I think the philosophy right now could be pretty ingenious, actually. Sanchez struggled early on because he was locking on to Braylon, his big-timer. He had decent chemistry with Jerricho in the first 3 games, but nothing spectacular. After a few games of pathetic, mind-numbing picks due to locking onto BE and throwing into triple coverage, either Schotty or Rex or both locked Sanchez in a room and told him which of his wideouts was the better option. All of a sudden, Cotch is the go-to guy and Edwards, who was the de facto #1 option (the reason I think he lost his focus, honestly) got relegated to decoy status. He got his share of looks, but Cotch was that man after a certain point, and deservedly. Now, the Jets had to find a way to do 3 different things: - get Sanchez comfortable making progressions to 3 different receivers (something he wasn't comfortable doing with Brad Smith and Wallace Wright as options) - light a fire under Braylon's ass, letting him know that he's not the only route they can take for a starter oppo Cotchery who can stretch the field - remain competitive in the process. They've done these 3 things by turning this trade for Holmes, all the while avoiding a long-term commitment to to either Holmes or Edwards. They will play for contracts, especially for this coach. We'll probably be more heavy on the run than any of us thought we'd be in 2010, and after we hammer out who we're keeping in 2011 - Edwards or Holmes - then the offense achieves true balance, and Sanchez now has poise to open the O into a spread for a beastly passing attack in situations that demand it - something he wasn't prepared to do against the Colts.
I think we're still going to be a run-first team, but we're going to run out of the 3 wide much more. You can't put eight in the box if Holmes, Cotchery and Edwards are on the field.
