Heh, Maybin wasn't even on the roster by the end of the 12 season. And McIntyre was on the roster last year but got hurt. As did Barnes. I don't think Colon was an upgrade over Moore, and in fact I think he played worse. Sure Moore was in decline, but the isue wsa what was an upgade. Nelson was somewhat better then Schillens.
I thought they should've kept Slauson as well. But they thought between Vlad, Winters etc that they could come away with a viable starting guard. Richardson was unproven every rookie IS unproven until they actually prove themselves one way or the other. Besides that people thought it was a bad and they thought there were better players on the board. We see 1st round picks come in and struggle on different teams every year. They didn't just hand him the job (unlike Milliner) they made Richardson compete for it. I'm not concerned about the CB position I feel we have a few talented young hungry guys that are ready to prove themselves.
I don't know that Cro will return to form, obviously, and neither do you thtat he won't. Arizona seems to think he will. Let's see who is right. Is Patterson younger than Cromartie? If not I am not sure how his signing fits with what you are saying.
We drafted compeiti Actually they're hoping the vet CB they're paying $3 million will start. By drafting a blue chip safety prospect it decreases the reliance on that #2 CB position anyway. If McDougle starts, it's because he won the job over Patterson.
I didn't say Colon was better I said he gave us similar play to Moore. Barnes was an upgrade over our backup OLB's on the roster from '12. David Nelson was better than the dregs at the WR position from the year before.
Patterson was signed to compete not as a guy who precluded competition. If the Jets sign Cro they are buying whatever happens with him this year because none of the second tier guys are likely to beat him out in camp. He's the incumbent and the expectation is that he will win the job. The cloud of CB's the Jets have assembled are fairly likely to produce a better year than Cro next year from among the candidates. It is possible that the cloud will produce a 5 year CB. Against that you have the proposition that the Jets would have been better off bringing in Cro and living with whatever they get out of him. It's really not an equal proposition. There was no upside to re-signing Cro and halting the competition at CB.
Patterson is actually about 1 year older than Cro. There are two primary factors, the first being that Patterson's injuries are not the career threatening type. As long as he is not re-injured this year, he can be expected to play at a decently high level. Cro's injury is the career threatening type, especially for a CB who has relied so heavily on freak athleticism his whole career. Patterson is far more of a technician than Cro is. As I said before, Cro was a calculated risk for a very talented team. We are not so talented as Arizona.
Unlike some here, I think the Vick signing and some other moves on O had the potential to make this a year with a reasonable prospect of a playoff run in it. But the problem was that despite having available cap space, the Jets entered the draft with too many holes to make a playoff run more rather than less likely. If the Jets had Cromartie coming back and healthy, the Pryor signing could have made the secondary vastly better than last year, when it clearly held the D back. As it stands now it is as likely that the Jets will be attacked, and successfully so, at the #2 Cb position as that a better or even equal player will emerge there. They simply do not have the talent to inspire confidence.
My guess is Arizona signed Cromartie on something other than the mere hope he will get better. I have not heard elsewhere that anyone called his injury last year career threatening. It hampered him to be sure, but he played the whole season and has now gone to a playoff contender for I recall $3.5 mil. Sounds like a fair deal for both sides. One the Jets could easily have made.
A guaranteed $3.5, so he is guaranteed a starting role. Patterson is only guaranteed $1 million, and not only that, should the Jets' drafted CB win the outside job, Patterson can contribute significantly as a slot CB in the nickel and dime packages. Cro is purely an outside guy, and signing him dictates he starts outside. http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/jets/post/_/id/33774/cromartie-could-need-hip-surgery "Cromartie fractured his hip in 2008 with the Chargers, playing most of the season with it, and believes there's a connection between that injury and the one he's dealing with now. He said he'd been maintaining his hip well for the past few years, before it became problematic this season." This nagging injury is likely a remnant of an injury that he endured 4 years prior, and when your play is significantly effected by a flare up of a years-old injury, you are facing a legitimate chance that your career playing at that past high level could be over. Some players are technical experts, and are able to overcome nagging injuries. The players who rely heavily on major athleticism are the most effected by such nagging tendon injuries.
Just my observation on this topic. It amazes me how many believe all the Jet's problems should be solved from this draft, it doesn't work that way. The Jets got a lot of help and competition from this draft, can't address all the issues. I would have liked a WR drafted higher, but they took an outstanding Safety that fits their team and need. The Jets went into this draft with many holes, question marks and lack of depth. It looks like Pryor and Amaro will start immediately. I believe Marty is going to use Amaro much like he was used at Tech, so he will line up as a WR a good amount of time. Patterson, Walls & McDougle will compete for the # 2 spot, but all will see time because we will be 3/4 CB sets quite often. The Jets finally get a weapon in Saunders, we haven't had a player of his caliber in a long time. Evans may turn out to be a solid #3/4 WR, he will never be elite but a reliable target for Geno. Special teams should be vastly improved with youth & speed.
I don't think anyone can make a real assessment on Geno yet. He was tremendously inconsistent as a rookie, but seemed to play better the last quarter of the season. He had the worst group of skill players around him in the league last year and those he had he kept losing to injury. MM seems to have pretty high hopes for him and I think he's a pretty good judge of QBs and offensive players. That gives me some hope that Geno might be the real deal, but I'm not at all certain and time will tell. The only thing I'm pretty confident in is that he'll be better than Sanchez for the simple reason that he learned in his first year not to throw screen passes to covered rbs because those can lead to pick sixes (a lesson I don't think Sanchez has yet grasped).
Cromartie was one of the worst CBs in the NFL last year. How do you fix a weak secondary by bringing back one of the reasons it was weak? Even before last year, he was wildly inconsistent and he didn't like press coverage. He had the athleticism to do well despite not playing much press coverage, but as he gets older his athleticism will decline and he'll be less able to make up for poor technique. I understand the arguments that he played with an injured hip, etc., but how do you know its not a chronic problem? The jets decided to let him walk and they knew him better than anyone else and this after Cromartie made it very clear he very much wanted to come back. Therefore, the jets must have decided either (i) what they have at CB is likely to be better than Cromartie and/or (ii) Cromartie was part of the problem. Even if Cromartie plays well in AZ, that doesn't mean he would have played well with the Jets. The jets defensive strategies (cover 1 and sometimes cover 0) put a lot more pressure on CBs than the cover 2 defense a lot of other teams plan. I'm confident that Walls or Patterson will do a better job than Cromartie would have.
Exactly all the moves up involved 4th or 5th round picks. Now you can debate who the Jets drafted with their 4th and 5th round picks, but there were some extremely nice players available in those rounds. You'll note in my post I said 6th and 7th round picks were practically useless in trades up
All of the early round draft choices are more athletic than 98% of their college opponents. The other 2% are in the NFL. That is why rookies don't dominate in spite of their draft hype. For the first time they will oppose players of equal athleticism who are more experienced about the pro game. It takes time for even the best of them to make it. Some will fail in spite of ability because they are not able to adjust. Others who are undrafted may make a club because they fill a role like Damon Harrison. All the film we saw of the great plays these guys made were against inferior players who will not be in the league. All the nonsense about ends meeting at the QB discounts the fact that the linemen they have to beat are superior athletes as well. Now that this draft stuff is over we will see who can play.
I am going to say two things about this post. First of all Cro was hurt and that affected his production. And we shall see if Arizona was right on him, but the main point is did the Jets improve production from the Cb position this off season? No, they did not. I do expect Pryor will be a big help in overall pass D, but the Jets missed a chance to improve to a greater extent by sitting on cap space. Second, you are a first class homer if you are confident as you say.
I'm a first class homer if I say that Walls, another CB on our roster who has generally played well, would outplay one of the worst starting CBs in the NFL last year? If you are correct and Cro was in fact their best CB last year and everyone else is worse than him then I can see why you'd be concerned. I happen to believe that Walls and/or Patterson will do a far better job than Cro did last year. Also, as I wrote before, even if he does well with Arizona using a different defense that puts a lot less pressure on CBs than Rex does, that doesn't mean he would do well here. The jets know Cro very well, if they decided not to resign him then, you know, maybe they have a real good reason. I have a lot of confidence in Rex's evaluation of defensive players and if Rex didn't want to resign him, then either (i) there was something he didn't like about Cro's game (maybe poor press coverage or inconsistency) and/or (ii) he thought other players on the roster (like Walls or Wilson) would be a better option.
