I am utterly shocked we have not done jack shit to get a LT. It is arguably the 2nd most important position on the offense. If our plan is to play Ijalana at LT I will be driving up to Metlife in some football gear and will be inserting myself into the LT position. What a joke... We need to get a solid prospect to play LT. There does not seem to be any at #6. So unless we trade down or find a gem in the 2nd I have no idea what our plan will be.
WRONG Ben Ijalana is fondly referred to by his teammates as "Jack Shit". Sent from my KIW-L24 using Tapatalk
Are Beachum and Reiff still available? If so, all is not lost. Mac didn't go all out on the first day, because to do so would have meant that he'd have to pay more, plus he was re-signing Jets he thinks need to stay. I sure hope that he has been in contact with Beachum's agent and let him know that the Jets have strong interest and are trying to bring him here for a visit. Hell, at this point, just sign him.
Merde! Scheisse! I hope that Mac is going all out for Beachum. If he doesn't, it looks like the Jets will be moving up or down in the draft (or reaching) for an OT.
Even though we aren't contending, we want to keep our QBs healthy. It would be in typical Jets fashion for Petty or Hack to prove in TC, preseason, and the first 3-4 games of the season that they were the FQB we've been waiting for, only to see him suffer a career-ending injury because Ijalana was badly beaten by a pass rusher in game 5 or 6. With the scarcity of decent LTs in the upcoming draft, the chances of any decent LTs being cut following TC are slim and none. If Mac doesn't get one now, we're screwed. Even if Ijalana was a solid starter (which he isn't), the Jets have NO ONE on their roster that can adequately back him up. What if he gets injured?
We are literally 1 day into free agency. We don't know the plan at this point. Maybe the Jets do indeed trade down and draft some tackles. I don't think they've given up on the position yet.
We are just one day into FA but decent LT fly off the market quick (they already have). So we are left with injury prone/question marks or we go with a rookie.
1 day into free agency...still no evident plan other than exploring garbage "Bridge QB's" well past their prime & overpaying to retain back-ups. After the season this team endured...I think the fans deserve better than this crap..or at least an explanation.
This is true, but this is the very beginning of FA, where big name players often get overpaid. I don't want to see them break the bank on a tackle when they don't even have a QB yet. If the plan really is to have Petty/Hack/other prospect compete for the job, then it might be better to draft a tackle or 2 to compete. If you're bringing in an over the hill stop gap like Romo or Cutler, then you pay top$ for a proven LT.
Beachum is still out there, and his strength is pass protection. He's also fairly young. In some ways, he was the best option all along.
I understand that, but whomever the QB will be, he needs to have his blindside protected. There are fewer LTs in general available in FA than QBs, and good ones are even fewer, and even fewer than that are the number of LTs in the draft who could possibly wind up starting in 2017. This should be Mac's #1 priority imo. The bottom line is that they're going to have to overpay anyway to get ANY FA to come to the Jets. You might as well accept that. At this point getting someone who is a decent starter is more important than how much we have to pay him. It's not even close. If worse comes to worse (as far as Bowles, Woody and maybe Mac are concerned), the Jets could roll with Petty and Hack and draft a QB. They'd at least have 3 players capable of playing the position. Right now, we have ONE player on the roster capable of playing LT. We HAVE to sign an LT and maybe draft one too.
There are so many holes on the roster, why do want to panic for LT but not for CB, DB or QB for that matter? It's a rebuilding year, the hit-the-bottom-so-hard-your-ass-hurts season. Who cares which positions Jets do NOT have?! How about: MOST positions. Just sit back and enjoy the zero expectations season.
