Still glad he's gone. He was old and very injured. Being his age and dealing with a hip injury at a position where using your hips is of dire importance, was not attractive to me. He was too much money and was old news. It was time for us to part ways as we did.
I pointed out before that 2013's CB's were just as bad if not worse than 2014's, but it does not mean that is a good thing. They are still a poor unit. We will see come Week 2, though. Maybe Week 1.
We'll see what this "not as bad as most people think" secondary can show in weeks 2-7 when we face Rodgers, Cutler, Stafford, Rivers, Brady and Manning.
Very nice post. Good research. CBs are important but obviously the Jets can win with or without them. I for one was never Chickin Little about the season just questioned Idzik's handling of CBs he got us eg Patterson and I need to see Smith step up. Otherwise, barring 4th qtr let downs, we run the ball, keep D off the field, dominate game. Nuff said. 10-6 record.
As the season finally comes to an open, I think this whole crisis in our secondary has been blown way out of proportion. The *'s are for the guys who saw the vast majority of the playing time. 2013 - *Milliner - Struggled big time for no less then 10 games last year. - *Cromartie - Graded out as the worst starting corner on PFF. - *Wilson - Graded out as a good slot corner. In reality he was average at best. - Walls - Decent backup who showed flashes of starter potential at times. - Trufant - Backup who didn't do much with little playing time. - Langster - Saeme deal with Trufant. - *Landry - Our most consistent safety. Did more then a serviceable job. - Bush - Saw almost no playing time other then special teams - *Allen - Did a solid job in his 1st year starting. - Jarrett - Special Teamer. - Reed - Veteran Backup brought in late. Used about everything he had left in the tank. 2014 -*Milliner - Shown alot of improvement and should atleast be average at worst this year. -*Allen - Moved to CB and will be a struggle early but has already shown good ball skills. - Walls - Again should be a decent backup who can start when needed. - *Wilson - Still isn't very good but no different then last year. - *Landry - Should once again be very consistent. - *Pryor - Graded out as the top Saftey in preseason. Will be a HUGE upgrade. - Jarrett - Special Teamer. I just don't see what everyone is freaking out about. We essentially got rid of Cromartie who was awful in favor of a young Allen moving over from Safety. Then we replaced him / Reed with a guy that has will be a massive improvement in Pryor. If we catch an injury bug we are in trouble but go find me a secondary in the entire NFL that would not be in trouble if they got some injuries. If anything I actually like our lineup more now then last year because we essentially traded out old guys like Reed and Cromartie in favor of the youth of Pryor and Allen.
I can see your point, but this has been well covered in another thread - http://forums.theganggreen.com/threads/secondary-not-as-bad-as-most-think.81586/#post-3046504
I think our CB situation, much like our WR situation is one where everybody is probably slotted one position up from where they should be. On paper we are worse off than we were last year by and far, but based on how historically bad our secondary was last year it can't be any worse. I'm not sure why Rex feels Allen should play corner rather than safety along side Pryor. I'd imagine having a guy that has corner covering skills as your FS/SS and say Walls on the outside would work.
Because he has no other choice. Walls is on the outside opposite Allen. Who would you rather have starting at corner? Allen, a guy who looked good in preseason adjusting to the cornerback position, or a guy like Ellis Lankster or Kyle Wilson, who have shown they are not starting corners in this league? Dee Milliner is hurt, Allen is our best option outside of Walls. Let Pryor and Landry hold down the safety position.
I believe Rex has a coverage scheme to deploy based around the new focus on contact. Of course I have nothing to substantiate that belief other than a feeling that Rex will put his players in a position to succeed based on their abilities and the rules. I just wonder how the new contact rules will impact shutdown corners like Revis and Talib. My guess is they will be less impactful but only time will tell. Its also possible they get more leeway based on reputation. Definitely something I'll watch as the season progresses.
If Rex, can't field a decent defense w/out Pro-Bowl CBs, then I was wrong about him from the very start.
If I'm reading this right, it seems that we all agree that the talent level at cornerback is not great but it may not have as much of an impact as people think it would. This seems right given previous performance of the D under Ryan, especially last year (as cited by @Falco21). The decreased talent level may be less impactful because of the rule changes. With receivers being essentially untouchable after five yards, Ryan could switch his coverage on the outside from press to off the ball (a la Pitt). It could work.
At this point Walls. He had another decent preseason, let's throw him back on the fire again. Let him run the gauntlet if he comes out of week 7 intact the Jets have another legit cb. If not he's out of the equation for good
This secondary is worse than most people think. We are going to get massacred if we don't generate a pass rush.
I trust in Rex to have a competent scheme each week. Keeping our offense on the field and controlling the clock is going to be key in any success we have this season.
