seize ya... Change the names and this "article" could apply to 80% of any NFL team. We need a quarterback. It's really that simple.
On the contrary the article could also read "spend a lot of money on a top tier quarterback so that he can hide the rest of the deficiencies on the roster." Regardless of the quarterback position, we have enough talent on this roster given what we acquired this offseason to at least be a wild card team. Fitz isn't great but he should be good enough to get into the playoffs and lose on the road. Apparently he doesn't look to be though. I think there should be a lot more pressure on this team to get into the playoffs this year and next year because after that the wheels are going to fall off and the roster is going to fall apart. I'm going to guess Mac knows this and does everything he can to at least get a different veteran at quarterback this offseason, if not a Brees/Rivers calibre player then he'll look towards Stafford/Kaepernick tier. All in all I highly highly doubt Fitzpatrick is the starter next year or any quarterback on the roster for that matter. This team in my eyes looks to be very similar to the 08 team in which we acquired Favre. We'll get the quarterback next offseason, make a playoff push and then dismantle the roster and put our tail between our legs for at least a year in a rebuild.
I thought so too at least last year but Sheldon's been somewhat invisible this year whIle Mo is playing at an All-Pro level. Just hope it'll be like that after he gets paid.
Re Revis... Dont look into the actual numbers but look at the situations he has found himself in. Go back to the Raiders game. He was toasted by Amari Cooper to open the game. Absolutely toasted. Carr through the ball out of bounds. Thats not Revis's coverage, thats simply an error by the QB. He had some issues in the Jaguars game. Sammy Watkins had him beat by about 7 yards and Taylor was late throwing the ball and then hung the ball up. Just because Hopkins is the only one that connected doesnt mean that hes the only one to have beaten Revis. Even the little things like the TD and the Watkins conversion where he got completely spun were things Revis never used to do. Its one of the reasons why veteran Revis is far more humble when talking up the WRs now compared to young Revis basically picking on the veterans when asked about them. Asomugha's downfall began the same way. Guys stayed away and slowly got less scared and started to connect. He got burned deep and people would say well he wasnt targeted the rest of the game. By the next year he was targeted all the time and couldnt stop anything. The team is going to need not just good players at safety, which we may have when not hurt, but coaches that are willing to send that help Revis way in the future. I hope I am wrong about Revis but this has been over a month of him not looking special.
Revis is nowhere near the prime version of himself, this is true. But to compare him to Asomugha is an insult. He played on putrid Raiders defenses and was the only formidable player on the team. Would you rather throw at a half decent player or Fabian Washington? I'll choose the latter every day. He also didn't play in heavy blitzing schemes where he was consistently on an island. I'd highly doubt he's been left on an island with no safety help against the best receiver on the other team for the majority of his career. There's no shame in Revis needing safety help and at least a safety valve over the top if he gets beat. He'll be a savage in underneath zone coverage. The problem is that at this point we generate no pressure without an exotic blitz package. I'd hope to see more zone blitzes the rest of the season. Any moron can line 7 guys up on the line and send them all. Let's see Bowles mix up the packages rather than put all 11 guys on the line, including the corners in man press, and send more than half of them. It's why Rex's vaunted blitz packages got stale and we're seeing the same thing. Get creative for Christ's sake.
Thats an interesting comparison. My first thought is we dont have the youth of that team, but the teams were built differently and it may not be that far off. The biggest difference Id see is that the Jets line in 2008 was built to hold together for 3 years and this one is not. The 2008 team had better depth which is why we had the players to spin off into Sanchez and Braylon Edwards the following season. But like this team we did have some age at spots normally you want youth with Coles, Jones, Woody, etc...all onto their third contracts. Hopefully they can build up the line to spin this in a 2009 like season in 2016.
You sound completely out of your mind. Now you're using plays that DIDN'T EVEN HAPPEN as evidence for #24's downfall? What are you smoking? Guys like Amari Cooper and Sammy Watkins will do that to any corner in the league because they have blazing (unmatched) speed, playmaking ability and terrific hands. How the hell is a corner who is at a disadvantage from the get guy (he can only react to where the WR is going, he's not making the first move, it's a chain reaction with the more moves the WR makes the bigger the gap between them gets), who is also smaller, who doesn't have the same ball skills, supposed to stick with a guy like that and make a play there? It happens, grow up. Every corner gets beat like that, that's why it's hard to contain those dudes. Did you watch the Cowboys/Panthers game? Did you see Dez beat Norman deep, being wide open, only to have Romo overthrow him? Is Norman done now? He couldn't even keep up with a slow WR like Dez! Is he too old? Which brings me to my next point: NOTHING about Asomugha's downfall had ANYTHING to do with his age or what you're trying to portray here with Revis. Asomugha was strictly a man/press cover corner, he fit the Oakland defense perfectly. He went to the Eagles - in his prime mind you - and completely stunk up the joint because he wasn't a fit in their scheme (zone, off coverage). You could compare that to #24's move to Tampa, that was the same exact thing. Difference is Revis was coming off major surgery and he still played well in their defense unlike Asomugha. And then the Eagles moved on from Asomugha. If you want to compare Revis who is getting old and losing a step and can't keep up with the top receivers anymore then at least use one that fits. Like Ty Law maybe. They are somewhat similar in their skill/style/size, they're related even. But Revis isn't there yet, it's not even close. Revis has always "struggled" with 4.3 speed receivers, because he's not the fastest guy in the world. He got burned by Stephen Hill in camp, by guys like Ted Ginn during the season, when he was like 24-25 years old. An old Randy Moss. But then of course you couldn't make this argument how he's too old now. You just ignored it, it happens. Now however since he's been around so long it's different? Now it's because he's getting old? You can NOT contain those freak athletes, guys like Sammy Watkins, Amari Cooper, 1 on 1 and no pass rush. That's insane. I don't care who you are. Deion wouldn't even be able to do it, at least not all the time. If you have a QB who can throw the ball, it's impossible to shut them down. You have to SCHEME against them. Put a safety over the top, create pass rush, anything. You don't just let put Revis on somebody 1 on 1 and then let him cover the entire field trying to shadow that guy and not create any pass rush. That's just completely stupid playcalling by Bowles or Rodgers and Westhoff even pointed that out. You don't show all out blitz with 8-9 guys in the box and then NOT blitz and let Revis cover some young guy with hall of fame potential 1 on 1 and no help whatsoever. Nobody does that. No coordinator calls plays like that. That's not even Revis' fault when his coordinator has the balls to put all this pressure and responsibility on a player. Revis can cover well, but he can't cover your shitty playcalling.
See, I disagree. Mo to me is not the more consistent performer. He is the less risky of the two, given Sheldon's clashes with the law. Sheldon is a game in game out motor guy. Mo not so much. Depending on where our pick is we have to get a quality offensive lineman and a quality linebacker, either by draft or by FA. If some mystery QB becomes available and we have an upper to middle first half draft pick it will go to him Otherwise, I want a LB and an OL in the first two rounds-in any order. Would like a speedy receiver, too.......oh, oops. we drafted one this year. And it is true we need a RB. Someone with speed. I think Ivory is probably gone after this year. so we may need two.
It's similar in that both teams were a quarterback away from being a serious contender. This team is built more around a high powered passing attack that protects the quarterback whereas that team was built more for a game manager. Insert healthy 2004 Chad Pennington onto the 08/09 team and they probably win 12+ games. Obviously that's picking and choosing. They made the right move in getting Favre but he was not the right guy for the job. A gunslinger with a high turnover rate is terrible to have on a ball control/defensive team. On the contrary the offensive line on this team is not built to ground and pound all year long so we need more of a gun slinger that can get the ball down the field to open up the run game. 08 Favre would've been better for this team. Story of the Jets franchise, always having the wrong guy at quarterback at the wrong time.
Revis is around 30 years old, has had a major knee injury and now multiple concussions. Factor in the explosive young WRs around the league, and it's not entirely farfetched to predict an imminent steady decline.
It's a good read. It's a bit more pessimistic than I am at the moment but it's true that if Mangold were suddenly removed from the equation the entire franchise would be floundering in his absence as they have in the games he has missed this year. The comparisons to 2004 and 2006 are on target also, particularly 2004. If we had Chad this year we'd be 10-6 playoff bound easily (unless Mangold went down.)
We're somewhere between a rebuild and competing now. This offseason could put us at a crossroads, one centered around what we do with #96. Lets say we Cromartie cut either way. One approach is to just blow it up and commit to an outright rebuild. So Wilkerson is left for free agency, leaving us 25 million or so in space to work with. With that space we can easily re-up Damon Harrison, a veteran RB (probably Ivory) and maintain Fitzpatrick as a veteran back-up-interm starter while we give Petty a chance. we'd still have the funds to invest elsewhere with FA as well or store up just under 10 million or so for the next year. Or… we bring back Wilkerson, ideally on a contract that leaves us with room for a little free agent spending in 2016 (mostly to retain our own) just less flexibility than if he were gone. In the short term its much cheaper to just use Williams and Shelly as our DE's, but really we're just bleating the inevitable when it comes to paying our D-line talent and we're running a lot of risk trusting Richardson after his antics. The cost of a good D-lineman isn't getting any lower, and even if he DOES shape up Richardson is NOT gonna be easy to parle with come contract time. Wilk's contract situation now or Sheldon's later, pick yer poison. This might be an unpopular idea, but given that thought if I were Mac (and I am) I put Richardson on the trading block while doing whatever it takes to bring Wilkerson back. See unlike Coples, Richardson has ALOT of proven talent and we COULD conceivably keep him which ups his trade value. He's worth a 2nd at least, some team thats out of the picture for a good DT might take the gamble and put up a nice ransom for him. Its worth it to try, it may pay off huge down the road. And yes I want Wilkerson back, he's got more impact than some are willing to admit even if he's not worth what Suh got (Suh's not worth it either) he's a 13-16 milion a year dollar man, get over it. No matter what we do, its high time we invest in the O-line come draft time. there is an unacceptably low amount of young talent developing there. Restructuring D'brick is also a priority, thats assuming we don't want to risk cutting him and rolling with… uh... a rookie we might not be able to draft? Or a cheap vet thats not even worth it or else he'd have been retained by whatever team he played for before? basically anything that leaves our QB on the floor because we decided to get cheap... The same could be said of our Linebackers, thats in dire need of an infusion of young talent. a dedicated pass rusher or ILB will not go amiss. Ideally our next draft goes 1.OT 2.LB 3.RB/KR. Rebuilding this team into a consistent contender will take years, thankfully we've got some options to go about it with. Mac has shown a clever streak in the past, he'll need it to make this team great for years to come.
I remember back in the day when the dolphins rebuilt 2/5ths of their OL in front of Marino in one draft, the jets also did it in one draft....... the cowboys recently built 3/5ths of their OL with 3 successive hi picks....... the difference is the QB. Its obviously much easier for a team to focus on OL when the QB position is secure. We have to get the answer at QB. Until then I would much rather use FA to get solid OL talent than going hi in the draft. Lets save the high picks for blue chip talent at LB, WR, and hopefully QB.
I agree for the most part outside of proritizing with a kick returner. We need a scat back but we should be able to find a returner in the late rounds and it's kind of sad if we can't.
There usually IS no solid OL talent in free agency though. Maybe you can find a loose guard or two out there but the quality Centers or Tackles are generally locked up by their first teams and never see the light of day in free agency. Its like the QB market that way, its all just backups and washouts that are temporary solutions at best. We don't want temporary, we want another pair like Mangold and Ferguson who last us a decade. That makes the draft the best place to get a blue chip Offensive Tackle or Center.
Kick returner is not important at all. We do need a better punt returner though, and a better punter.
