Some thoughts to consider regarding Day 1 of the 2007 Draft: - Everyone needs to add Thomas Jones into the equation. He is a huge part of yesterday's draft haul even though the trade was consummated back in March. (You could also throw in TE Sean Ryan, who was acquired last year for 2007 7th rd pick) - Yesterday the Jets obtained 3 starters and filled 4 positions for a team returning 21 or 22 starters from last year. - Jones immediately steps in as the starting RB. (Huge upgrade over Barlow, Houston & Washington last year). - Revis has to be considered right now at the very least #3 on the CB depth chart. I can't believe the guy is picked to play nickel back...by week 8 he will be starting, if not sooner. (The CB group of Dyson, Barrett, Revis, Miller, Coleman and Poteat now looks a heck of a lot better than last year's revolving door...and one of these guys, most likely Barrett due to salary and injury, is gone.) - Revis will be returning punts for the Jets. (Huge upgrade over injured Dwight). - Harris steps in at ILB to shore up the run defense. Depending upon which LB is traded/released, he could step in week 1 and start. (LBs now are Thomas, Bowens, Hobson, Vilma, Schlegal, Chatham, Kassel, Barton and Harris...I would assume Schlegal-Chatham-Kassel need to be worried at camp unless Barton is traded/released. IMO, Barton actually played better than Vilma last year, but I doubt Vilma goes anywhere until next year.) Bottom-line is that the Jets upgraded 3 major areas of concern = the running game, pass defense and run defense. Where they able to upgrade NT and OL on Day 1? No, but it is simply unrealistic for any team to updgrade all of its needs in one draft or one off-season. You still need to remember that this team was 4-12 two years ago and is year 2 of a transition from a 4-3 to 3-4 defense. Additionally, the Jets went 10-6 last year due in large part to smoke and mirrors. That usually works the first time around, but at the end of the day they needed to upgrade several areas with talented players. If they were 6-10, they would have been drafting where they traded up and this wouldn't be an issue. However at 10-6, they simply weren't where they needed to be to get talented/impact players at RB, LB and CB positions. My sense is that there are two things people are tweaked about with this draft - the price paid to move up and the positions targeted. First off, no matter how much the Jets "paid" they still have all their DPs next year (as far as I know 2008 picks haven't been traded). Additionally, at least in the FO's mind, they weren't going to get impact players by standing pat and this team doesn't really need more depth. If you want to argue about the positions taken (i.e. CB, LB, RB) as opposed others such as OL, DL or TE, consider the following: perhaps the Jets didn't want another 1st rd salary on the o-line (too much $ in place) or perhaps there wasn't DL player (specifically a 3-4 NT) that they were enamored with and Sione Pouha is coming back this year from injury. As for TE - they have Baker, last year traded a 2007 7th Rd pick for Sean Ryan and 2006 5th rd Jason Pociask will be returning from injury. At the end of the day, none of this matters right now. All these "questions" will be answered by the play of Jones, Revis and Harris in 2007...and right now none of us can predict how well or not well they will play.
Good Analysis, I agree. 3 potential starters in one day. That is fantastic drafting no matter what position they play. We filled 3 soreley needed areas, and i can't see how that is bad in any way.
We still can't run the ball since our offensive line sucks. Clement, Moore and Kendall probably wouldn't start on most teams in the nfl but at least we addressed other needs! When Thomas Jones is running into the ass of his lineman will see how happy everyone is with the draft.
Very good post Klecko. While I'm not thrilled with giving up so many picks, I'm not one to nitpick since we got two solid players who can help this team. I have always said you have to look at the total picture. Even something like the Jolley trade. Sure Jolley didn't work out but our passing game as a whole was quite poor that year due to the revolving door at QB due to injuries. And in return for that trade we ended up filling multiple needs. Instead of one guy in the 1st, and one in the 2nd, we got a TE that met a need, a kicker that wasn't going to last much longer and has been pretty consistent after a rough start (though his kickoffs could obviously be longer) which met another need, and then got the guy they may have targeted with that first pick anyway. Then when you add in the additional picks we got which I forget if that brought Houston and/or Rhodes the overall deal was not too bad. Unfortunately though people focus on Jolley and also forget all the injuries we had that year that no matter had some affect on the impact Jolley was able to make. Jets fans in general are typically a bit reactionary but we have to try and take a step back and relax and see how things play out some times and look at the bigger picture. Not every move is going to work out perfectly but many times there are very good reasons for making that move. People are definitely entitled to voice their thoughts when they think the FO messed up but there's a whole spectrum between the FO can do no wrong, and the FO sucks.
On the Harris trade here is a thought: Everyone is assuming that Barton is the odd man out here. Personally, I thought Barton did one hell of a job last year. What would you guys think if they kept Barton and traded Vilma for players / picks? I thought that the draft was very week on OL. I wouldn't mind trading Vilma for a pro bowl tackle or guard.
That's as logical a move as trading Barton. Here's the counter-argument right now though: Barton is 30 years old and Vilma is 25. If this regime does not work out and the new regime in 2009 wants to go to a 4-3 how bad will a Vilma trade look in retrospect? The historical parallel for us would be the trade of High Douglas in 1997 and James Farrior being allowed to go free in 2001. Douglas would have been a great defensive end in Herm's 4-3 Cover-2's and Farrior would have been great in Mangini's 3-4. I think I want to hold on to Vilma right now and see how things go for the next year or two. It may just be my instinctive fetal curl from being a Jets fan for too long but I had dreams last night that featured Vinny's achilles when the Jets looked poised to make a super bowl run and Chad's slow fall from grace when he looked like such a great QB his first year. Tannenbaum and Mangini did wonderful things last year but that was last year. Given our karma they could easily be sucking lemons by 2008.
I think Vilma has too much potential to trade and recall reading that Brusci's first year in the 3-4 was quite pedestrian too and Vilma did a great job of running the D. Now that he has a year of this system under his belt Vilma should hopefully be able to figure out what he needs to do to make more impact plays. I agree that Barton did a great job last year too. I think the issue is that Hobson really stepped up last year and it's going to be tough to pay all those LBs so one of them has to go. Ideally it would be great to just get rid of some combo of Kassell, Schlegel, Chatham, etc and keep Vilma, Thomas, Hobson, Harris, Barton. That would be a hell of a rotation, question is money and will they all be happy enough to do what's best for the team.
Agreed, you can't discount the acquisition of Thomas Jones. If you reverse the order of the trades, I think fewer people would have a problem with it. If, instead of trading down from Washington's pick for Jones, we kept Washington's pick and drafted Harris there, and instead used the other 2nd & 5th to move up for Revis (exactly what happened) and the 3rd and resulting 6th to get Jones, everyone would be happy.
Possibly, but it's not Tannenbaum and Mangini's jobs to be making the job easy for the next regime. They're in the business to win during their regime. They couldn't care less about what a future regime does.
Good post. Out of the LB core that you mention my feeling is that Schlegal and Kassel will be the ones to make way. Chatham is one of Manginis' men and was also captain of STs. He also studies up alot on opponents TEs and relays reports on them (so I read). On our secondary. Before this draft I would say that our secondary was average at best. But with Revis coming in we have the potential to have a very good secondary , especially with Harris stuffing up the middle , which in turn should allow Vilma more room to roam. I feel pretty good about this.
Were you watching the NY Jets play last year, and not the Jets in some other league. Hobson was one of the top 3 guys on our D last year. Try and spin his play last year as inadequate- I could use a good laugh...
Honestly, I saw Hobson as just a guy for most of the season. The Jets blitzed 7 guys a lot and he got sent on blitzes so he actually got some sacks for a change. Joey Harrington played catch with him so he made a turnover. These are all noteworthy things. So is the fact that he's a free agent at the end of 2007, and unlike Jerrico Cotchery I haven't seen an extension...
I honestly think that Harris is considered the final piece to our LB corps puzzle(Except for maybe another marquee OLB pass rusher which will have to wait for next year). Mangini come from the Parcells school when it comes to linebackers: get a diverse collection of talent w/ many different skillsets in order to mix and match based on opponent and situation. Vilma may not be the best fit for short yardage/run defending situations in this scheme, but he's great for qb Spying, Pass coverage, Sideline to sideline pursuit, occassional blitzing, and obviously leadership/football IQ. he is actually a huge asset to our D in that sense.
