Nope, not saying that at all. When people say offensive skill position players, I assume they are referring to wideouts, running backs, and TEs. We have not drafted an explosive play maker type, outside of Keller who never really lived up to his draft slot, in a long time with a first round pick. QBs are a a completely different beast when it comes to evaluation and the draft. I'm not sold on us needing one right now, but we have a season to let play out first. I do not believe we will be drafting anywhere near high enough to start talking guys like clowney or Bridgewater. We were 6 -10 last year with no Revis, No Holmes, limited by other injuries to wideouts, and completely inept QB play.This was all before drafting two standouts on the defensive side of the ball who should make an impact, hired a real OC, dumped the distraction of football Jesus, and acquired some new life at RB. I'm hopeful this time of year and can easily see a two win improvement to 8-8 if we avoid major key injuries and turn the ball over less.
I lie that you point out that Ellis is a UFA come 2014. Too often we go into the mind set that a draft pick is a "ten year fix" for a position. It's really a five year fix, if the player pans out. After that there are things like RFA rights, tags, or resigning them to a bigger money contract, but rosters have become very fluid in the last decade of football. Hell just look at the Revis situation. We need to identify and resign the right players at the right price, not over pay average taltents, right David Harris? :grin:
Ellis may be out of the NFL by 2014 at the rate that he is playing. Hes not even an average player on the Jets current anemic roster.
He has physical talent, but has yet to put together a good year. Hopefully the injuries that limited him last year are gone and he can live up to his pre draft hype. He was considered a late first early second talent who's legal troubles dropped him in the draft.
What has he done negatively to suggest he's a below average player? He was a project coming out of college whose development had already been assumed to be slow given the preconceived legal baggage & the lockout his rookie year. There's an old adage in the NFL that the closer you line up to the football pre snap, the longer the learning/development process takes. I know you are a die hard stats/production guy..but when has nose tackle ever been a numbers rendering role? Furthermore, up to this stage Pouha was essentially a fixture at nose..allowing Ellis time to grow behind the scenes.If you wanna point to game film & practice reps..there's been just as much good as there has been bad. I'll buy that he's an unknown to this stage who needs to put it all together to be apart of this team's future..but out of the league by 2014? A guy w/ his size & skill? I'm not buying it...
I agree with this. When Ellis has been on the field, Ive personally liked what Ive seen. If he last season wasnt shortened by his MCL injury, I think there would be no doubt that he can be our future at NT. If he can stay on the field, I think he will be a good player for us.
He seemed to make a strange transformation from his rookie year to his sophomore. His rookie year he was more of a "Plug the middle" anchor who appeared to be slightly stiff but really difficult to move..his sophomore year he didn't seem anywhere near as stout but suddenly was pretty impressive as a 3 technique showing great quickness off the line & penetration. He certainly showed bright spots in both circumstances..but It's hard to project which role is his true colors.
If we are in a position to draft Clowney or Bridgewater, it will likely be because our quarterback play was awful, almost forcing us to draft Bridgewater. That being said there's a full year for stocks to rise and fall. There are a lot of great players besides these two though, 2014 is looking like a great class.
First off let's not get ahead of ourselves we got a whole year. Now based on what we know now Id say the Jets are fifty/fifty on drafting a passer early. I think it will sway one way or another depending on if Rex is cut after this year. Clearly the team thinks highly enough of Smith to draft him so that has to count for something Now in terms of the Clowney debate. There is almost zero doubt he will be the highest rated player on everyone's board come May. For me lots of this rests on Geno Smith, if he shows enough promise you pass and take Clowney if he looks like garbage I say take a passer.
If we're picking 2nd it has to be Clowney I know for sure teams like Oakland, Jacksonville will not pass on a QB And if Geno is a project then he'll need more than year before we move on
Jadeveon Clowney is the best defensive prospect to come out in some years, I really wouldn't mind picking him if we were "fortunate" to be so high, even though we have chosen a defensive prospect in the first round a couple of years straight now. We really need offense but the better prospect should always be chosen regardless of position. It really all depends of how Couples transitions to OLB, but I honestly don't think the transition will go smooth he just seems like a natural lineman to me.
I don't necessarily think so, I mean I hope Geno gets to start early. I'm now of the mindset that if you're gonna be good you're gonna be good. There are cases where QBs have had to time to learn or just have been thrown to the wolves, I think Geno should be thrown out there, there is no point in watching Sanchez struggle anymore. We had 3 QBs in the NFL who had great years in Luck, Wilson and RG3. If Geno could play at the Ryan Tannehill level I'd be happy but just like for the dolphins it won't translate into many wins. Which could possibly land Clowney
I see what you're saying, but Clowney is a nearly guaranteed top 3 pick. Chances are winning 4 games is enough to keep him out of our reach. Our defense is looking good enough that the quarterback play will have to be atrocious to keep us under 4 wins.
I don't think you can win less than 5 games with a Rex Ryan defense. It's like Bill Belichik's Browns, there's a really high floor based just on the defense and then if the offense totally screws up the team hits that floor.
Could you imagine Clowney at one end, Wilkerson at the other, and Richardson in the middle? That could pan out as the greatest D-Line of all time.. To bad we won't be picking in the Top 3 next year. I expect us to picking between 20-24..
A little too optimistic IMHO. Jets picking at 20-24 would be at between 9-11 wins, it's not happening this year. The Jets have a brutal schedule and I can see them losing 5 to 6 games in a row in the middle of the season. Clowney will be the 1st pick and the Jets won't win that prize.
Stash Geno for a year Give Rex a pardon as this is a transition year Win 2 games Bucs and Dolphins Draft Clowney and convert him to a 3-4 OLB Wilkerson-Ellis-Richardson Clowney-Davis-Harris-Coples Cromartie-Allen-Bush-Milliner OH MY GOD
I agree with this. As abysmal as the Jets offense looks, the defense should keep us in enough games to not get the first pick. HOWEVER, if the Jets are "lucky" enough to land the pick, it's Clowney. He'd have to murder someone or contract Ebola to not go #1. As I've said before, only a can't-miss, blue-chip franchise QB goes ahead of the greatest D-line prospect ever. As of now, there is no Elway/Luck-level QB prospect for 2014.
I don't know... If Bridgewater has an even better year than he had last year, he might be really hard to pass up... As much as an elite DE can turn a franchise around, QB's win Super Bowls.. If we can't score on offense it doesn't matter who we have on D.
