I'm a young Jets fan so cut me a little slack if I am mistaken about something here, but I was curious about the composition of our team and offensive continuity when we've made playoff runs or had reasonably successful QB's. In Our '68 SB Champs year, Joe Namath was in his 3rd year with Don Maynard, George Sauer, Pete Lammons, Matt Snell, and Emerson Boozer as his starters, and the following '69 season playoff appearance was Namath's 4th season with those same exact starters. In our '81 season playoff appearance, Richard Todd was in his 4th year with Wesley Walker, Derrick Gaffney, and Jerome Barkum, and it was his first season with Freeman McNeil. The following year's ('82) deeper playoff run was his 5th year with Walker, Gaffney, and Barkum, and his 2nd year including McNeil. Our '85 season playoff appearance led by Ken O'Brien was his 2nd year starting with Wesley Walker, Mickey Shuler, and Freeman McNeil, and 1st with Al Toon. Coincidentally, the following '86 season playoff run went deeper with another year with all 4 skill players still starting, and O'Brien had the luxury of 4 years playing with that full group. (The '91 season playoff appearance had O'Brien in his 3rd year with the Rob Moore/Al Toon WR combo, and his 2nd with both Blair Thomas and TE Mark Boyer. Not exactly an all-star cast, but we squeaked in at 8-8 and lost in the first round anyway.) When we made a deep run after the '98 season, There was little continuity in the way I've shown but Vinny Testaverde was a veteran QB throwing to Keyshawn Johnson and Wayne Chrebet, and we just happened to bring in an HOF Coach in Bill Parcells and a HOF veteran RB in Curtis Martin. The brief playoff appearance after the '01 season had a similar cast although Laveraneus Coles was in his first year starting and Anthony Becht in his second. In '02 when Chad Pennington took over, he had already had 2 years on the bench watching Testaverde play with Becht, Coles, Chrebet, and Martin. In the '04 season's playoff appearance, Pennington had been playing with all of his skill position players (Martin, Becht, Chrebet, and Santana Moss) for at least 3 years, with the exception of high priced FA Justin McCareins. In the '06 season's playoff appearance, Pennington had played with his 2 starting WR's and starting TE for at least 2 seasons. 2012 would have been Mark Sanchez's first year playing with at least 3 returning starters at his skill positions... Unfortunately Holmes and Keller missed significant time this year, and I'd rather be without Greene than have his continuity of sucking. I'm not making excuses for Sanchez but this probably isn't the way to win a lot of games... I'd love to hear opinions from those who were actually able to follow the past seasons and players, since I really don't know about the details of many of them, for instance injuries/suspensions, or non-starters who played large roles. Needles to say I've completely omitted defense just for the sake of being concise.
It does seem like teams that play together and stay together win more games, but they also give opposing defenses much more info on how to stop them. See the Bills' 4 time run to the SB, or the Pats the last 5 years. So yes there is something to be said about continuity, both pro and con. As for the jets, our luck in 2009 and 2010 seemed to take the nfl by surprise, more from the D side of the ball that kept opposing offenses in check to give a young offense (with a great o-line) a shot at winning just enough games. But it didn't take long for the nfl to figure out how to hold Sanchez to fewer points than Rex could hold the opposing offenses.
Continuity is important for a young QB and especially for a QB like Sanchez. I felt it was imperative to keep Braylon AND Holmes together after the 2010 season. Tanny's ego got in the way.
It's tough to compare pre salary cap era teams with salary cap era teams in this way. It was a lot easier to keep guys around back then. Todays teams don't always have that luxury.
While this is true you don't need an all star cast, just something better than what we fielded last season. Cotchery wasn't someone we lost because of the salary cap, and he was Sanchez's most tenured receiver along with Keller. I guarantee Cotchery would have been much more productive than Plaxico Burress, but that is not the point anyway. A good coach can shift his scheme over the years, so I'd argue that getting predictable on offense is something you can avoid regardless of who is on your depth chart.
I really believe Santonio Holmes was the extraneous piece. Braylon, Cotchery and Keller would have formed a solid receiving corp. And it wouldn't have broken the bank to keep all three intact either.
The Patriots haven't had offensive continuity at any position other than QB and OL and they seem to do fine. The rest has been a constant rotation of WRs, TEs and RBs. Granted they have an elite QB, so it's not as crucial.
Just in case you didn't realize yet: It is not about 'how many stays' that matters. "How many [THAT ARE GOOD] stays" matters. Case in point, look at Patriots. Their offense has Brady, and for the past half decade of offensive success, they had Wes Welker. Before Brady became what he is now, their offense was a little bit above average - playing smart football that scores just enough. The likes of Deion Branch would become Brady's go-to guy. During their glory days, though, the quality of defense was simply unparalleled. Starting with ferocious front three (Seymour/Wilfork) with savvy LBs (Bruschi/Vrabel) and fantastic secondary (Harrison/Samuel) they had stars studded in all three layers. As the offense got stronger and stronger, the defense kept losing their corner stones. Bruschi retired. Vrabel was traded off (was too old anyway). Harrison retired. Samuel was traded. Seymour was traded. And their places haven't been addressed properly - and we see a team that looks exactly like Manning Era of the Colts; the defense, if they have to work, cannot meet the bill. Thus, blindly tracking how many stays behind does no good. Good teams find a way to keep their good core [provided the players don't try to do dumb shit a la Revis] and build the team around their core. Jets had their chances - and promptly blew it.
I would say the Patriots are a little special. Tom Brady is arguably the best ever, so especially these past years they haven't worried too much about skill player continuity besides Wes Welker because Tom Brady pretty much just does his thing regardless.
The same can be said in some respect to the Packers. On the other hand the Panthers, Bills, Raiders etc have had relative continuity at the positions and what happened there? Moral of the story? QB play.
I agree that offensive continuity is a good thing. I just find the examples from the pre-cap era to be poor ones. And fwiw, Cotchery wanted out. It would have been best to keep Braylon imo - even though he ended up injured and never the same the next year.
Continuity is important offensively & it has been something lacking from the Jets for quite some time. Unfortunately that's the price you pay for having Rex as head coach. Keeping guys like Cromartie,Pace & Harris take priority over offensive skill. Jets went from being very good 1-3 at WR to a lot of loose ends virtually overnight. Cotchery was beyond their control as he asked out but Plax as well as Derrick Mason were simply horrid. As for Braylon...I'm in the minority on this one. I acknowledge that he was a great Jet in 09 & 10..but he clearly lost a step since then. From the Jets perspective moving on was the right call. Whether people want to admit it or not Holmes has vastly outperformed Edwards since 2010 & is the far more dynamic player. He maybe overpaid & not as well liked by he fan base..but the jets made the right choice. It's fairly obvious.
I could be wrong but didnt Cotchery want out because of the circus the team was becoming? I thought I remember him being upset at Holmes being picked as a captain and then Rex putting Plax and Mason in front of him on the depth chart. If I remember correctly then he was in their control and they should've treated a veteran fan favorite like him better.
Yeah they signed Plax and Mason, and drafted Kerley that offseason. He would have been more productive than any of those players that year, and technically you don't have to release a player just because he asks. If they had kept him around they would have had someone to count on when Plax wasn't performing and Mason got traded.
Yeah Rex was enamored with Plax and brought in one of his boys from Baltimore thus pushing Cotchery, who was a team leader out of the picture. Another win for Rex's talent evaluating. That same talent evaluating has led to a lack of offensive continutity and top talent.
Rex is too loyal to "his guys" at the expense of the team. It sounds like he is now out of the talent evaluation business with Idzik on board, and that can only be a good thing. Let Rex do what he does best which is coach the players that Idzik gives him.
Yeah I completely agree with you. Idzik seems to have a good head on his shoulders and hopefully starts getting us back in the right direction.
Cotchery felt slighted by all the moves made around him at WR.That said I believe he was slated to play ahead of Mason who was thought to be more of a #4. You have to hold Cotchery partially responsible too. Going into 2011 no way could the Jets go to war w/ Holmes/Cotchery & a bunch of unknowns. It was around this time when it was no longer good enough to have just 2 starting level WRs...you needed to have 3 or 4 guys. Who knew a 6th round pick in Kerley would work out so well?Cotchery needed to accept & respect this. He certainly had some justification to his gripe..but the goal is to build the best team possible,right?
I'd get annoyed if you weren't right. Santonio may be the worst decision Rex has ever made. Plax a close second, followed by sticking with an injured Sanchez far too long. I have long wanted to give Rex a pass for the offense, but in this light I want to punch him in the head for the sole reason of pushing for Holmes. Anyone giving him a pass for letting Cotch go is a serious apologist.
