Pretty fair assessment with the rankings there. I think it's an obvious statement to make (but then again everything Clayton said was obvious) when I say the key to our success this year is how we fair in our division rival games. We need to win our games against Miami and we need to at least split with New England and Buffalo. New England has dominated everyone for a few years now and Buffalo always has and always will give our team headaches.
it's impossible to argue your top tier, but I think after the draft you have to switch Baltimore and Kansas City. Baltimore is going no where fast without a feasible QB and they are going to destroy Flacco by throwing him into the fire too early. Flacco has what it takes to be good, but he needs a good long time to get adjusted from D-3 to the NFL. and KC has improved a lot from the draft, especially in terms of youth. Also I don't believe for one second Buffalo is a "very good" AFC team. they too should be in the "could go places" category. The bills have imrpoved this offseason, but I believe we improved more, and both teams have the same question "Who is our QB?" so if we belong in the "could go places" catergory (which it is my opinion that we do), so do the Bills....
Depending on Clemens, Chad and injuries the Jets could win anywhere from 3 to 11 games. That makes 7 the expected result in my book.
being the veteran darksider i am i actually do think the jets will WIN 8-9 games in 08... thats the good part.... that bad part is i see us starting very slow and everyone around here will have mangini and company on the hi road outta here - until we take the last 5 of 6 and ALMOST sneak into the playoffs.... setting the stage for stratospheric expectations in 09 only to see them come crashing down due to injuries, tougher schedule and dare i say it - the rise of the dolphins. jil
I got us winning 10-6....but we could catch a break or get screwedd. anything less thrn 8-8 is a disapointment
if clemens start i believe we wont even win 5 games especially with questions marks with our running game. chad gives us the best opportunity to compete and win at least 7-9 games which still amounts to no playoffs. the key will be tj and lw, only they can take us to the playoffs.
All I'll say is don't underrate Buffalo. They're going to be a fierce team this year and are going to surprise a lot of people. The Jets have a large hill to climb if they want to get to the top.
I don't under-rate Buffalo or Miami's chances. I think the Jets will finish in front of one and possibly both of them but we could be 4th place really easily if things go like they did last year.
I think people overrate Miami this year because of Parcells. He will definitely get them turned around... but he's not coaching them, and their roster blows. They got the rebuilding process moving in the right direction but I think its crazy to think they are anything more than a 6-10 team right now. Buffalo on the other hand has solid starters and depth across their roster. They have a lot of mega talented players and a lot of players returning from injury. They will be very difficult to beat.
Couple things: I don't think any of those garbage teams are garbage. In fact, I expect those teams to annoy just about everyone. Oakland is talented. KC is way more talented than last year. Miami will be better. Cinci has the 3rd best QB in the NFL and a D that suddenly looks real talent and versatile. This isn't a garbage team, just a really confused one. I think people generally overrate Buffallo because for some reason Trent Edwards is everyones favorite sleeper QB. I do think they're a pretty good team with potential, but they are not even close to the same tier as the Steelers or Browns. I'd take Houston and Baltimore over Buffallo honestly. Still, Jason Peters = the truf at LT. Theres no LT I'd take over him right now with the whole age/price/dominance factor. Jacksonville is on the fence between elite and very good. Same for the Steelers...
The only question mark in the running game will be if Thomas Jones can stay healthy. That is the same for the other 31 teams, and TJ has been healthy for the most part recently. He got 1100+ behind 2/5ths of an O-Line. We also now have a fullback. Plus, now that the coaching staff realizes that they better not let Kellen do too much, Leon Washington will be used more and become more of a factor in both running and passing. That equals plays off for Jones to keep him fresh, and tiring/confusing the defense. Most teams would welcome Chatman as their 3rd RB too. Chad sucks.
Here's an interesting article from JETS.com in response to the Clayton piece. The stats at the bottom are pretty interesting. ESPN Notes Green & White Improvement Published: Tue, May 13, 2008 - 6:15pm EST Randy Lange By Randy Lange Lange is editor-in-chief of newyorkjets.com. He covered the Jets for 13 years for The Record of Hackensack, N.J. 05/13 ? ESPN is giving the Green & White grudging respect as a team on the rise. On Monday, John Clayton from ESPN.com (I sometimes like to call him John The Clayton from ESPN The Magazine) pegs the Jets as one of his Five Surprise Teams to Watch in 2008. Clayton slots the Jets at No. 5, right behind the Bills, saying the Jets "are operating like a team trying to make a big move" and stating that if they "find a way to get into the top 10 in rushing, they have a chance for a three-game improvement." Just two quibbles with Clayton's analysis. What the heck is "the .020 formula"? He says that is how he calculates the Jets' schedule to be 3.3 games easier this year, with a .457 opponents' winning percentage, than last year's .523. I'm a big fan of mathematical widgets, and I'm guessing this formula is based on perhaps taking calculating the schedule strength of the opponents' schedules and massaging it to spit out win improvement or decline. But has anyone else heard of the .020 formula? That one needs explaining, at least for me. More important, in Clayton's parting shot, he says that head coach Eric Mangini "also hopes that [Calvin] Pace, Vernon Gholston and [Kris] Jenkins can pull the Jets' defense out of the bottom four in football." Come again? Had Clayton specified run defense, he'd have been on solid ground ? they finished fourth-worst (29th overall) in rushing yards allowed per game. But someone is going to have to explain to me how a unit that used a strong second-half kick to finish 18th in total yardage allowed, ninth against the pass and 19th in points given up qualifies for "the bottom four in football." In fact, I started crunching some numbers that I should've checked out a few months ago and came up with these two startling charts showing the top NFL defenses in yardage yielded and touchdowns allowed (factoring out opponents' return TDs) over the final eight weeks of the season: Team Yards/Game 1. Tampa Bay 267.9 2. JETS 269.7 3. Jacksonville 273.8 4. Indianapolis 277.9 5. San Diego 285.5 Team TDs/Game 1. JETS 1.43 2.Indianapolis 1.63 3.Philadelphia 1.63 4.Cleveland 1.63 5. SD/CIN 1.75 I should note that the Jets, Patriots, Bucs and Texans played seven games over those eight weeks due to their late byes. But if we made it the last nine weeks of the season, the Jets' yardage ranking would drop to fourth because in their Week 9 game they allowed 431 yards to Washington, but the Redskins' one TD that day would allow the Jets to maintain their defensive-TD top rank. Now I'm not saying the Jets were D-lightful all season long or that they didn't start slow or couldn't use some consistency or don't need to improve in '08. But "bottom four"? Does not compute. Still, it's always nice to have Mr. Clayton's encouragement. ESPN.com's NFL Power Rankings: May 2008 Edition, while not receiving input from Clayton, tell a similar tale for the Green & White, noting that the Jets have made the biggest rise from the 2007 end-of-season rankings, from 30th then to 21st now. Mike Sando's skinny: "An offseason spending spree upgraded the roster without answering the Jets' most pressing question: Do they have the right QB?" http://http://www.newyorkjets.com/blog/posts/509-espn-notes-green-white-improvement
Based on how the Jets have been picked to finish just about every year since I can remember? I have to file all predictions under the "Who Cares" file.
