I was in Mexico once, and I looked up, and saw a very old looking stone structure. I said aloud, "Hey, is that a fort?" The guy next to me said, "Si fort."
We should just change his nickname to Chimp! For the love of god, please stop quoting it, my ignore does not work.
Thoughtful analysis, I have to compliment you. I think you glossed over the D a little bit, specifically the line. I probably mentioned this ad-nauseum but for a 3-4 to work you need a damn good line. Our line blew last year. Coleman, may or may not be, one main piece to shore up that part of the line. He is on the up swing, the fact remains, so far he is a career back up. It can be argued this team is 3 starting lineman short of having an adequate D-line to play the 3-4. If Robertson can improve on his late season form, Ellis can have a better year after his adjustment back to the 3-4 and Coleman can come in and start and be a significant upgrade over Kimo ( a snowcone would be an upgrade) then maybe this defense will have a better season. That is a lot of if's. (I would love to throw in a Samuel L. Jackson quote from Pulp Fiction) However, using NE as a guide for a stout D-line, they used 3 # 1's on the D-line. We have used 2 (Ellis- 2000, Robertson -04'). However, DR is not a prototypical 3-4 line man so he is in noman's land, so the 1st. rounder we used there was not ideal. While getting another LB or two would be nice, presently it is not close to the biggest hole that should be plugged on D. After the line, CB across from Dyson needs to be addressed. There is nothing in Free Agency that tingles my toes, so this will have to be addressed via the draft. Ot: A big reason Dyson got hurt was because of the poor line. He got hurt tackling R. Brown in the backfield, it happened right in front of me. On offense: I am in agreement with most of what you wrote. A couple of points going from area of biggest needs down skipping the QB: 1.) Like the D, we need to address the line, ie. the right side. No need to analyze that. Whether this gets done completely this year is up for debate, I highly doubt this FO is going to draft another 2 O-linemen that high. So this is going to have to be addressed in 3 ways.....current roster (Moore, Blanton etc..), Free agency (Clement back?), Draft (maybe use one pick). 2.) Playmakers: I think they are on the roster already. I believe that Smith, Washington, T. Jones, Cothchery and to a lesser degree Coles can keep other teams honest if the line improves. Are any of them top 5 at their positions in the league, no. However, last year 3 out of the 5 won at least one game with a clutch high-lite film play. T. Jones did so for the Bears and Smith is dynamic enough to become a very very good player in this league, if he develop's, which I think he will. IMO Coles- I agree. He had at least 2 concussions last year. They do not become better, in fact that gets much much worse after every head trauma, it is an accumulative effect. Given the way he plays, I think 1-2 years tops he is kaput. He could barely catch the ball at the end of last season, he was probably seeing double after that Thomas hit. So yeah, I think another WR would help C & C. However I would not look for one this year. As far as TE (Baker) maybe Chad is the problem. It seems that in the last 5 years not one TE has come in here and performed well in pass catching roles. Maybe the pass required to utilize a TE properly, Chad can not make and the coach's see that. Maybe they keep the TE's in more to protect the blind side and to improve the poor run blocking .......... who knows. The fact of the matter is Baker is not utilized much and it is not because of a lack of talent. Addressing TE in the draft (specifically G. Olson) , I really hope the FO forgets about it. Olson was not even a good player in college, I for the life of me can not see how running a fast 40 at the combine is going to make him an upgrade over Baker or even a serviceable pro. double yuck. I suppose my thoughts dovetail with your analysis in respect that the Jets will not be in the SB this year. There are way too many holes for this team to be an elite team. The FO still needs to weed players out because that is not done in just one year. I think this FO sees that to win you need to build from the lines out and more to the point you need to draft those players not sign them. To do this takes at least 3 years IMO. If this past year was indicative of how they are going to build, then they are off to a helluva start.
