Just looking at the players we had in 2009 against now and it has to be said, depsite my man love for him, that Tanny has got nowhere near replacing the players we had. Faneca whilst a liability in the pass game was a great run blocker.. Slauson is probably a step below at this point. Woody..okay his body may be wrecked now but the Ducasse/Hunter draft/signings are killing us at RT. A complete lack of personnel judgement here is killing our qbs confidence. Jones - he allowed Greene to enter a game as a change of pace and work on worn down defences. Greene is not a starting RB and benefitted in 2009/10 from coming in once teams were softened up. Rhodes - his attitude stunk but the biggest praise is he kept ES off the field Edwards - stretched the field and was a great target for a young qb. Plax is good in the RZ and very little else, restricting us and making teams play up as its all short passes Now many of the above were at the end of their careers and rightly needed replacing but in all cases the current starting replacement is a downgrade. Not one of the current replacements is level or better than those we cut or traded. Frankly that is unacceptable management and is one of the main reasons we are here... We were a ground and pound with 2 x veteran pro bowl ol and a tough vet rb which allowed great playaction that Edwards and Sanchez exploited. We now have an average lg, shit rt and a rb who cannot open any holes himself and wrs who cannot get deep.
Holmes is the only upgrade, and I thought Edwards might be a better fit for this team. Burress vs Cotchery, I'd probably take '09 Cotchery, though his play fell off last season. Other than that, you're right, plus we do miss Brad Smith out of the Wildcat to a certain extent, mostly because Sanchez hasn't been great.
When we let go of Kerry Rhodes I never thought that Eric Smith would still be the starter 2 years later.
Cromartie and Wilson are also upgrades, not counting the experience upgrades (2011 Sanchez vs 2009 Sanchez, etc..)
Kerry Rhodes did a good Job on Gates in the SD game. That was probably the last time we actually covered a tight end. And Ellis probably gave us more in 2009 than we're getting from Wilkerson this year.
You have to expect road bumps along the way to long-term, sustained success. Bringing Braylon back should have been high priority. But the rest of those guys...their time had come. Obviously we are lacking in RT and S play and it would be nice to have them filled with better players, but every team lacks somewhere. If we hit this offseason in the draft and FA in these three positions we are in great shape. We probably won't have a transcendental RB out of Greene/Powell/McKnight, but enough firepower is there with an improved Conner and a new face at RT that we should be fine.
Keep in mind that over the past two offseasons Tanny has had to deal with the final four rules and the lockout.
not a knock on Tanny ... but it's really hard to believe this franchise hasn't drafted an elite RB in 30 years (Freeman McNeil 1981).
To get back to where they were at the end of 2009 the Jets need to find a very good RT, a great run-blocking LG, another sure-handed two down back to tote the football 200+ times, a clutch WR who makes big plays in the possession game on a regular basis, a good blocking TE, a punter with plus leg strength and decent depth on the offensive line. That's just the offense. On defense they need an NFL average free safety with decent cover skills to stop the tightends from eating us alive, a solid two-way defensive end who does not rotate and is good in both fronts, a weak-side linebacker who covers the edge well enough to keep the Jets from getting burned outside by big, fast backs, they probably need a solid two-way inside linebacker at this point also because Bart Scott is not as good as he way in 2009 - a natural consequence of going over the 30 barrier, and finally they need depth in the big men to keep the season from going down the tubes if a big guy goes down. When I look at the current Jets offense the thing that comes to mind is that they can't really run the ball at will and they definitely can't protect Sanchez in the passing game. The line is mediocre and it's not injuries that have done that it is not having enough talent available when healthy. When I look at the defense the thing that comes to mind is that Sione Pouha was the backup NT at the start of 2009 and excellent depth behind Kris Jenkins. Now he's an average starting NT and there's really nothing behind him if he goes down. Kenrick Ellis can't stay on the field and even if he could we have no idea if he's any good or not. Ropati Pitotua would be getting a lot of downs right now if he was much better and he's not getting that playing time. The Jets defense is soft up front right now and that softness is a major reason we're having problems. We could have Mark Sanchez make a 20% improvement over his 2009 numbers and we'd just be treading water. Actually that's what's happened this season.
The 2009 Jets also had a healthy kris jenkins for those first 6 games and helped the jets get off to a 3-0 start. I can't say the Jets would have won all three games without him. I think two areas that jump out that have regressed dramatically is Offensive Line and our linebacking corps. I think at linebacker the foot injury to Pace has really slowed him down. Bart Scott had a hot start to the season, but has cooled down. The only linebacker who I feel is a true quality player now and for the future is David Harris. That means 3/4 of our Linebackers need replacing in the near future. In a 3-4 system if you don't have strong linebackers its a tough scheme to run if not impossible.
