First,Drew Coleman's last start was his first and it came against Chicago. After Poteat joined the team he didnt start or get much, if any playing time on D. Dyson is certainly solid competition, but Barrett (wasnt he injured for a while?) has been on Mangini's list of players to replace all season and Miller has never proven that he can be consistent at corner. He's a great return man, but he hasnt proven he can play under control on D (I thought his play improved near the end of the season). In other words, Mangini was searching for a second corner all season and gave Coleman a shot. If it had worked out Poteat wouldnt have played. Mangini was never searching for an ILB to replace Vilma and had two experienced ILBs at the other spot, neither of whom were injured all year. Second, there are only two (2) ILB spots not 4. One of those spots was/is Vilma's. Even if you think he had a bad season he still led the team in tackles and was a defensive captain. So that leaves one spot -- the Barton/ Kassell spot. I honestly dont know, because none of us saw practices if Schlegel was even given snaps at that spot and the opportunity to get on the field there. Third, 12 tackles in 8 quarters comes out to 6 tackles a game. 6 x 16 is 96 averaged over the course of a season. Not bad, not great, but not bad. Also, keep in mind that while you are correct in pointing out that he wasnt playing against top notch competition he also wasnt playing with top notch team mates. Most of the Jets who were on the field with Schlegel were cut by the Jets. Fourth, most of his tackles were unassisted. NFL does not consider tackles an official stat so frequently they dont credit anyone with an assist. Which means, he was probably in on more preseason plays than he was credited with. Fifth, he was penalized once in preseason and once in the Green Bay game. IF you feel the need to attack him, attack him for the block in the back on a punt that cost the Jets good starting field position. That was a bonehead play. Sixth, I never said he wasnt to blame for the one TD that was scored on him in preseason when he fell down. HE fell down it would be inacurate to blame anyone else. By the same token its inacurate to claim that he got burned in the sense that the guy out ran him and scored. Seventh, actually he didnt dress for 3/4s of the season not half. He dressed for 4 games. Again, which is why I think a D is a fair grade. Eighth, I didnt realize stating that I thought the guy deserved a D for the season was defending him. I never argued that he deserved a higher grade. I merely argued that a windbag like you that clearly had no idea what he was talking about was wrong to decide based on his limited performance time that he lacked the talent to be an NFL player.
