I don't know if I alone in my thinking, but Idzik is being paid to make the right moves and there is no law not to have his decisions questioned like every other manager. IMO he did not have to gamble wildly but I have to agree some late rounders are like lottery tickets and might have been used as means to bargain. Did he really try hard to do this? We can't tell for sure.
On it's face it's hard to argue with the job Idzik has done so far here. In 18 months he's, at first glance at least, fixed the two biggest Tanny-era problems - the salary cap (which after a full FA period is STILL fixed), and a total lack of depth/special teams. I'm not saying every move he makes is gold, but we look a lot closer to a quality organization now than we did two years ago IMO.
So if late round picks are like useless lottery tickets for players that have little chance of making the team, why would any GM give up an early pick to stockpile these useless assets? As has been said over a over n this and other threads, it takes two to make a trade and the other GMs are not idiots.
I think that Idzik botched up the offseason a bit. We went into the off-season needing a WR, TE, LB, S. Furthermore, we needed to go after a QB had a franchise qb fallen to us. In free agency, we created a need at cb. We got Vick, a decent scrambling qb who's over the hill. We let Howard go to acquire Giacomini, a move which only benefit us because of the comp pick. Pryor and Amaro were excellent picks. However, I think you have to take a shot at Manziel at #18.
Picking Manziel was like buying a ticket on the crazy train. He may work out for the Browns but I'm still having a hard time believing they chose to take him on the 22 after Quinn and Weedem.
No he's not right. If those picks are so worthless why would anyone trade out of the better pick for them? You can't have it both ways -- claim the picks are worthless and then argue someone would trade out of a more worthwhile pick for them. And to your point, getting 3 keepers in a draft may be a goal but it doesn't mean you won't get more.
In a deep draft when players who were taken later had high grades it's not dumb to keep the picks. On the other hand you're right many of these guys aren't going to make the team. We will carry five Wrs so some or maybe all of these guys won't make it. While other GMs had no problem trading up or down Idzik wasn't able to get the trade up they wanted for Lee. I also think he might have done a trade down and received picks for 2015. Some of the guys he chose seem to be a reach like the MD cornerback. He's probably a guy with NFL talent so they took him. Some of these guys were on the borderline. Future players in the new USFL?
McDougle was a bad luck player who probably was in the 2nd round conversation before the injury. Idzik doesn't look at injuries the way people often do. He doesn't discount talent because a guy has been injured, even multiple times. It's an interesting point of view and it paid off to the tune of 833 yards plus a 4.6 yards per carry from Ivory last year. I wasn't thrilled with the number of injury chances the Jets took last year but Ivory and Colon paid off big time. I'm more than willing to concede that Idzik knows a lot more about football talent than I do and give him rope on this one.
Probably Idzik feels that McDougle talent wise has a better chance if healthy to be a contributor and decent NFL starter if healthy than some of the other guys. But a back injury is nothing to sneeze at. And there is a good chance he might have lasted at least one more round. If someone took him then no problem, just go to the next guy on the list. As for selecting all 12 guys. They know some of these guys when they get into camp will not be NFL caliber. But if they get more diamonds in the rough than with the normal amount of picks than it's worth it. I just got the feeling that Idzik (true to his rep) does not operate in a fast mode needed to make quick deals,. He's too deliberate. Maybe in the future but he wasn't able to pull the trigger on anything. btw Tanny was good at it. His problem wasn't making the deal it was not drafting good players.
Depth has been an issue for the Jets forever. This draft brought the Jets one step closer to not having that issue anymore.
Just to let you know where I'm coming from, I don't believe that Manziel is another Tebow. Currently, we have Smith, Vick, Simms, and Boyd (which sounds much better than it actually is). Vick is probably the best qb which doesn't bode well for us. Geno hasn't done anything to secure himself as the starter which means that we don't have a franchise qb. So far we've thrown garbage at the position in hopes that something would stick. I don't have a problem with giving Geno another year to prove himself but we have to draft a top prospect when one is available.
Maybe Manziel is a top prospect to you, you're certainly entitled to your opinion. I disagree. Furthermore, I consider it a sign of progress anytime a player with more media attention than proven ability goes somewhere other than to the Jets-- it wasn't so long ago that this franchise didn't let guys like that slip past. It didn't go well.
Geno is better than Manziel. If it wasn't for the hype he'd probably be a 2nd-5th round pick. That kind of hype was why Tebow was a first round pick. When he had no business being drafted at all. Geno was up and down and for the most part had a bad rookie year. But he shown me just enough to justify giving him another year. With a year of experience, and a full training camp and some additions on offense I'd like to see how he does. The Jets have Vick who can step in if needed and a developmental QB in Boyd. Safety was a bigger need than QB at this time IMO.
Someone being a top prospect does not mean they will translate. And especially when that guy has as many question marks (on and off the field) as Manziel. There is no way in hell we should have pissed away a first round pick on this guy. Idzik would have rightfully been burned at the stake.
Someone being a top prospect doesn't mean they'll fail either. And with exception to Vick (who will be 34 when the season starts) every qb on our roster has question marks. We should be more worried about not having any talent at qb.
I guess I'll just say I whole-heartledly disagree and there's a reason his name was never even mentioned by anyone of note through the entire predraft process or on draft night itself.
Totally agree. Taking Manziel would have been completely out of character with what Idzik is trying to do here. I hope he works out in Cleveland, because that fan base deserves some excitement, but the guy is one or two Terrell Suggs hits away from being a cautionary tale. We gave a rookie QB absolutely nothing to work with last year, and he ended up looking like a rookie QB with nothing to work with. Now Geno has no excuses. He's got more experience. He's got more weapons. He's got more protection. He has legitimate veteran competition. If he fails now then we're drafting a QB early next year, and nobody can blame us for it.
Yes you are right, so then the whole big deal about trading up, down, or sideways is essentially meaningless. I read in NY Times today (usually reliable source) Idzik did try to make 2-3 round trade so he did try to exercise that option,but as you said no takers.
