Just a thread I've always enjoyed creating once training camp is underway. In order to put my thoughts down in writing when heading into a new season and to also see other posters point of views and thought process. Always makes for a good thread to go back and read after season's end. Sam Darnold for me is first and foremost. Great chance of becoming opening day starter come Monday Night Football. Regardless of when he see's the field he's young, and a rookie; so as a fan I'm more than fully prepared to witness plenty of mental mistakes, turnovers and growing pains. I almost expect it. I'm just anxious to see him not only take the field but also how he responds to adversity. I'm ready for it all. Robby Anderson. Already known as one of the league's most dangerous deep threats. With the right QB (strong armed and accurate) and with his rare combination of length and top level speed he's got All-Pro potential on the outside as a speed demon. Our receivers group is one aspect that I'm anticipating for as a whole. To be one of our strongest features. I love Robby as a big play waiting to happen. Kearse and Enunwa as versatile receivers who can both line up and make plays on either the outside or working out of the slots. Pryor brings us another deep threat outside of Anderson, and one with top speed to stretch a defense and great size for when inside the red zone. The battle of Hansen vs. ArDarius is intriguing as well. Is Peake the odd man out? I just have lots of hope for this WR unit as a whole and feel they give any quarterback a fighting chance with multiple options within the passing game. Jordan Leggett and Christopher Herndon. Me being an FSU fan out of the ACC I'm intrigued by the thought of two ACC TE's out of Clemson & Miami competing against one another. And currius to see which one's separate themselves moving forward. Isaiah Crowell. One of our bigger FA additions. He's aggressive. Runs very hard. Reminds you of a Chris Ivory or a mini Marshawn Lynch in terms of style of play. Runs with an all out reckless abandonment. 4 years of experience (two as a full time starter) and has combined for 1,805 rushing yards off an average of 4.46 yards per carry and 9 rushing TD's along with 68 receptions for 404 receiving yards over the previous two seasons (32 starts). Not bad production out of a former Cleveland Brown. Although no proven star NFL RB on our roster, a 1-2 duo of Crowell and Powell could be nice 1-2 punch. Was very eager for Elijah McGuire based off of flashes from 2017 but after his training camp injury I'm going to pay closer attention to Trenton Cannon. He's a smaller back with speed and insane acceleration, can accelerate immediately. KR/PR experience as well. Spencer Long. No. Not a Nick Mangold, but I'd say it's impossible to play any worse than Wesley Johnson of last year. Just signed to a 4 year contract and as the anchor of our offensive lineman I'm hoping to see a leader amongst men out of this guy. Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye. Two beast SEC Safeties. Both have tremendous upside. They impressed as rookie's last year and Macc selecting to go Safety 1-2, imo, now looks like a stroke of genius for our secondaries backend. Trumaine Johnson. Not the youngest but still only 28. From a former 3rd round draft pick from a small school (Montana) to now being known as one of the best NFL coverage CB's within the league today. A true #1 CB. In 2016 STL hit him with a Franchise Tag. In 2017 LAR used another Franchise Tag on him. Hit with the Franchise Tag during consecutive year's; he's that good. I'm just excited for most of our entire secondary. From Trumaine & Claiborne as our 1-2 CB duo on the outside, to Adams & Maye at SS & FS; I'm just ready to see how coach Bowles works his new and improved secondary. Skrine vs. Nickerson for the battle of the Nickel back when up against opposing slot receivers. Burris vs. Jones to see who's ready to spell our two starting CB's on the outside. Skrine will make the team so it'll be interesting to see who's the odd men out, out of Burris, Nickerson, Jones & Roberts. Safety depth is interesting for me as well with Middleton, Brooks, Bryant and Miles. Who's staying and who's leaving? Our secondary unit, as with our group of WR's, are two of our key positions that I'm most confident in while heading into 2018. Leonard Williams. I always expect greatness out of this man. A very impressive rookie season, ended up making the pro bowl as only a 2nd year player and last year had an off year (stat wise). He's an animal against the run & as a 3-4 lineman his pass rushing ability is better than advertised. His sack numbers aren't there but the amount of times he's pressured and hit the QB are ridiculously good. I want impact players on all 3 levels of defense and no fan can change my mind; LEO's an impactful defensive lineman who can line up all over our D-Line. If you place him on the trade block today, I'd bet that over 95% of GM's line up to offer 1st rounders for his services by tomorrow. Darron Lee. A very important player in terms of our future. A lot invested in him as a former 1st round draft pick. He did make solid progress as a 2nd year player last season when in comparison to that of his rookie year. Now. If only he's able to show that same improvement from year two, to year three this up coming season, as he did from his rookie year to his 2nd season... Then we could have a ball player of an IMLB moving forward. Year 3 is big for Lee. The ability is there. The all around athletic talent is without question. But as a former 1st round pick year 3 is going to be make or break for Lee & our IMLB position. Avery Williamson. Another one of our bigger offseason additions. I was impressed with DeMario Davis last year. Very. Imo he was one of our best defensive players of 2017. Now, I don't know too much about Williamson as a player, but I do know that he's only 26 years of age and Pro Football Focus did give him an overall grade of 85.6, which ranked tenth among all qualifying linebackers in 2017. That alone is enough for me to focus on keeping an eye out for him @ MLB. Those are pretty much my individual players and/or team aspects that I'm most looking forward to now that we're in training camp and heading into preseason/regular season. With that said I'm also focused on our offensive line and DE's/OLB's. Because not only are both of our offensive line and defensive edge setters two positions of weakness of ours, but also considered (O-Line/DE-OLB) to be the strength of next year's draft and potentially next year's Free Agency class as well. So out of Nathan Shepherd, Henry Anderson, Jordan Jenkins, Lorenzo Mauldin and Josh Martin etc, etc I'm very curious to see which one's are here to stay long term, and which one's must go moving forward. Same with our O-Line. A unit of question marks. Beachum, Shell & Garcia at our tackle positions. Carpenter & Winters @ Guard. Are any of these players expected to stick or do we need to overhaul the entire structure of our O-Line? Also: Teddy Bridgewater. His preseason play is more important than most. If he flops and looks bad/rusty... We may lose him for nothing as an up coming Free Agent. But if he balls out while impressing with his accuracy and protects the football; he could seriously end up gaining us net value within the form of future assets during a trade from a contending team, who loses their starting QB due to injury, and desperate for one to save their 2017 season. Teddy Bridgewater lighting it up throughout preseason is something we all need to get behind and wish for. And lastly, Dimitri Flowers. Undrafted. Played alongside Baker Mayfield with Oklahoma. Pretty rare skill set being able to play RB/FB/TE. That type of versatility intrigues me. Just a player that I'm ready to see take the field so I can judge myself.
For me, Darnold is obviously first and foremost. There’s no feeling like having a potential franchise QB on the field. When the Jets were bad the last 2 years it was tough to get excited on sundays because not only was the team going nowhere that year, but you knew Fitz and McCown weren’t long term viable options. Now, even if the Jets are bad it’ll be exciting to watch Darnold’s progress. I’ve always been a huge Enunwa fan and I’m hoping he can return to form because I really think he can be a #1 receiver in this league. He has the rare size, speed and run after catch combination that only the elite guys have. Henry Anderson and Nathan Shepherd are 2 others I like, I think both will be substantial upgrades over what Wilk brought towards the end and that’ll free up more opportunities for Big Cat And if Jamal Adams takes a step forward he can be a top 5 safety in the league, as well as being an unbelievable team leader. He and Darnold are the faces of the team and I think we’re in a great spot with that.
Of course Darnold. On D, Lee for me, if he can improve again it'll make a huge difference. He'd be another building block in place in our D. On offence, Enunwa. Stay fit, do your thing and we can enjoy some dynamic WR play. I hope they both have feel good years
...I decided right then and there not to complete the sentence and instead leave Charlie Kelly hanging... . : ) .
Looking forward to seeing Darnold play obviously. Other than that, I think our receiver corps is criminally underrated. Most analysts say that “we have no weapons” again which just isn’t true. Lastly the defense. I hope this year they get their mojo back and are talented like they were when Rex was here. Mac has done a good job rebuilding the secondary and now hopefully this d-line is better than last year. Finally got rid of all of the divas. I expect this team to be around .500 this season and trending up.
Darnold for reasons already mentioned. The guy gives me hope that we finally have our FQB for the next 10+ years. Enunwa missed all of last season. Really expected a breakout before the neck injury sidelined him. Hoping it happens this year. As my handle implies, I'm a big fan of him. The defense looks good on paper, but lacks a pass rush. I'd like to see how they perform this year with Leo, Adams, and Maye showing improvement. Shepherd has a good story, but how will he do in the NFL? Hopefully well, but we'll see.
Wow high praise. Those are pretty big shoes to fill (or small shoes as it were) Sproles is a tremendous weapon on punts and out of backfield. Great vision and burst, and used his size to his advantage some how. I'm happy even if Cannon becomes a poor mans Sproles.
I am reaching hard, but I hope he really showcases what Sproles did. Get him the ball in his hands and watch him dominate.
So many good responses. I know I named off a lot of players with my original post, but it's almost like you have to when reviewing this current Jets team from top to bottom. There's been so much roster turnover under Macc. So many young players competing in camp. Which makes it almost impossible to mention players x & y without mentioning the depth of players z & q and sinstumso v; especially when Z, Q & V are making plays in training camp. Think about it. There's not a single player on this current Jets team that's leftover from those 2009/2010 Jet teams. This feels different. A potential Franchise signal caller that we drafted 3rd overall? A young roster with more salary cap space than any other team come the offseason? Are you sure we're talking about the Jets and not another Franchise with great potential? Imagine this for a moment. Ben Roethlisberger & Troy Polamalu of Pittsburgh. Built a dynasty together. Because that's what I now envision with Sam Darnold & Jamal Adams. These two can literally be the faces of our New York Franchise. Sam Darnold has mega rockstar potential. New York. Manhattan. Subways. Billboards. Celebrities. Broadway Joe. 'Suck for Sam' chants months before ever touching down. 1st round. 3rd overall. Energy. Franchise caliber signal caller & he then becomes an instant N.Y Rockstar. Jamal Adams. You see him talking up his Jets on social media non stop. He really does bleed passion. He lives for this. He's at every single potential free agent meeting dressed up nice. He recruit's potential free agent players alongside of our front office. Has a personality. He's hungry. Imo he's the definition of a perfect team spokesman. While with Darnold on the other hand, you get the feeling is more of a show by example on the football field type of QB leader. And off the field a laid back, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Carson Palmer, cool breeze, kinda quiet type of Cali kid. Jamal Adams as you can see is more of an in your face type of leader. With charisma and electricity. I'm 33 today. 2009-2010... I was in my mid 20's then. 24 & 25 to be exact. That was 8-9 years ago. And that, was the last time I legitimately had a team to talk up. Now my daughter is 7. Time flew. But yet in Jet years feels so far away. I'm more than ready for things to go Gang Green's way this go around. I'm down for another rodeo. During a different era. Under a different regime.
But to get back on track. To keep it a little more simple. Basic. Green & White etc etc... Here are my top 13 players that I'm most looking forward to here in Training Camp and into our preseason. 1.) Sam Darnold. 2.) Jamal Adams. 3.) Leonard Williams. 4.) Trumaine Johnson. 5.) Robby Anderson. 6.) Marcus Maye. 7.) Darron Lee. Those are the 7 players in which I believe have Pro Bowl/All-Pro talent and/or potential. There. I said it. I really believe in those players. 8.) Terrell Pryor. 77 receptions for 1,007 receiving yards and 4 TD reception? Just recently the year before last? As a 1st year WR? With the Cleveland Browns? and with Josh McCown as his QB? A big outside target @ 6'4/228lbs? And a speed demon of a WR? Who also ran for over 570+ yards as a QB back in 2013 for Oakland? Sign me up. I'm fish hooked. 9.) Isaiah Crowell. Still a young back at only 25 years of age. A two year starter for Cleveland who combined for 1,805 rushing yards off an average of 4.46 yards per carry and 9 rushing TD's, to go along with another 68 receptions for 404 receiving yards over the previous two seasons in Cleveland (32 starts). Built like an Ivory/Marshawn. And runs like them too. An Old School. Smash-Mouth. Physical style of play. 10.) Avery Williamson. Drafted in 2014 and still only 26 years old. As mentioned earlier, Pro Football Focus rated him as an overall grade of 85.6; which ranked him Top-10 (tenth) amongst all qualifying linebackers just last year (2017). Coming off a season consisting of 92 tackles combined, 3 sacks and two fumbles forced during the regular season followed up by recording 9 tackles and 1 pass deflection during an AFC divisional round postseason loss on the road @ Foxboro against New England. And just the year before (2016) recorded 104 combined tackles, 2 sacks and 1 Forced Fumble. He's a run stuffing IMLB who just anchored a Tennessee defense that ranked 4th in rushing yards allowed, 4th in average yards per carry against & 1st with only 5 TD's allowed on the ground throughout the entire season. He just may have Pro Bowl/All-Pro ability as well. 11.) Morris Claiborne. Loved what I seen out of him as a #1 last year. Some people overlook the fact that (like Jamal Adams) he's a former 6th overall draft pick out of the SEC (LSU). And played and started 15 games for us last year as a blanket coverage corner. He took a gamble on himself this past Free-Agency (on another 1 year contract). And now we'll get to see him line up opposite of another true #1 in Trumaine while getting an opportunity to blanket opposing teams #2 WR's as a #1 CB within his own right. 12.) Dimitri Flowers. An Oklahoma Sooner. Undrafted and all. Just something about his style of play. Made him one of the draft's most popular undrafted prospects and has an opportunity to go from undrafted to opening day starter. Will be listed as a FB on our depth charts but with his versatility he's able to play a trio of RB/FB/TE & H-Back as well. Does most of his damage catching out of the backfield. His diversity within an offense's formation is rare. Can line up all over an offense, as he did within Oklahoma's offensive attack, alongside of Baker Mayfield while keeping defenses off balance. His versatility is just intriguing to me, so I'm hoping here for an undrafted diamond in the rough within the form of an offensive "slash". 13.) Teddy Bridgewater. He flashes signs of former self throughout preseason, and we're going to gain future assets in a trade of Teddy; from a team looking to save their 2017 season with an accurate QB. Bridgewater flops during preseason, and we'll lose him for nothing to Free Agency. He comes to life, and Macc is in the NFL's driver seat. This one is an important one.
this is the best post in this thread. holy wow we actually have good looking cheerleaders now. there were so many years where they were just butt face ugly. thanks for this.
Obviously Sam is the offense player to watch but defense for me is Shepherd. The guy is a monster.....A hungry monster that I think will adapt to NFL easily because he has the size and athletic ability of an nfl player.
