By RANDY LANGE STAFF WRITER Not so fast, Jets. The first draft of the Mike Tannenbaum-Eric Mangini era of Jets football went fairly well, but it wasn't perfect. There was no increase in speed at two positions that needed it: pass-rushing defensive end and wide receiver. The Jets may have even committed a gaffe that cost them one of the swift end/linebackers they liked and even visited with last week -- Chris Gocong of Cal Poly, who racked up 42 sacks in two seasons at the Division I-AA level. With their 71st overall selection coming up, the Jets decided to swap third-round picks with Philadelphia, dropping to No. 76 and picking up an extra seventh-rounder The Eagles, who had shown no pre-draft interest in Gocong, grabbed him with their new pick. "I was talking to my agent and we actually expected the Jets to draft us with the 71st pick," Gocong said, "but we didn't really know if it was going to happen." The Jets regrouped and took their second Ohio State player of the draft, linebacker Anthony Schlegel, who, with 4.94 speed in the 40, is not going to be rushing the passer nearly as much. But the quality of this pick is impossible to gauge. One draft analyst called the Jets taking Schlegel at 76 "a major reach," but another termed it "outstanding value." Go figure. IMO, Gocong would've been "too sweet" in our 3-4 defense, but who knows, schelgel hunts boars..lol
I actually think Schlegel will fit better because we have more quick outside rushers than we do tough "take on a bull" guys in the middle. Schlegel will provide a toughness to the defense which is invaluable for the run stopping game. And as far as not adding speed to a WR position, we signed Tim Dwight AND drafted Brad Smith... did this guy expect us to draft Asafa Powell?
They are probably trying to get a Vrabel-type. Vrabel went in the third round too, meaning he was too slow to go in rounds 1 or 2.
since when is lange coaching.. im gonna go with the jets staff on this one. schlegel has game speed thats all that matters.
good points, im not worried about wr's, no need to grab chad jackson who has alligator hands, no pun intended
I agree with the writer, if we wanted Schlegel we likely could've gotten him at 97 and I expected us to take Gocong after bring him in for two visits. He would've been a great addition and would've been able to come in and start right away at OLB, as well as take away some of the pass rush lost in the Abraham deal.
Are you serious? "Take on bull" guys? Is that even a football term??? No disrespect meant, of course, but really, we only have one guy on the team who is an experienced outside pass rusher, Bryan Thomas. But we have plenty of run stuffers to play on the inside: Barton, Vilma, Kassell, Schlegal, Hobson, etc. My best guess is were gonna put Hobson as our SAM back; after Thomas, him and Chatham are our only other options
Tangini Got Sucker-Punched in RD 3? I don't know that, we'll never know that for sure, but that was my initial suspecion and Randy Lange {NOT A JET HATER} touched on that theme in his tuesday column Jets had Chris Gocong in for two visits and just prior to the draft Gocong expressed his belief that the Jets were preparing to draft him, perhaps as early as RD 2 ... after losing Abe and with the switch to the 34, it made sense too me ... Gocong was a small school pass rushing phenom who registered a staggering 42 Sacks in 23 Games and Gocong was considered an ideal fit as an edge rushing 34 OLB Gil Brandt even rated Gocong ahead of Mathias Kiwanuka, and Gil Brandt is not some hump Draft Guru or wannabe like the rest of us {myself included} ... Brandt was the chief architect of "doomsday" and he forgot more about player evaluations than Tangini {or just about any man alive} will ever know ... so I don't wanna hear about how I'm over-rated Gocong, over-rated small school guy, blah blah blah ... if he was good enough for Gil Brandt to rank obscenely high for a small school phenom, he would have been good enough for me in RD 3 Brandt said, and I Quote ... he can't remember anyone who ever registered 42 Sacks in 23 Games And again, this is a kid the Jets brought in for two visits, another HIGH CHARACTER GUY as well, only HIGH CHARACTER plus OBSCENE STATS as a pass rusher ... so I do believe Gocong was speaking the truth when he expressed his belief that the Jets were very interested So with that in mind, here's an excerpt from Randy Lange's tuesday column I don't think the Jets figured on the Eagles drafting Gocong ... not only because they showed no interest as Lange detailed above, but also because Gocong was universally projected as a 34 edge rushing OLB, Good fit for the 34, but did not seem to carry the same value as a 43 DE or OLB, and the Eagles are a 43 team ... as are the teams that drafted 72, 73, 74 and 75 {Cards, Bears, Lions, Packers} .... all 43 teams So I'm thinking perhaps Tangini Got a little too cute when they traded down from 71 to 76 {for a lousy 7th RD Pick, mind you }, thinking they could still snatch Gocong a few picks down the board But the Eagles had other ideas ... BAM, RIGHT IN THE KISSER!! ... and from the looks of RD 3, how it went following that sucker-punch {Schlegel and Eric Smith, but way moreso Eric Smith}, I think maybe that sucker-punch landed dead sqaure on the button, sent Tangini for a whirl, and they didn't fully recover from that blow until day two, after they had a day to regroup and regain their equalibrium Classic example is Buffalo reaching for Donte Whitner at #8 Overall after Michael Huff went one pick ahead of them ... I'm sure they saw Huff being there at #8, but when Matt Leinart slid past #8 it opened the door for Huff to crack the TOP 7 ... so the Bills likely got sent for a loop, and instead of taking the BAP at another position they went and reached for the next highest safety on their board I can see some of the same with the Schlegel Pick, though he's an ILB and not an OLB, it looks like Tangini simply went to their next highest rated linebacker in that spot, much like Buffalo went to their next highest rated safety ... but the pick that told me Tangini may have lost their focus after botching the Gocong projection, actually trading that pick for a measley 7 to the team that went and took Gocong {Ouch!!!!!!!}, was that Eric Smith pick at the end of RD 3 After miscalculating so badly on Gocong, maybe the Jets felt it was better to reach for a player they really wanted than to risk making the same mistake ... and I think they reached badly, but it all started with Gocong ... till then Tangini played the board like river-boat gamblers and won {bigtime} in RD 2 when they snagged Clemens AND added a 2nd RD Pick in 2007 ... that perhaps emboldened them to Get cute in RD 3, then the opposite happened when that move blew up in their faces, with the final pick in RD 3 they went the other way, played it safe to a fault and reached for a safety they had no business taking that high {IMHO}, especially with some of the players who were still on the board at positions of greater need JMO, all I'm doing is speculating ... we'll never know for sure ... nobody at hofstra will ever cop to misplaying their hand on Gocong even if its true, and if its not, well, then I'm wrong ... won't be the first time
"The Jets regrouped and took their second Ohio State player of the draft, linebacker Anthony Schlegel, who, with 4.94 speed in the 40, is not going to be rushing the passer nearly as much." I didn't like the pick until I researched the players. Half of the video clips you find of Shlegel he's sacking the QB for a huge loss. I don't care what they run in the 40 on defense if they have good burst, take good angles, and have good closing speed. Schlegel has all these things and has a good chance to get ~5 sacks a year if he starts. We didn't get any speed at the WR position? Here he assumes Brad Smith is coming in as a QB I guess. Smith flat out flies.
i dont care, you all kno this franchise needs players with hearts like schlegal.. dude will carry a knife on the field and hunt them RBs down
Jabba. Tangini made the right play with the trade down. He had no reason to believe Gocong would be taken, and yes, he did get a little too cute. For his first draft though, he did exceedingly well. Schlegel looks like a player. I think the term 'reach' is overused after the 1st round. If Schlegel was the guy they wanted, there was nothing wrong taking them where they did. Brad Smith was one of the better athletes in this draft, and I think spending the final pick of day one on him was fair value.
I think Schlegal was our backup option. An option at edge rusher could be Ahmad Brooks, when he comes out in the supplemental draft Dont underestimate Eric Smith, Im very high on the guy :up: Check out his #s at MSU... http://forums.theganggreen.com/showthread.php?t=5971&highlight=eric+smith
Seriously......All these draft experts and writers make to much out of a 40 time. It's pretty redic. how much it effects draft value. I'd rather have a guy who's got a ton of heart, drive, and is tech. sound in mechanics
Jabba, who knows what happened, but I agree with you -- why risk getting the player you want for a 7th round pick that will most likely not make the team. I can understand the trading down and back in the 2nd round because the team was able to secure a (hopefully) valuable second round pick next season. However, trading down four spots in the third round to add a training camp body doesn't not seem like a good risk-return type move. (By the way, Jabba, did you see that Herremans is projected to start for the Eagles this season. I know you were pimping him hard last year...good stuff, as usual.)
Just to be clear, fenwyr, I like Schlegel ... if the Jets drafted Gocong at 71 and Schlegel at 97 I would be ecstatic, and I believe that was a realistic possibility had we remained at 71 and taken Gocong ... that would have made day one a Grand Slam HR in my view ... Brick, Mangold, Clemens, Gocong and Schlegel ... GRAND SALAMI The Pick that saddens me is Eric Smith, and IMO there's a GOOD CHANCE that Pick never happens on day one if we had snatched Gocong at 71 ... in that case I'm inclined to believe the above scenario unfolds ... LT Brick, C Mangold, QB Clemens, OLB Gocong and ILB Schlegel
like you said, we'll never know for sure, but that scenario rings true to me. Oh well, we came away with a nice draft that could have been nicer. Something to learn from. That said, undersized college pass rushing ends are a dime a dozen. We'll find one.
