You do realize of course that for every TD he threw he also threw 0.6% INT? I wonder how acceptable that is amongst real elitte QBs.
Absolutely Agree. Drafting a kicker for us was a luxury, not a necessity. Had we used the same draft strategy we applied this year...., building with strong core players first, we could be on our way to a much more competitive season and far closer to a championship team. You might disagree on this point, but I am still a believer that the loss to the Steelers was as much due to coaching and inept understanding of our players limitations. A good coach would have given our kicker a much better field position and a chance to succeed. As Mangini says over and over....play to our strenghts and the opponent weaknesses. PS..I always enjoy your posts. Great insight into the Jets
The loss to the Steelers was all Herm's fault. He played not to lose against a franchise that goes for the throat. Nine times out of ten that'll leave the Jets lying on the field with their throat cut. Which is what happened. Anybody who played football in high school or later knows what happens when you play a good team soft.
You wanted it you got it. He actually compares very very well. Here are the numbers - the first is INT/TD ratio (low is better) and the second in career QB Ratings Pennington .55 92 P. Manning .53 93.5 Brady .54 88 Culpepper .64 91.5 Roethlisberger .59 98 Palmer .60 90 McNair .66 83 Brees .66 88 McNabb .49 84 Brunnell .59 84 E. Manning .70 73 Favre .64 86 Delhomme .69 85 Vick .76 76 Bulger .72 91 Hasselbeck .59 86 When you look at these numbers, Pennington ranks among the elite. I guess ole noodle are isn't as bad as you thought, is he????
My only issue with this list is that Penny has done it in less games than the majority of the other players. At a quick glance, Penny might have more games then only about 4 of them (Palmer, Brees, Rothlesberger & Manning?)
Pennington has one of the lowest INT ratio's for 1 important reason, he doesn't throw TD's because he doesn't have the arm to throw into tight spaces. That's the primary reason we wasted a first day pick on a FG kicker. Joe Namath threw a ton of INT's but he won a SB because he had the physical tools to actually win against a great D in spite of the INT ratio. Pennington needs an overwhelming D coupled with a great running game to beat elite competiton.
From his autobiography, John Madden wrote: I'm not going to rate quarterbacks here other than to say that Kenny (Stabler) was the best I ever had, and that (Ol' Noodle Knees) and Terry Bradshaw, in that order, were the best I ever coached against. (Ol' Noodle Knees) was a great one. On his bad knees, he couldn't scramble. He should've been a sitting duck for pass-rushers. But they seldom got to him. If he had good pass-protection, (Noodle) threw the eyes out of the football. If he didn't have good pass-protection, he still got rid of the ball before he got sacked. The few times he got sacked, he was never intimidated. He projected an image of the quarterback in the white shoes who lived in a bachelor's pad with a white llama rug. Not exactly macho. But he was one of the toughest players I've ever seen. In a Monday night game in 1972 at Oakland when we held on to win, 24-16, he threw for 403 yards, completing 25 of 46 passes against defenses stacked against him. I never did this before or since as a coach, but after the game I went over to the Jets' locker room. "I just want you to know that I think you're great," I told (Noodle). "We had five or six defensive backs in there sometimes and you still picked us apart." _________________________________________________________________ I have been trying to get this one dude to cease with the "Ol' Noodle Arm" stuff. I am not a Chad Pennington apologist and I don't care if he ever plays again. But can we call him "Chad Pennington"? I find the "Ol' Noodle Arm" nickname to be embarassing. That kind of language doesn't belong in a football message board. It is more appropriate for a unicorn message board or a message board for fans of Strawberry Shortcake and The Care Bears. If I can save one Jets fan from corniness, then I have done my job. Please, mister, cut it out with the cornball "noodle" stuff.
Maybe everyone calling Namath "noodle knees" is the answer, though it's not that either Pennington nor Namath got weakened appendages from lying around reading books or watching TV. They got them playing for their teams and risking (and getting) injury, and often, by playing on their wounded appendages to help their teammates, putting their long-term prospects in considerable jeopardy. Nothing hollow or noodle about that.
SJ, You are right on the value of drafting a kicker. However, you can't change the past. The front office made a bad move in drafting him that high. It doesn't really matter if we picked him on day one or if Bradway picked him up turning tricks at a rest stop on the Southern State Pkwy. The fact is, he is on the team now and the guys that drafted him are gone (for all intents and purposes). Whether or not he turns out to be a good kicker remains to be seen. I feel bad for the guy in that he has unrealistically high expectations associated with him because someone was dumb enough to draft him that high. I hope this turns out to be a good season for him, because otherwise he will really start to feel the NY pressure. DbJ
13. Kansas City A new head coach (and a very good one), Herman Edwards I just had to laugh at that comment in this article. Yes we made the playoffs with him, but there is no doubt in my mind that he is a well below average coach overall. He is really a politician more than anything and it seems so many get caught up in his drivel. For years we thought it was Hackett, or Cotrell that was the issue, but the issue was the scheme that Herm enforced on them more than anything. I will say that the Jets were very disciplined under him and played hard, and those were good things about his coaching and a good part of why we made the playoffs. On the other hand, I think the average 12 year old Madden game player could make better clock decisions, and Herm NEVER adjusted in a game, especially at the half. What he did against Pittsburgh was horrible, and the entire handling of last year was criminal. Anyone who thinks Edwards is an upgrade over Vermeil is on some really really good drugs. On Nugent: I do not think that the pick set us back 2 years. He was a special kicker and would have been picked by Minnesota in the 2nd round as well. If he improves on kickoffs, which I think he will and kicks like he did the last half of last year he will be an awesome pick for us. I cannot fault it on any level. There is no guaranteed player in the 2nd round. The point was made that none of the top kickers were top picks. Well that might be true, but year in and year out teams struggle to get a reliable kicker and they play a HUGE role in tight games. I am 100% behind the pick.
I don't see why people seem so concerned with our kicker. He finished the season REALLY well... I don't have the link, but if you look at some of the better kickers in the NFL they all struggled their rookie years. Nugent will be an 85% kicker and thats why they took him so high. Because he was a very safe pick at a position of need. I also believe that if we were cowboy fans we would have wanted him in the second as well.
Disagree with that? Not ever. I threw TWO shoes at the television that game - the first one was at Herm, and it went off well before Doug Brien even lined up to kick.
I'm having a rough time of it these days. I have to compartmentalize things in my brain - old regime vs. new regime. I don't do very well with duality. 2006 will go down, I think, as a corrective draft - building on talent, sure, but also making up for shortcomings of the last few Bradway years, and its poor prioritizing. That eats at me. Still, let nothing I've said be construed to mean that I think Mike Nugent, or any other Bradway pick, was a bust. Not yet, at least.
