Dimitri Patterson really needs to show something anything this Saturday.Right now it looks like he couldn't cover a guy with a peg leg
By adding a free agent, who you obviously intend to start if you are paying them millions of dollars (I thought that was so blatantly obvious I didn't spell it out for you), you simultaneously are increasing your depth at that position. It's not mutually exclusive. My beef with Idzik not addressing the CB position is that he didn't get a legitimate starter in free agency which would have made us a better football team while simultaneously providing us with additional depth at the position. Then if you do happen to come across a situation where injuries arise, even to the free agent you just brought in, you can fall back on your depth players. By not addressing the position in free agency you are essentially already using depth players as starters and therefore if/when one of them get injured you have to go even further down the depth chart to put a body on the field. This means you have an inferior product on the field which makes you an inferior football team. If it helps think of it in terms of a Madden roster. You're better off having two guys who are rated say 80 overall and a sliding scale of guys below that than one guy rated 80 and everyone else rated on a sliding scale below that because in the first scenario if you lose one guy rated 80 overall then you might have to slot in a guy rated 75 overall and the drop off in talent isn't so bad (one guy at 80 and one at 75). If you are already starting one guy that is 80 overall and a guy that is 75 overall and everyone else is below that and one of those two guys gets hurt well now you're seeing a far more significant drop-off (maybe top guy is 75 and second up is sub-70 and it gets worse from there). I really can't understand why you are struggling with this concept unless you're more interested in arguing semantics than logic and facts, in which case I'll know to avoid pointless arguments with you in the future. If you want to argue the cap implications of bringing in a FA CB or development of younger players or something that's one thing but if you are going to argue semantics or build straw man arguments it's really not worth my time.
How adding FA increases both starters and depth? You clone him so that you have 2 Riveses -- one a starter and another a depth guy?
Adding a free agent of starter quality does indeed add depth. That starter would push back the depth chart, meaning that the other player who would have started becomes your depth. In case of an injury, you would still hopefully be left with quality depth to fill in. I wish Idzik had gotten a quality corner in FA, however I don't disagree with his general philosophy. Its easy to be nitpicky when things aren't going well, but the teams that have sustained success are generally the ones who stockpile draft picks and build quality depth, and don't overspend in free agency. The Steelers, Patriots, and Giants (to a lesser extent) of the last 10-15 years, as well as the Seahawks and 49'ers more recently are the prime examples of this philosophy. With that being said, it's easier said than done. The Steelers, Patriots, and Giants have fallen off to some extent due to not drafting as well lately. With all of that said, while winning now would be absolutely fantastic, and a lot of fun, I think Idzik is doing exactly what he saw be successful in Seattle. It was pretty clear that if we were going to get one of those FA corners, we were going to overpay.
WHO would be pushed into depth??? Do you two nitwits realize you're advocating signing free agent corner AND drafting another corner? You'd be the first ones bitching and moaning that FO doesn't care about offense, that Idzik is RR's puppet and all the usual crap posted here for 3 months straight before the draft. But I'm not surprised because your whole goal is to bitch and moan about FO. Idzik filled roster with appropriate number of CBs of his choice. Just because you two hindsight experts don't agree with his choices doesn't make him wrong. And injury to a player is not a proof that you're right, it just shows that you'd use any idiotic excuse to yell "fire".
If Rex were forced to pull a Bill Belicheck and convert a WR to DB, which of our WRs would be a best candidate? Someone small and fast like Saunders? Someone tall like Decker? How would Kerley handle the switch?
Stephen Hill would be. He's tall and fast, and it wouldn't matter that much that he struggles with drops.
Hey a logical post from a Bills fan. This is the absurdity and general pessimism in the Jets fanbase. At least Bills fans mostly get excited for their team before the season. It's the exact opposite here. If Decker and Kerley go down who do we have at WR? OMG we should have signed more WRs. If Mangold and Ferguson go down who starts on the line? OMG we didn't sign enough linesman. If Wilkerson and Richardson... you get the point. Some Jets fans are just negative and get incredibly upset over something that they have no control over. They will stop at nothing to attack and would rather assign blame and point fingers to satisfy their egos than think about solutions.
You clearly didn't read the second half of my post. I really wasn't bitching about the FO... but alright. Lol
As much as I am opposed to the Jets making a trade for a CB... ...If they can get Johnathan Joseph for a 5th-6th round pick from the Houston Texans...that's worth it. They might be able to do that for a couple reasons: -Joseph is 30 years old. -Texans are trying to get younger. -He was causing cap problems -THEY put him on the trade block (allegedly)....reduces their leverage. -He's currently injured (but making recovery) Of course medically...you would have to make sure he can be ready for the opener. I would not do Joseph for a 3rd or higher. Maybe a conditional 4th if Rex's CB experiments don't work out.
You are ignoring the reality of the salary cap which does permit a team to stockpile talent and depth at every position as you seem to suggest. If it helps, think in terms of a Madden cumulative score cap on a roster. For every above average or star player you have, you will need to fill n with players with a lower score to keep within the cap. That's how real life football works too, i n case you didn't notice.
We have among the most cap space in the entire league, the cap is likely to keep going up, we have a number of guys on rookie deals or are signed to pretty cheap contracts...how is the cap an issue? There are teams who had 1/4 of the cap space that we did and they still went out and signed guys to $5-10mil a season deals. I never said we can stockpile solid talent at every position so don't put words in my mouth and build straw man arguments. What I said is that the CB position in particular was identified as a major area of need by people here, people in the media and just people with eyes and the ability to think for themselves. Considering that is an obvious position of weakness, a position of ever growing importance in this league with the emphasis on passing and that Rex's defences in general rely on the position more than a typical defence it seems pretty obvious that that position is one in particular that should have been addressed. Furthermore, one of our top 2 CBs going into this year was coming off a rookie season where he struggled for about 3/4 of it it makes sense to me that you would want to add a veteran presence who can fill either that #1 or #2 role. We could have had Milliner, a top CB free agent and Wilson as our nickel CB plus we still could have drafted Pryor and we would have had an incredible secondary, an amazing D-line and like $10 to $15mil in cap space (depending on who we signed, obviously). That's not some one year fix to win now, that also helps with building sustainable success. I really don't see how having approx $10 to $15mil in cap space puts us in a bad position now or in the future as you've now locked up your CB position for at least 3-4 years if not longer and still have piles of cash leftover that you can roll into next year's increasing cap to pay for an extension for Wilkerson, Kerley and whoever else.
For the record I'm not a FO hater, I like a lot of Idzik has done. I do not think, however, that he has sunshine coming out of his ass and that everything he says and does is brilliant like some people here. Some examples of things that I liked: -Decker signing: WR was a huge area of need and he got the best WR available in free agency -drafting Amaro: TE was an area of need and he should be a great addition -drafting Pryor: safety was a position of need and he picked arguably the best safety in the draft...plus I just really want to see him laying out people -signing Babin: better pass rush sounds good to me -bringing in CJ2K and Vick My #1 complaint with him right now is that, I believe (and fully concede I could be wrong and that only time will tell) that he did not properly assess and accordingly address the CB position. That's it. If that makes me a "nitwit" and means that my "whole goal is to bitch and moan about FO" and makes me a "hindsight expert" (even though I've been saying it all offseason and not just after the injuries) then it is what it is. Talk to me when our pass defence is among the leagues worst and let me know if you still think he filled the roster with the "appropriate number of CBs"
So basically your beef is that Idzik didn't get CBs you wanted. And that's exactly my point. Try to wrap around this concept: GM of a team has a right to compile the roster however he sees fit. It's his job and his prerogative. You using an injury to justify Idzik wrong is .... you know That's MY point! IF Jets defence will be among the league's worst, THEN it'll be the time to critisize Idzik's roster.
