Yeah, I loved Cotchery. When they ditched Braylon and him in the same year only to overpay Holmes, sign Plaxico and Mason, it was a huge mistake and accelerated the decline of Sanchez. Cotch could have continued to be a solid #2 for another few years. He was royally screwed by that move because IMO he had proved himself reliable enough at that point.
Everyone is forgetting what really happened. The Jets did not simply cut him. They were not that stupid. Cotch was a great homegrown talent and the Jets would have never cut him unless he asked to be released. Yeah, that's right. He specifically asked to be released because of the reasons I think in my original post. Everyone, even the fan base was talking about signing Braylon or Santonio. That was the big debate at that time. There was no talk about getting rid of one or both Santonio and Braylon and keeping Cotch. Cotch felt disrespected.
he asked for his release when they brought in mason, he did the math and realized mason,buress,holmes left him with no playing time.
Yeah Mason seemed to be the last straw for Cotch. I thought that was a misjudgement on Cotch's part. I don't remember anyone thinking Mason was ahead of Cotch on the depth chart or pecking order. Cotch was clearly the #3..perhaps some situations #2. Mason was veteran depth who was supposed to help in the red zone & in spread looks. He was one of my favorite players when he was younger. Extremely underrated & productive;One of many former Spartan WRs straight up balling. He was a complete bust & a bad memory for the Jets. Cotch had no reason to fear his washed up cashed out ass.
Well. He had a reason to worry. He was injured and was out almost entirely the previous year. Still - he was but 29. He had 4-5 more years left in the tank. I think Cotchery left some time in August. He [was] in the training camp. He did come back healthy, but if I had to guess, the writing was on the wall by then. Cotchery asked to be released? - yeah. That's Rex Ryan spin, if I have to tell you. In the grand scheme of things, Jets released Cotchery. Plain and simple.
Leonhard just finished his first year as DC at Wisconsin, his alma mater, going 13-1. His defense allowed just 13.9 points a game, down from 15.6 the previous year and second only to Alabama. Maybe there's a future for him back here some day.
How about Scott Frost? The Nebraska QB that Bill Parcells drafted as a safety. He just led UCF's complete season (13-0), and moved on to Nebraska. Looks like a good candidate to me. No? P.S. Speaking of Parcells: shouldn't we tap into his insight one way or another? Love him or hate him, but you cannot deny that man has a very keen eye for QB talent. In all of the franchises that he took over, he installed a very good QB. Unlike the other Bill in Foxboro. [He sucked in Cleveland for a reason.] Namely: NY Giants: Phil Simms NE Patriots: Drew Bledsoe NY Jets: Chad Pennington Dallas Cowboys: Tony Romo Some morons can't find one in their entire coaching career - that man found 4. Maybe he does have some keen eye for the QB talent after all, wouldn't you agree?
No I didn't. Just it's not relevant here. Moreover, that doesn't change the fact that Bill found 4 franchise QBs with 4 different teams, when most of the coaches can't find one during their entire career.
Actually five if you consider Vinny Testaverde. Under Parcells in 1998, Vinny threw for over 3,256 yards 29 touchdowns against only 7 interceptions in 14 games. Those are some pretty seriously good numbers.
Cotchery was what he was - a very good possession receiver. He never blew the top off the defense, but he did the dirty work on both the inside and outside, as well as in the running game. He was let go of far too soon because of Rex Ryan's man crush with Derrick Mason, a damn shame seeing as Mason didn't even make it past Week 4 with this organization during that season. He did well in Pittsburgh and Carolina, and I'm glad he did, and now he's continuing to excel in his coaching career. I wish him nothing but the best of luck and was definitely one of my all-time favorite homegrown players from that era of Jets football.
I always loved Cotchery man. Very underrated and definitely disrespected by the staff. Pulled groin and all....
A misjudgment? How? He escaped having to play for Rex and the circus here. He escaped the lockerroom with Burris and Mason. He got to play in a SB and play for a real team and a real HC.
That's a big reason I haven't changed my avatar in years Agreed; great player. Very disappointed they ditched him for Mason. I didn't like the Braylon Edwards for Plaxico swap either. The start of too many bad personnel moves by Tannenbaum
Tanny got desperate near the end of the run. No cap space to sign more free agents, a bunch of guys ready to drop out, a few guys who had to get paid and the draft wasn't giving him much in the way of help by that point. It's easy to look at one of your own players who you're going to have to pay and at a cheap free agent who was productive in the past and decide to make the swap. It's kind of a textbook example of what happens when you disrespect the draft or start whiffing regularly on your picks. Doing both at the same time just crash lands the Jets and that's what happened.
