The Jets draft philosophy, now conclusively proven to be wrong, has been to bundle picks to trade up and get the best possible players out of each draft at the expense of having more darts in the lottery. It has been to trade mid-round picks for established vets with issues of one sort or another that cause their current team to want to dump them. The problem with the philosophy is that you don't get much better chance of success by trading up unless you can navigate the shoals well and avoid taking busts while also getting people with real upside. Solidifying your picks by trading up and then getting just above average players is killer for the overall talent base. The problem with trading for tarnished vets is that they're tarnished. Something is not right there or their current team wouldn't let them go. You're buying in a seller's market. Couple that with the fact that you also don't have much if any contribution from the lower picks that you cannot trade easily, the 6th and 7th rounders, and you have a talent shortfall that is severe. Now throw in a Darrelle Revis knee and you have a Jet's roster right now with no stars on it selected after 2006. And only Mangold is in the star category on the entire roster at this point. Everybody else at the top of the Jets talent heap has issues of one sort or another.
Agree with all your points and wanna throw out another flaw with the Jets strategy over the years. When you trade a pick for a talented but disgruntled vet, you're gonna be dealing with a very high-priced FA if he gets his act together. Cro & Holmes produced very well when they acquired by the Jets & very quickly they demanded big $$$. If those vets don't get their act together then you've just lost a pick. These kind of moves should be done rarely. Even if the move works out talent-wise you're gonna suffer cap-wise but unfortunately, Jets make them the norm. Jets are really lacking quality talent on rookie contracts & it's come back to hurt them badly.
Yea they do. If Sanchez had progressed the way a number 5 overall pick should have the Jets would be able to leverage his success and manipulate the cap to their advantage like all other NFL teams do. Acquisitions like Antonio Cromartie occur for all types of teams. It is just matching those trades and free agent signings with the correct contracts to be cutable at the right time, and being able to draft their replacements. Unfortunately the Jets played the game with Sanchez and lost. Lets not kid ourselves with a top 20 offense even the team wins 3 or 4 of the games that they have already lost. Bend by dont break defense breaks when the offense is god damn awful.
