First of all I assume the decision to cut Cromartie was Idzik's. Why do you assume Rex decided that? Talking about evaluations of players, if Rex thought Walls was better than Cromartie last year, why did Rex start Cromartie every game? I don't think the kind of D Arizona plays will prevent us from seeing if Cromartie rebounds from his injuries or not. That is a real stretch. If all the Jets had to do last year to overcome Cro's injury was play more zone, they would have done that. Oh, btw the Jets did not play exclusive man coverage last year. They never do.
The principle of addition by subtraction applies when what is being eliminated is in effect an active but negative force or factor. In the case in question, that is not literally applicable. Its not like the Jets would have been better off benching Cromartie and putting only ten players on the field. So, that being true, why did Rex play Cromartie instead of Walls? It would seem to be mismanagement for him to have done so if he really thought Walls was the better player. My point is Rex played Cromartie because Walls was not the better player. Which of course is directly relevant to all the homers here who want to tell themselves our wonderful FO never makes any mistakes and is handling the Cb position perfectly. Walls is going into his fourth year. He has not cracked the starting lineup, even in a year when the Jets pass D was woeful. In his second year, when Revis went down early, he only played in six games, and did not start one of them. Yet some people here think it would be just fine to start him. I don't. That would be subtracting a player, adding one who was worse last year (as shown by the fact that he did not play ahead of Cromartie), and where does that leave you? Simple math says worse off. Of course you might think Walls WAS the better player last year. But that is problematic, for several reasons.
I think it was pretty obvious to everyone watching that Rex was repeatedly asking Cromartie to do things he was no longer capable of doing at a reasonable level. Rex won't be able to do that this year. This has nothing to do with Walls. It has to do with Rex having too much faith in a player he knows which I think most would agree is one of his shortcomings. I'm sure he wouldn't have asked other CB's to do the same things. Idzik essentially took away the unsafe toy that Rex kept hurting himself with but refused to put down.
So you think Rex is a bad coach who can't find a way to put his best players on the field. I think Rex has issues assessing offensive players, but for all my concerns about him I never thought that applied on the defensive side. It's not as complicated as you suggest. He played Cromartie because even injured he was the better player. The contortions people have to go through in order to assure themselves the FO is perfect is really amusing.
except nobody has made such an assertion. they have stated that getting rid of Cromartie, based on specific factors, appears to be a reasonable decision. sure, if Cromartie's performance this season exceeds his performance last season, and that performance is better than any player the Jets replaced him with, then it would appear the Jets made a short-term mistake. but, you see, those are things that can only be decided and judged in the future, not today. your problem is you are judging the decision now absent of the evidence to support it because that evidence doesn't even exist yet. but Cromartie was bad last year. how he plays this season will determine whether that was strictly due to injury, your claim, or whether it was a combination of injury and simply decline in ability. If the latter, being healthy will not completely offset the decline in skill, which would likely continue to decline.
You are the one contorting a massive straw man argument here. I never said Rex was a bad coach nor did I ever claim anything anywhere near the FO is perfect. Get over yourself. Rex is well known for being overly loyal to his players and thinking they're better than they are. Eric Smith reminded him of Ed Reed is a good example. If you think that makes him a bad coach that's your opinion, not mine.
I think both you and BradwaySux make compelling arguments. However, IMO no cornerback predraft pretty much made taking one in the draft a foregone conclusion. Idzik did not get that done but in all fairness he got other deals like Vick accomplished. He also,after consideration, did not make an all out efforts to get Lee. That was his decision to"let the picks come to us". This is not a mistake free management and the players we got after Round 2 are based on Idzik's "value chart". Ostensively, these are players who nobody heared of and I think it's a fair point to say that putting in subpar talent doesn't solve your problems. Hopefully I am wrong or we pick another FA for CB or WR. I have no crystal ball so it's hard to say how this will all play out. I also didn't my degree in Football GM lol!
Players aren't always played because they are better. Sure, that's the lip service people give, but that's not always the case. Dee Milliner started over Walls for the 1st part of last season. I doubt Milliner was better than Walls at that point. Winters wasn't better than Ducasse either. Antonio Cromartie entered 2013 as one of the upper-tier cornerbacks in the NFL. He was great in 2012. He wasn't extremely old, so everyone thought he'd play at a similar level. That didn't happen. Cromartie kept playing through it for a number of reasons. First of all, he had the reputation of being very good, and everyone hoped that he'd magically get healthy and return to his previous level. Him being paid like a superstar didn't hurt either. I don't know if Walls is better or not. He never got the chance to play. Saying that Cromartie last season was a better player than Walls isn't based on any fact. Same would be true if I said Walls was a better player than Cromartie last season. All I know is that Cromartie was bad last season. It's not hard to replace bad. Walls might not be better, but I doubt he's much worse. And if it's not Walls, maybe it's Patterson, Dowling, McDougle, Patrick or someone else that steps up and takes Cromartie's old job. Any of those options would have significantly more upside.
First of you know quite well there are quite a few posters here who bend so far backwards to defend the FO in every respect that they could fit their heads up their anal canals. I won't name names, but you know who they are. There are in fact several objective factors that lead me to question the decision to cut Cromartie without finding a suitable replacement, which for me means someone who looks like starting material. That they did not do so is objectively the case, so that is the first thing. The second is that it is clear Cromartie was injured, yet played all season, a year after he was excellent. No one has said that his injury is career ending or threatening. Third is the Cardinals are one of the better organizations in the NFL. I have a hard time believing that they would sign him to the contract he got without them feeling reasonably sure that he would return to health. It is speculation to say he will decline in ability this year even if he returns to health. Fourth, the Jets did not merely cut him. They pursued other Cb's in FA, specifically visiting with DRC, and apparently losing him to a more fleet of foot organization in the Giants. Yes, taht bothers me, too. And in fact did not sign any other FA's who are either demonstrably better or younger with a higher likely ceiling (like perhaps Verner might have been). Their pursuit of others tends to show that they were not content with the oher Cb's on the roster, like Walls, who as I have pointed out could not replace Cro even with Cro's injury and the overall poor secondary last season. FIfth, the Jets did not need the cap space. They could have signed Cro to a one year deal like the one he signed with the Cards. If they did that they would be in no worse a position than Arizona is in speculating about his health. But at least they would have a suitable candidate who, if he does improve his health, would be the likely starter. Sixth, there are other vets who are declining in skills who are still on the team. But they had less problematic contracts. Does that mean the Jets were right to cut him in large part because of his contract? Of course it does, but it does not explain why they did not negotiate, even attempt to negotiate, a new deal with him when he was begging them to. So much for loyalty, and i get that. But what it really looked like was that their pursuit of other FA's meant they could ignore Cromartie. That left them signing nobody and Cro going to Arizona. Those are all objective facts that tend to undermine the view that the Jets knew what they were doing in cutting him and not replacing him.
No need to get personal. I believe I am presenting reasonable arguments. If you wish to identify a straw man in them, do so. A coach who is OVERLY loyal to certain players, leaving better players on the bench, while the team struggles, is your idea of a GOOD coach??? I don't think so. Smith and Reed are actually bad examples. For all Smith's problems, who should have been playing ahead of him? Brodney Poole? He sucked. After the Jets cut him, he never played another down in the NFL. Reed was brought in because he was available and the secondary was struggling. It is far from clear that Allen and Landry were better players at the time.
Ftr I do not criticize Idzik taking Pryor over Dennard. Nor do I criticize his not trading up for one of the other two Cb's who went in the first round. In fact they may well have ranked Pryor over all three. My issue is with the handling of the FA period.
Excellent post! There's a lot of talk about us trying to be the Seattle of the East. This premise has also been used to defend not trading up for a WR in the draft and instead choosing to compile several late round prospects. People think that's Seattle's blueprint. The truth of the matter is that Seattle makes pretty significant investments on players via FA, trades and the draft. However, they do not let the size of the investment dictate playing time. Aside from doing an excellent job scouting in the late rounds, and developing those players, in Seattle the best players play regardless of contract and/or draft position. Russell Wilson being the ultimate example. Until we get to that point, we will never truly be the Seattle of the East.
Upside potential is not upside realized. I doubt Patterson is viewed as a real replacement even by the FO. At best he might be a hold the fort guy probably not even for a whole season. The rookies are unknowns at this point drafted down the board. In fact Walls did play last year, replacing Milliner the times he was benched, and also in rotation. He did not impress. It's not like the CS never saw him play. He did play. He appeared in all 16 regular season games.
That's a bs cheap shot, and you know it. I have no problem with cutting Cromartie if they had a suitable replacement.
I think if you took a poll of Jets fans, they would have an opposing view on what they say from Walls last year. The question is how does the CS fell about him? We'll find out.
