Jets' brass passed the test

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Jets' brass passed test
Despite youth, 'Robin and Robin' didn't lay egg in the draft

By Ron Borges
May 28, 2006

The Jets? new, untested management team of 37-year-old GM Mike Tannenbaum and 35-year-old head coach Eric Mangini dismissively have been labeled ?Robin and Robin? (as opposed to ?Batman and Robin?) by some skeptics because, frankly, youth is not often honored in the NFL except on the playing field.

Yet in their first real moment under pressure in the opening hour of the recently concluded NFL draft, they didn?t blink. They did the hard thing, which is to say, the right thing. They ignored the siren?s lure of glamour and went for utilitarian solidness. In New York, that?s not easy under any circumstances. But it?s particularly difficult when your more-beloved rival, the Giants, already have a franchise quarterback with a marquee name, and you have a question mark whose shoulder twice has been surgically repaired the past two years, unably backed up by a guy the Redskins felt was a bust.

If ever there was room to panic and make a snap judgment, it was when USC RB Reggie Bush and QB Matt Leinart were both still on the board after the Texans tired of negotiating with Bush and drafted Mario Williams, leaving the Saints to take whomever they wanted at No. 2 or make a trade. The Jets certainly could use a pair of fresh, young legs behind Curtis Martin, and none was more attractive in this draft than Bush?s, but after a brief inspection of the asking price, the Jets did what they needed to do. They did nothing, letting the Saints take him while biding their time until their pick came up two slots later.

When it did, shockingly to some, Leinart was still there, having been bypassed by the Titans over the protests of his former college offensive coordinator, Norm Chow. Jets fans were hollering at Radio City Music Hall, where the NFL staged the draft, for their own franchise quarterback to be selected, and with the mysterious status of Chad Pennington?s arm, who could blame them?

But, again, the Jets refused to panic. Robin and Robin didn?t make the kind of move that makes headlines on the back pages of the tabloids one day but gets you fired three years later. They passed on the passer and went for a guy considered the safest pick on the board, Virginia OT D?Brickashaw Ferguson. This did not illicit wild cheering at Radio City, but it did in Pennington?s living room, where he was elated to learn his team finally had brought in somebody to keep the vicious hordes off his back.

The Jets then followed that move later in the same round with a similarly well-thought-out decision. Another of the top-rated running backs was in front of them, but they didn?t trade up to get D?Angelo Williams or reach down for Joseph Addai. Instead they followed the teachings of Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick, the men who gave Tannenbaum and Mangini their starts. They drafted Ohio State C Nick Mangold, thus rebuilding 40 percent of their very suspect offensive line, from the inside and the outside. Whether Mangold starts immediately or not (he?s expected to), he is the long-term replacement for departed Pro Bowl C Kevin Mawae, and Ferguson is projected to be a vast improvement over whatever incumbent they might come up with at left tackle.

Add to that mix veteran free-agent OL Trey Teague, and in one brief offseason Robin and Robin greatly have enhanced the long-term future of their team. If Pennington?s rotator cuff falls apart again, and Leinart becomes a star for the Cardinals, where he ended up, this draft will be revisited, and Tannenbaum and Mangini will be open to criticism, and that comes with the jobs they?ve taken. Yet as long as Ferguson and Mangold play as well as expected, they did the right thing, regardless of Pennington?s future health or Leinart?s future play, because without a revamped line it wouldn?t matter if Peyton Manning were the Jets? QB.

You can?t play effectively with your quarterback on the ground or your running back being hit in the backfield. This applies to whoever is manning those spots, a fact Tannenbaum and Mangini wisely took into account before they made the first two picks of their careers.

Drafting as high as they were meant two things. First, it meant their team wasn?t very good. Second, it meant it would be fatal to their long-term future if they blew those picks. Just ask the Bills, who drafted Mike Williams with the same No. 4 pick that landed Ferguson. Williams has been a bust. The difference is that there were questions about Williams? work ethic and ability to play left tackle before he was taken. There are none with Ferguson.

?Character? is an overused word in sports, but it?s significant early in the draft, when a blown pick can set a team far back in the rebuilding process and in trouble with the salary cap. This isn?t to say Leinart would have done that. It?s just that he, or any other QB in a Jets uniform, has a better chance of success with Ferguson and Mangold in the lineup than before they showed up.

Belichick and Parcells apparently taught their students well. Maybe too well for their own long-term good, if the way Robin and Robin followed their time-tested drafting formula ? draft big guys over small ones and build with solid linemen on both sides of the ball ? is any measuring stick.

In the end, the success of a draft can?t be evaluated for several years, but the Jets? new brain trust took the wise and proven course, avoiding temptations of the big city?s demands and the siren call of the highly rated quarterback. They did the unsexy thing. The kind of thing that fans might grumble about in April but often praise when it counts most ? in January.

Had they stopped there, it would have been a successful weekend, but they did far more, helping to repair a team with more holes than Bush or Leinart ever could have filled. They came back in Round Two and got a developmental QB who many scouts felt has a chance in Oregon?s Kellen Clemens, and grabbed two potential defensive upgrades in the third round with Ohio State LB Anthony Schlegel and Michigan State S Eric Smith.

Some teams believed the Jets took Clemens too high, and the opinion on Schlegel swings widely. If the Jets missed on him and Clemens, it will come back to haunt them, but for now at least, they have developmental players at three positions where they needed youth and toughness.

They also added a young back in Leon Washington, who stands only 5-8 but is 202 pounds. He comes with the question marks you carry when you?re a second-day pick, but Martin came into the NFL with questions because of injury problems at Pitt and will leave as one of the most productive backs in league history. So it goes on draft weekend.

To be fair, Washington isn?t likely to make anyone forget Martin, but he could bring relief. With the wise additions of Ferguson and Mangold, Robin and Robin saw to it that Washington won?t be alone. For that they deserve praise, because sometimes doing the right thing can be the hardest thing of all.

Ron Borges is a columnist for the Boston Globe.