Walls will be given competition but why not give him opportunity? He showed some flashes as a starter in games this year, and if Milliner can take over as #1 CB, Walls can be # CB, and we will likely draft one as well, although who knows in what round. With Kyle Wilson playing in the slot, and competition between Walls and a draftee, we can have a decent secondary. Lankster can also play the slot in certain situations, so we will have some flexibility.
I'm not saying Walls will play like Richard Sherman by any means, but if the team is high on him they may see things we don't.
Maybe it's because more than half of the Jets Starters in 2013 were rookies or 2nd year players. When you have a very young team, they actually can get better with age and experience. That is why we'll improve more where older teams decline when their athleticism goes. We would be a lot better team even if we didn't make a single move all offseason, bringing the same roster back for 2014. We lost Cro, ranked #103 out of 109 corners in 2013, we brought in Decker, and upgraded our RT spot (for less $ than Howard). Things are looking up, especially with 12 draft picks.
Well we lost Cro and currently haven't replaced him with an NFL starter, Walls is the closest thing and if he was any good he wouldn't have been behind Cro on the depth chart. Decker is a good pickup and an upgrade over Holmes. RT was a lateral move at best, maybe even in very minor step down. We have all our picks which is a good thing but they won't all be starting calibre players. I guess it depends on what you mean by improved, if you mean improved play vs improved win-loss record than I can maybe get on board with you. I think we may play better than we did last year but when you compare the amount we've improved to the other teams around us I don't think we will improve our record. Given there is still a lot of time to improve so maybe my opinion will change...but as of right now if people are expecting 9+ wins I think they are building themselves up to be let down.
I believe the team will be better overall, mainly because the the promising young defensive pieces will have an extra year of experience to improve on, getting back contributing roleplayers like Barnes and presumably Goodson should also help. The problem is that accounts for incremental improvement, meanwhile the Pats got quite a bit stronger already so the division is out of the question again. Meanwhile Denver is now a true juggernaut some other AFC contenders get a chance to retool while other up and coming teams like Indy and Cincinatti get a chance to mature. Add it up and the weak conference will be stronger this year, and despite a few fluky wins last year getting the team close to the playoffs it's probably going to take some luck to get close again. If a serious cap casualty does materialize and Idzik makes an aggressive move to sign them that could change the landscape quite a bit, but benefiting from that is unpredictable and therefore can't be relied on. This draft will certainly provide depth especially for the strength of the roster a couple years from now but that would've been the case regardless of FA moves. Absent a big surprise move I think this year is more or less a writeoff again, and it's annoying because it didn't need to be given the cap space and reasonable FA options especially at positions of need.
In general, an excellent post with which I mostly agree. I think it is possible that we lost out on a FA or two because of Idzik's drawing a line in the sand, when perhaps if he had been a little more willing to negotiate, something satisfactory to both sides could have been worked out. We'll probably never know, but even if he did make some mistakes, I'm not gonna kill him for them. He's still learning on the job, and even the best make mistakes. Overall he's done a very good job, and I love his approach. I don't want to trade for a corner. Joseph is an excellent player, but it would take multiple picks or our #1 and I'm not interested in that. I'd be surprised if Idzik was. Similarly, I want no part of DJax, not only because of the lost draft picks, but based on what I've been reading about him, his attitude. I don't care how good he is, we don't need another selfish diva player. I'd rather Idzik sign a lower tier CB and WR, then take players at those positions in the draft. This team isn't going anywhere far in 2014 anyway. I see no point in taking on DJax's huge salary and his attitude. If he was going to do that, he might as well have overpaid for Sanders and/or DRC, or Davis.
Really? How long have you been watching football? It doesn't sound like very long. Every year following the draft a slew of players are cut. Every year a bunch of players are cut during and immediately following TC. The Jets have been active over the years in signing a bunch of those cuts. There is no reason to think that we won't this year. So what if the other 31 teams have the same opportunities? That makes no sense. They always have before, too. Just because they improve doesn't mean we can't too. We may not make up considerable ground on them, but that's a different story. That's always the issue in the NFL. Until key players get hurt, retire or the cap tears apart the great teams, the rest are always struggling to catch up. You make it sound like this is something new. Rome wasn't built in a day. Name me the 10 TD receiver or the 10 sack OLB who were available in FA? You can't can you? Decker was considered by most to be the best WR in FA. Too bad we didn't sign him. Oh snap, wait, we DID sign him! There was nothing great in FA at the OLB position, but guess what? We did sign an OLB who got 10 sacks last year. I'm sorry that you are blinded by your pessimism. I'm a little surprised by it. In my short time on the board, you've seemed to have a lot more sense than that. That said, I can partially understand where you're coming from. Just a year or so ago, I was in the same place you are, except worse. I was ready to give up on the Jets and football. Almost 50 years of futility had taken it's toll on me. I stepped away for around 3 months, and it made a world of difference in my perspective and thoughts towards the team. Now I don't need the team to do anything. I may want it to do certain things, but I have no control over what it actually does, and so I refuse to let it control my moods and emotion any more. It's just not worth it. I'm not a betting man, but if I were, I'd bet that Idzik signs at least 2-3 more FAs that help the team and that he has a very good draft.
That is a ludicrous statement and totally unrealistic. Based on the players that were available in FA, Idzik couldn't have adequately filled all the holes on this team if he had $80 million in cap space and 15 draft picks. Those of us who are dealing with reality always knew that it was going to take 3-4 years for him to rebuild the team. Many of you negative nancy's bought in the bs about NFL teams re-tooling these days. A "re-tool" was not gonna be enough for the Jets. They needed a complete rebuild. They had too many holes in key starting positions as well as in depth. The cheap late offseason cuts can address some of the depth issues the team has, and that's a good thing. For every one of those types Idzik signs, it speeds up the process. The players have to fit within our salary structure, fit our systems, and be a good fit chemistry-wise as well and have the right attitude that the FO & CS are looking for to build the team.
I'm not ready to give up on them at all, I don't think we will be a 4 win team or something but at the same time if people are expecting us to improve our record I just don't see that happening at present. There is still lots of time so maybe we will sign or trade for some guys that help us out but until that happens I don't think we are a 9+ win team in our current state. I don't think that is being blinded by pessimism. For the record I liked the Decker signing and agree he was the highest profile WR out there. Like most people my biggest issue so far this off season has been lack of addressing the CB position but we will have to see what we do at that spot.
You are dead wrong, my friend. It's so completely wrong that I cannot even pinpoint where you got wrong. It's just wrong all over the place. SB is always, ALWAYS won at the first wave of free agency. Since Jets are doing absolutely fucking nothing, they are screwing themselves. Jets are doomed this season. Idzik has a legitimate concern, and Rex should have been fired last year. And it's all because of that cheapskate Woody Johnson, who didn't want to shell out that 16M to keep Revis in house. Jets are DOOMED. Remember.
Not if our young D Line keeps improving, a healthy pass rush can help offset a weak secondary. Hopefully Sheldon really improves on his pass rushing techniques this off-season. Wilkerson should be ready to step into that superstar category so all we need is some speed off the edge(Barnes/Pace/draft pick?).
