Too many trades, not enough players I like all the players we added in this years draft. We just didnt add enough. This is a disturbing trend in the Tannenbaum FO. Generally speaking, I think theyve been picking good players (though the jury is definetely still out on at least one), but they get a hard-on for the guy they want, they trade away picks to make sure they get him, and the result is a diminished inflow of talent to the team. We did it two years ago (trading up to get Revis in the mid-first and then again to get Harris at the bottom of the first), we did it last year (after exercising the 6th pick we trade up into the first again to get Keller), and did it twice again this year (trading way up from 17 to 5 for Sanchez and then giving up our entire second day for a third round halfback). I don't disagree with moving up occasionally when you see value in doing so. I do disagree with a draft strategy that revolves around giving up all our picks and coming away with only 2-3 players. So after a few years of drafting this way, we have 2 starting DEs in their thirties with no talented depth, only one experienced starter at wideout with a couple mid-to-low round draftees competing for the other job, and only a single tight end on the roster, who has very low blocking ability. We get all the players our owner and front office types have crushes on, but the result is starting to become clear. The lack of depth and youth at a number of positions is downright scary. One of the things I liked when Herm was running the show was his emphasis on competition (verbally at least, as I recall he was in fact very friendly toward letting vets keep their jobs when they shouldnt). Competition at every position breeds success, and right now we have no competition at DE, no competition at TE, no competition at S, and no competition along most of the OL. You can get away with a trade-up every now and then, but when you do it every year, this is what happens.
Lack of depth on our defense Is anyone concerned at the lack of depth we now have in our front seven? We lost Barton, Coleman, and Bowens. We now have an aging Sean Ellis, and who knows playing the other end. We have Jenkins in the middle, but we all know that he can only play about 60% of the snaps. I'm excited about our secondary, and we're all banking that Gholston turns into a player. But right now, the lack of deep talent on the D-Line and LB core concerns me.
If you are referring to just WR (and from reading your posts, it seems like you are), then I couldn't disagree any more with that statement.
marques douglas is going to be our starting DE with Ellis.. he's a few inches shorter and a couple of pounds lighter.. so he's basically a wash.. we have some young guys on our roster.. like devito and a DE whose name is like Pinoismoa ..something like that.. whether they are good or not i have no idea.. so i agree that our SKILL depth could be in question.. but we could have some young talented guys that we are just unaware of right now..
This was another aggressive draft targeting a few specific players. They've done this before. It's their style. Over the next couple years they'll have to find recievers, although I expect Boldin to end up in NY soon enough.
Lack of depth on the LB corp? That is one of our deepest positions. As for DL, I agree to an extent. Jenkins needs a back-up. But they did sign Howard Green from Seattle who played under Ryan for a couple of years when he first came into the league. It is only his 5th year so maybe Ryan sees him as Jenkin's back-up. DE there is Douglas and DeVito. Maybe we will finally see what DeVito can do.
One problem we have had is that our front office has been too quick to give up on players (especially those that complain about compensation) often getting little or nothing in return. Mawae, Kendall, Coles, Pennington, Baker, and Barton were all solid starters that we have received no compensation for. We have used first round picks to replace Mawae, Baker, and Pennington. These picks could have been used to add depth or solve other problems that we had. We also used a high first rounder in a failed attempt to replace Abraham who we traded away to fill our hole at center. While Mangold looks great Mawae helped the Titans reach the playoffs. In their efforts to fill these holes, the front office often has missed the opportunity to draft the best available player in their effort to avoid negotiating salaries from a position of weakness. Although we they have brought in some very good players (Revis, Mangold, Scott, etc.) we seem to be running in place because we are losing good players as fast as we can replace them. It is impossible to build through the draft if the players aren't on the team after their rookie contract expires.
Barton was a FA. I don't agree about resigning young players. Tannenbaum has made it a point to keep our young players in house - Cotchery and Rhodes. He is currently negotiating to extend Washington and has said publicly they are looking to extend Mangold. The players you referring to were older and malcontents (except for Pennington, but it was time to move on), I have no problem with them leaving. He also got draft picks back for Kendall, Abraham, and Vilma.
5 years ago I would've hated this draft. I'm all for building depth,trading down and taking a BPA approach. But at the sametime, I've sat through many Bradway/Parcells/Kirwin drafts in which we did the same ole' "staying put" and staying true to the board and ending up w/ unspectacular draft classes w/ at the most, 2 decent starters. You can go back and see that sometimes it DID work,but more often it didnt. When it didnt work it was usually due to a lousy overall big board. You can go back to some of these years, pull 10 other teams draft classes and see the same..it ain't pretty. W/ that said, this maybe the worst draft class I have ever followed,especially in terms of depth. Usually on TGG during the draft we see random draft prospect topic threads floating all over the mainpage well into the 7th round. Myself, I usually have a few favorites well into the 6th round.This draft I couldnt think of ONE LOUSY PLAYER I wanted to see us take in the 6th round! The first 25 or so picks were not bad..but once you got past pick # 45 till about pick 60...it was no man's land. In a draft like this, I'd much rather the jets be aggressive and take 2-3 guys they REALLY want, who are clearly on top of their draft board, than sit back and take 5th round grades in round 7. Everyone keeps raving about the Patriots draft, and bargaining wise, it was INCREDIBLE. They did an awesome job of moving up and down..BB was like a puppetmaster. But has anyone seen some of the players they selected ater the 2nd round?? They're taking a waiver on a raw German guard based on a hunch and they took a LONG SNAPPER in the 6th round! Butler will be a good one and Brace could be the solution behnd Wilfork...but aside from what the media is saying...is anyone blown away by what they came away w/? Yes they got picks for next year...the only problem is, they've been trading for next year picks for 5 seasons now...and seem to be like the kid at chuck e cheese who never uses his tokens. The jets could've taken the same approach. We've done it several times in the past...but that philosophy usually results in absolute crapshoots. When you make a move for your gold star targets...you stand a beter chance at success. IMO it's not a bad strategy in a draft this bad. We came away w/ the possible solution at QB. A position that has haunted us for a long,LONG time. In a draft like this..to me, it well worth the price we paid.
I am not a big fan of the drafts our AFC East rivals had this year (including the Patriots). The teams that did the best included the Giants, Titans, Bears, and Jaguars. I think at least two other teams did well but most teams seemed to have at least a couple gaffes.
On that topic, an interesting little note from John Clayton today. I realize that they have a deeper/more talented roster than most, but that's a pretty poor statement about the job the Patriots have done lately. I'm sure those terrible results also played role in their desire to rack up more picks this year.
True, but Baker was a serial malcontent. For an average player he seemed to bitch about his contract every 2 years. IMO, he was becoming a distraction.
I agree with you. I'd add in here too that they've used draft picks the last two years to add two veterans -- Jenkins and Shepphard. You could argue that adding those veterans was risky from a financial perspective, but in at least the case of Jenkins, they upgraded the roster and assuredly added a better player than they could have gotten for the pick they traded. Neither guy was ancient either, so it's not like they won't get a contract cycle or two out of each. Accumulating lots of draft choices on the hope that one or two will shake out and turn into something reminds me of the joke Dennis Millers tells about 1/2 price sales on short-sleeved leisure suits at Kmart. "Two of sh*t is still sh*t." You've got to draft good players, not bodies. And with the ability to add free agents after the draft, we essentially add multiple players to the mix to boost competition anyway. Ratliff was such a player, and he had enough value for us to use him in a trade for Sanchez. Same with Elam.
I think the Jets went with quality as oppose to quantity like the Patsies. We have some decent players on our roster now. I believe that with Cotchery and Clowney on the outside with Stuckey in the slot, we should be okay this season. Don't forget about Brad Smith who can be a surprise too. Yeah, we could have used the other picks for more depth, but in reality how many players actually make the team from the draft. They have to perform to make it and in years past we didn't get the performance when we had a lot of draft picks. It's always a wait-and-see event when we draft. Sanchez and Greene will make everyone forget yesteryear of O'Brien and Blair Thomas. I think we'll be fine this year...we will be a great team in 2-3 years time...IMO.
Yeah we could have had Marino but I am sick and tired of people ripping on the O'Brien pick. The guy was a stud. The shootout in Miami was one of the best games ever and the Jets came out on top. If anything I hope Sanchez reminds us of O'Brien.
