http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-jets-smoothrhodes&prov=ap&type=lgns How the Jets have done against big TE's: Code: catches Yards YPC TDs Schockey 4 34 8.5 0 Winslow 4 26 6.5 0 Gonzalez 3 32 10.6 1 Clark 4 57 14.2 0
Meeeh... trade him I'm happy Pettine kicked him in the ass... as Revis said he wa getting complacent and you can NEVER do that in the NFL. We'll see if he has really elevated his play against one of the best TEs in the game Sunday... I still think he doesn't deserve the contract he got though... shame on Tanny for giving him "leader" money when he clearly isn't one!
Kerry has a long way to go to get back to the way he was playing a few years ago. But he still has the skills and the ability, hopefully he's serious about things at this point. Kerry acts like people turned on him for no reason, but this comment from Pettine says everything:
"No shit" comes to mind. Lets see...a safety....a 6'3 215 safety....who can crash the line and can cover well enough to be trusted on Gonzalez (probably Gates too)...I think that can play a key part in a top pass defense. It was fun kicking him while he was down though.
I think his off field things became far more important to him then FB or at least that is the way it appears. If somehow he could play back to his form of several years ago certainly that will be a big + for us. If he plays as he played during the 1st part of this season I think we will be in deep, deep poo sorry to say
Kerry is making plays again but I have to believe that Rex and Pettine are still concerned about his poor tackling technique. Rhodes does a good job blitzing and a good job playing cover 1 deep. But he has to stop thinking that he's a pro bowl player and start acting hungry.
Rhodes really fell from grace this year. At one point, even I was souring on him. But he's played much better since the "benching" and he acts like cares again. He's never going to tackle like everyone wants him to. But he's got huge potential to be a great player. People spouting the whole "trade him for a 6th rounder" made me laugh pretty hard. He just needed a kick in the ass, and he got it. As I said then, give him a chance to show whether he's learned his lesson.
One-dimensional players can work as long as they do well in that dimension. At one point, he did. He was a ball-hawkish cover guy and people didn't care that he didn't lay the wood. But when you stop producing in that one dimension, people will shred your entire game with criticism. If he was making plays in coverage like he used to, I don't think people would care that he didn't hit.
This is NY. He had his chance to be a good player. Even when he was good he wasn't even good enough to be an alternate at the Pro Bowl. He's simply too soft for this town. Some other team can figure out what to do with a safety like him. Who even wants big safeties that can cover top TEs and get after QBs? Sure, he led the Jets in TFL for a couple years there, but he's soft man, I insist.
I still dn't think he has accepted accountability for his sucktacity. Until he does that, he will always be in danger of falling back into compacency.
I think that in Rhodes' head, he just thought he was the sh*t and had this sense of entitlement (giving him that contract was obviously a huge reason)... you see this all the time with players that are lights out in their contract year and then disappoint once the money is in the bank because they have much less to play for.. Kerry thought that he had arrived, but that is sooo far from the truth its not even funny. I really hope this little kick in the ass gets him to re-evaluate and become hungry again so he can strive to always get better, no matter what. Having Revis around will hopefully rub off on him, because he is the model "never settle, always continue to work hard and improve" kinda guy. My advice to Rhodes: stop trying to look and act cool on the sidelines with your hat sideways like anyone is actually even looking...Stop twittering and quit worrying about your non-existent acting career. You couldn't even out-act Steve Smith in a designer suit commercial. You lost your chance to be a leader because you didn't lead by example... if there was ever an opportunity to redeem yourself, it's this weekend. Sack-up and prove everyone wrong..
Again, DWare, you're living in the past. The dude doesn't "get after QB's." He's got three sacks in three years, none this year. Jim Leonhard has 3.5 this year, but that's irrelevant because he's short, I know. I don't like this mentality that Kerry all of a sudden had a couple of down games and the Jets fan base ripped him to shreds. That wasn't the case at all. He made next to no big plays last season, but everyone was still behind him. I'll hold off on the "we," but I certainly swallowed his "it was Mangini's and Sutton's fault" explanation without so much as a grain of salt. Ditto the first quarter of this season. In fact, if he had failed to produce through the entire season, I'd probably still give him a pass. But the fact that he was calling for attention led to well... attention. And when the fans looked closer, they saw a player who wasn't trying. Forget about New York. If there's a football fan base in the country that excuses a "look at me" mentality when there's absolutely nothing to look at, I haven't seen it. Kerry deserves the criticism he received. And now he deserves another shot. But what the blind Kerry supporters fail to realize is that unconditional support for Kerry was a bad thing. He needed to be criticized. He needed to be critiqued. It worked. There's no room for any "I always supported him" bumper stickers in this scenario.
