average right now. But as well all know sometimes the NFL can throw up some nice surprises.
If the offense is a top 15 offense, we will dominate. This is really the part of our team that needs to turn the corner. We've had a great D the last three years. A slightly above average O will do it for us. If our D can limit to 14-17 points a game and offense can put up 24-27 a game we'll be just fine.
Several things have to happen for the Jets to improve rather than digress. You all did get rid of Schottenheimer, but you added essentially the same type of coach in Tony Sparano. This is the honest truth - Nick Folk will be Sparano's best friend.. This is an offense that is categorized on not making mistakes rather than making plays. Tony Sparano will always take the safe route instead of making a game-changing decision. When push comes to shove, Tony Sparano will impede an offense from truly breaking out. He is not a quarterback friendly offensive mind. Unless Mark Sanchez is the second coming of Chad Pennington, this offense will do nothing but frustrate the hell out of you. Secondly, the only piece missing from your defense is the threat of a pass rush. Is that lack of a pass rush enough to make a difference? It could. Coples was a nice addition, but the job of a 3-4 defensive end is not to pressure the quarterback, it is to be stout against the run. The biggest penetrators in the 3-4 are the outside linebackers. Pace and Thomas have the ability to get decent pressure, but unless there is a pass-rushing specialist somewhere on this defense, your unit could be a little worse than you imagine. This is just my opinion, but I don't think Sanchez will ever win a Super Bowl in New York. He hasn't showed that steady growth or improvement that elite quarterbacks show. Sanchez is a clutch quarterback but do you really feel 100% at ease when he's back there? I know one thing, if my team lines up against Sanchez I'm just waiting for his next mistake, hoping my team capitalizes on it. I am the fan of a division rival, but I just thought I would express my opinion on the matter. Before you come at me with the "Dolphins suck" stuff, I will tell you this: -The Dolphins receiving corps is poor. We have a bunch of contributing players but no player demands respect from opposing defenses -We also did little to address our pass rushing situation, though, who knows what a 4-3 defense will look like in Miami. -Matt Moore is a career journeyman. Not a whole lot of upside with him starting. Tannehill has looked great so far, but nobody knows what he will look like once the bullets really start flying. -Our secondary troubles me. Vontae Davis has done little to cement himself as a solid, consistent NFL player. Sean Smith still doesn't pass the eye test for me. Lots of questions at safety. Where will the turnovers come from? Apart from the Patriots, the bottom of this division could really turn up any which way. Could be the Bills in second. Could be the Jets. The homer in me also says it could be the Dolphins. All I know is, us Dolphins fans are glad you have taken Tony Sparano off our hands. While I saved the smack talk and tried to create an informative post, I hope we smear the hell out of you this year (like we have recently )
First of all, nice post. It's always good to have rival fans who actually contribute to the discussion rather than just stir up shit. As far as Sparano is concerned, I hear what you're saying regarding his conservative style, but I would counter with two points: 1) He was not the OC in Miami, he was the HC. Obviously he had a hand in designing the offense, but there is a big difference. It's the same reason why Rex takes a lot of criticism for aspects of how he handles his position as HC as opposed to when he was DC in Baltimore and only had to be responsible for the D. You can't just assume that the Jets offense this year will be called just like Miami's last year. 2) The issue with Schotty was not that he was too conservative, in fact it was quite the opposite - even many players have come out saying that his system was unnecessarily complex. Most fans criticized him for being too "cute" not too conservative. I don't think it's a valid comparison. As far as the pass rush, Coples is already looking like he has the ability to apply some pressure and along with Ellis and Wilk our front line is looking like one of the strongest aspects of the team. Too much is made about 3-4 DE not being a position that's supposed to get after the QB. The Jets may technically play a base 3-4 but they mix it up all the time and there's no reason that Coples shouldn't have plenty of chances to get after the QB. And by the way, we happen to have a pass rush specialist on the roster already - his name is Aaron Maybin - maybe you've heard of him? Sanchez is a wildcard. He's shown flashes of greatness but has been consistently inconsistent. I think almost everyone agrees that this is the year that he either takes a big step up or is gone - we'll just have to wait and see. I agree with you that the AFCE is sort of a toss-up this year although it's hard to see the Fins winding up any higher than 4th place. :breakdance:
I'll take a swing at this and say average = 16th ranked offense in the NFL. If the Jets finish with the 20th ranked offense in the NFL but are top 5 in running and are actually dominating or close to dominating in ball control then they'll be fine.
If our d is as good as the 49er's d was last year perhaps we can get deep into the playoffs. I doubt it will be.
I think if they can stay on the field, eat up the clock, even without scoring a lot of points an average offense will be fine... to make the playoffs. Beyond that the O will need to step it up.
