Exactly, but I thought it was professional and very classy of him to take the blame himself, and not blame the OL, Gase or anyone else.
The article is a reminder of the opinion that I had formed of bell prior to signing him in free agency. Dude touched the over 400 times in a season. RBs that do that typically do not play well afterwards. Bell got ran into the ground by the Steelers:
Right. You do what the Steelers do. Draft them and then don’t resign them. Draft young/cheap replacements
I actually would've been down with it if we drafted JK Dobbins and proceeded to run him into the ground and got rid of Bell. He's going to be a good player. If Perine isn't a full time back, then we should look to get a good back in the second next year if there is one out there.
A lot of what you say is true except i think it's fair to blame the Jets for paying him Investing a lot of money in one player is risky -- the same way investing in one stock is. Investing in a RB is also risky. Investing in a FA RB who ran behind a pro-bowl line with a probowl QB (and where the replacement RB put up pro bowl number in his absence) and expecting that pricey, FA RB to make the Jet play like Steelers 2.0 is risky and maybe dumb. And as i mentioned if he's not your FA your intel on him is limited. On top of it all, we as a team and Macc in particular did not have a good track record for FA. The team let him spend money like a drunken sailor hoping that we would at least improve from horrible. He spent money like a drunken sailor because he had no clue what he was doing. The great irony is that we somehow ended up 7-9 with little or no contribution from him or CJ (or throw in Trumaine or Osemelee) and some still call the coach clueless. Whatever criticisms there are of him as a head coach, he was heavily handicapped using a roster with most of the cap money on the sideline or underperforming You mention the Pats but the Pats don't go after guys like this. im having a tough time thinking of a pricey FA acquisition ever, and certainly one who delivered.
Etienne could be had with the Seahawks 1st round pick. I know it's not the best use of draft capital to take a RB in round 1, but given the Jets skill position woes, I can't complain.
i agree with you and Falco and hope for the best for him and the Jets. That said, i am a heavy believer in building a team inside out and having a strong sense of positional value -- where you don't spend big money on safeties or RBs and instead have trust your drafting and player development. Of course everyone wants probowl safety and RB but in a capped league you need to be smarter with the allocation and find value (more talent/$)
I like Etienne a lot. He's a complete back. I would've preferred him this year though (year younger). Honestly, I wish we took Zack Moss in the mid rounds. Complete back, spectacular at nothing - always falling forward though and can catch/block. He reminds me a lot of young Frank Gore. We'll see though. I could be wrong on him. But there's no shame in taking a second round runningback. It's the round where you get can get stars without the luxury of using a first round pick and run them into the ground like the Steelers did with Bell, the Cowboys did with DeMarco Murray, etc. And then just let them walk. I'd like to see us go receiver - edge - runningback with the first three picks. IF there's a back worth taking there. This year there was a couple, in other years there weren't. Interchange edge/receiver with the first two picks based on talent available.
I know Rousseau is considered the top Edge prospect, but will he be available with our first pick? To me, the skill positions, especially WR is where most of the attention needs to be focused on. I'd love to land Chase and Etienne in round 1 just to make sure that we give Sam a shot at succeeding. We're doing him a disservice if we don't. Then continue to fortify the OL on day 2 and take a CB or Edge if the CS likes one. I can wait to address Edge until 2022 as unpopular as that might sound. Who knows, maybe Zuniga might be better than we think.
Rousseau had a monstrous year and has everything you look for in an edge rusher in terms of size/speed. It'll be interesting to see what he does this year. He's really presently the only top flight edge rusher as of now. That of course will probably change, but if he looks as good as he did last year he'll be a top 5 pick easily and hopefully we aren't picking there unless Russell Wilson opts out.
I pretty much agree with the bold, although I might subtitute a RT or CB for the RB depending upon how Fant and our CB corps plays this season. I definitely want an elite WR prospect with one of our first two picks, no ifs and or buts. I don't care if we stay put, trade up a few spots or trade down. Unless Seattle's pick winds up being higher than ours (and don't see how that can happen, as I believe it's too late for Wilson to opt out), I'd prefer our original pick be used on a WR. The only situation where I wouldn't want our pick to be used on a WR would be if Chase is gone already, JD doesn't have any of the other WRs rated that high, and Rousseau is sitting there. I don't want any reaching. If Waddle or Devonta Smith are rated as highly as Rousseau, then I'll trust JD, but if he goes with Rousseau, then I would expect him to do whatever is necessary to get one of the remaining top 3-5 WR prospects, including trading up. I think adding an elite WR prospect is that important. Normally, I wouldn't even consider trading up for a WR unless our team was complete except for WR and JD thought he would put us over the top. I love Etienne, but I don't think we have to have the best RB prospect in the draft or a potential All Pro RB to help Sam. We could still get a very, very good RB who is a good receiver and who has homerun speed in the 2nd or maybe even 3rd round. With Edge being more important than RB to the team's success overall, and with it having been almost two decades since we've had a topnotch Edge rusher, if there's a topnotch Edge rusher prospect there at our second 1st round pick or even in the 2nd round, and it's my decision, I'm taking the Edge rusher. Again, I wouldn't reach just to get an Edge. If there's not another top Edge prospect in the draft, then I'm taking Etienne, another WR, a RT or a CB and not looking back. Like Herndon fan, if necessary (Rousseau winds up being the only great Edge prospect and he's already gone), I would either put off drafting an edge until 2022, or would perhaps look to take a flyer on one with the requisite bend, speed, size/strength who is raw in the 3rd or 4th round. After pick 1a, at present I'd be happy with any of a number of different positions. Depending upon the talent and how this season plays out, I would have no problems if our draft in 2021 was: 1a. WR 1b. Edge, RB, RT, CB, or TE 2.Edge RB, RT, CB, WR, or TE 3a. Edge, RB, RT, CB, WR, OG, ILB, or TE 3b. Edge, RB, RT, CB, WR, OG, ILB, or TE 4. Edge, IOL, RB, ILB, or TE 5. Depth and STs 6a. Depth and STs (including K) 6b. Depth and STs (including K) 7. Depth and STs (including K)
Right - the line was terrible. If bell was a “special” player he would be able to over come it. Barkley didn’t have any issues his rookie year. Can people just understand a player is going to be good on the Steelers and bad with the Jets? After over 50+ years of suck, Can anyone just stop making excuses.
I don't remember ever saying the line was the sole reason he struggled. In fact, if you had actually read my previous posts prior to responding to one random one, you would have seen that I have stated, on numerous occassions, that he was slow and this was likely due to his year off football and his introduction into an entirely new offensive system. He admitted the same. On that note, the Jets had the second worst offensive line in football last season. They had some of the worst run blocking numbers and had a makeshift offensive line all year. With all of that said, you are comparing Saquon Barkley's rookie year when he was 22 years old, to Le'Veon Bell's 6th year at 27 years old. I don't have to state the obvious on how dumb that comparison is. Even with the second worst offensive line and his slow reads, he still managed to almost hit 800 yards on the season last year.
Forget about the player I used to compare - I’m just stating that maybe he isn’t a Special” elite player that every Jet fan expects him to be. There is every excuse in the book for him to make up for his lack of production that matches his contract. the reality is he hasn’t been a elite level producer since 2017 and he will never go back to that. He’s only on the roster cause of his contract - they can’t trade him cause nobody wanted him 2 years ago to begin with and they can’t cut him because of cap penalties.
I am not giving every excuse in the book. In fact, quite the opposite. I am saying he was slow, which is not normal for him considering he was much quicker in his previous season with Pittsburgh. If he was slow in Pitt, there would be no question as to why he is slow now. And you can continue to disregard the piss poor offensive line, but it does not matter how good of a running back you are. If your line can not block anyone, there is no chance you are producing solid numbers. He was hit almost every attempt in the backfield.
Chase just opted out. That takes him off my list. Talented for sure, but two years without football? Might as well redshirt him his rookie year. I also should've brought up Najee Harris. He's a bigger, stronger version of Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who I think will be a fantastic NFL player. He can catch the ball like a scat back and run people over. He's a bit tall and tall backs tend to play with a high pad level leading to more potential leg and midsection injuries but I think he's going to be a good player. His versatility likely makes him a top 25 pick though. What a jolt for Sam it'd be to get a receiver and Harris though.
