The whole team is average to a bit below average at best. Unfortunate but the truth. We have very few playmakers on the team. Assuming a SB team gets close to an A grade on all of these positions this is where the Jets fall WRs & TE = C+ Coles and Cotch are both small possession WR who are not very fast. Every WR behind them are experiments that have proved nothing. No downfield stretch WR with height. Coles is also 30+ now and will be getting worse every year. Keller has a high cieling but is a rookie who has dropped enough balls for the next 3 years. Nothing special here at all, lets move on. QB = D Who is our QB? Favre is going downhill and God only knows if he will event come back next year. Clemens sucks and the other Brett could be good but are you going to really put a lot of faith in him. Face it, the QB that can lead us to the SB is not on the team. Clemens and Ratty barely get us to a D rating. OL = B+ The best part about the Jets. Lets continue to see improvement in pass blocking and you will have a legit SB caliber offensive line worthy of a A grade. Now lets hope we dont lose half the line due to contracts expiring by the time the rest of the team catches up. RB = B T Jones and L Washington are strong enough to run the ball for a SB caliber team. However, Jones is approaching 30 and L Washington has two issues, his contract is expiring and the jury is out on whether or not he is a everydown back. The offense has yet to figure out how to use Leon in a way to get the most out of him. No depth behind these guys either. D Line = C- Who applies consistent pressure? No one since J Abraham. Ellis is old and the rest of the line are average. Major overhaul needed and we all now your corners and secondary are only as good as the pressure you can apply on the QB. I am generous giving them a C- LB = C D Harris and then who else? Barton is old and slow, reminds me of Mo Lewis towards the end of his career. He will be gone. C Pace is ok but nothing to write home about on the experiment bringing him in this year. B Thomas is a first round bust, especially since he got paid. Gholston could be great but did nothing this year. There just isnt any one spectacular player or good depth here. Secondary = C Revis....nuff said. Getting a second corner is again a issue, seems like we talk about this every year. Rhodes came back down to earth, just seems like a above average guy, nothing at all like Ed Reed who some people thought he could be as good as. The rest of the secondary is mediocre and guys like Smith, Poteat, Barrett all suck and will be let go. Blah Blah Blah again with this unit. Coach = F Because we dont have one and the coordinators will get fired soon enough once we do pick one. So you see, this is a realistic view of our team. We are a C team at best and we need to get to be an A team. The only comparison you should be making is the Jets against what a SB caliber team would look like. Obviously we have much to do but we took a big step backwards this year since we dont have the crucial QB player you need going into 2009.
didn't TJ lead the AFC in rushing this year and break the team record for rushing TD's in a single season...and you gave him a "B"?
With Bill Cowher you know the defense will be improved up to the Steelers level. Only question remains is the WR and QB situation
i would disagree that you need to have an A in every component of the game to be a SB team, but you can't have as many C's as the Jets do. For a couple of weeks you could say that our run-d was at an A level, but after the tenn game they completely disappeared.
I've been preaching the 4-3 defense, the Clowney/Coles swap, the Gholston at DE move, and the "what the hell are you thinking, mangini" attitude since about week 2. Though we need to quarterback who can manage the game, we need someone good enough to take chances for big plays (NOT Favre throwing long to a 4 foot Coles who probably has a vertical of 9 inches to go along with subpar speed). Jump balls go to Keller. Deep balls that went to Coles this season go to Clowney next season (IF he's not double covered, Favre!) Leon's game speaks for itself; get him involved effectively. Let's make Gholston earn some of that money. He's NOT a linebacker, Mangini. He has no instincts and probably the worst change of direction of any first rounder. Dwight Lowery shows flashes... that's all I'll say for now. Let's please refrain from outthinking ourselves out of games, Mangini! I wanted somebody to slap the gum out of his mouth all season. But I won't tell you how I really feel.
The core of the team that was 8-3 is still intact. I think the defensive line is better they you give it credit for. Jenkins was a monster the first half of the season and in a 3-4 or 4-3 if he's healthy he'll continue to be an above average DT. Ellis is solid but nothing special. They key will be what kind of defense do we run next year. If it's a 4-3 you have to bank on Pace being able to be an overpaid SLB and Gholston being able to play the weakside end to apply pressure.
I don't agree with a lot of those, but it's not llike we mathmaticly grade thme not like they take tests.
kennyo07 is expressing his OPINION. If you want to give TJ a higher grade start your own thread. Nice post kennyo07.
The OL and RB's were bright spots this year. And we can see that Leon is getting better with more play time. Hopefully with another good draft and a good coach we can get all paddles rowing in the same direction.
Little over the top - WR/TE - We need a true #1 that has the speed and size to create space. This is probably the top need that won't be addressed this year so we'll have to win w/o. Keller will be a top 5 TE next year give the kid a break - he had a top rookie year after being totally underutilized most of the year. Check the tape on the first half of the season - he was consistently open. As for drops, TD against NE, TD against Miami, 3rd down against SF, maybe one or two others. Maybe 4 or five drops against almost 50 catches for a rookie. Just watch how guys started to hang on him at the end of the year. Defense - We lost this season to lack of pressure on the passer in the last 5 games not because of the offense even with the poor play. It was like we played a prevent for the last 5 games. We had no linebacker play and allowed teams to take Jenkins out with double and triple teams with no adjustment. That being said, if we don't shore up the linebacker core and add a CB and safety offense adjustments are irrelevant. QB - Obviously biggest question mark but we can win with Farve if defense is strong, everyone else is a major question mark. We can win with everything else that is in place. Coaching and defensive adjustments will ultimately determine whether we are 4-12 or a 10+ win team next year.
