I think Kiwi has only played OLB in a 4-3, and he may not ever be able to play football again with his injury. Wimbley would be an instant fit.
*note: new players in italics Offense QB - Sanchez RB - Greene, LT FB - Connor WR - Holmes, Edwards, Cotchery, Austin Pettis TE - Keller LT - Ferguson LG - Slauson C - Mangold RG - Moore RT - Ducasse, Joeseph Barksdale Defense DE - Devito, Lawrence Guy NT - Pouha, Sione Fua DE - Cullen Jenkins OLB - Tamba Hali ILB - Scott, Harris OLB - Pace, Steven Friday CB- Revis, Wilson, Coleman, Cole FS - Lowery, Deandre Mcdaniel SS - Leonhard Special Teams K - Garret Hartley P - T.J. Conley KR - Smith PR - Wilson Comments: Traded down from 30 overall aquired 2nd, 3rd round selections. We then traded our 5th and 7th round selections to move up into the 4th round again (giving us 2 picks in the 4th) We end up with the same number of selections, but it works out for the Jets because they get the players they wanted. Draft 2 - Deandre Mcdaniel 3 - Lawrence Guy 3 - Austin Pettis 4 - Sione Fua 4 - Steven Friday 6 - Joeseph Barksdale As stated above, we trade out of round 1 and pick up a 2 and a 3. We trade up into round 4 with our 5th and 7th round picks giving us 6 total picks, and 5 in the first 4 rounds. We need to bring in a young safety and Mcdaniel is one of the best all around safeties in the 2011 class. Lawrence Guy may not have amazing athletic ability but the guy is simply a football player. He can get it done at the 3-4 end and help us out for a long time. Austin Pettis, I love this guy, yeah yeah we brought back both Braylon and Holmes (in my scenario) we still have J-Co.... but it's my opinion that WR generally need 3 seasons to fully translate into playmakers at the NFL level. Can we really keep the Flight Boys together for 4+ years? I seriously doubt it. At some point at least one will fall out of favor and 2 years from now J-Co's contract is up and he would likely be allowed to walk. Right about the time Pettis steps into his own and is ready to start being a consistent playmaker for us. Steven Friday is a guy I like in the mid rounds who can develop into a rotational 3-4 OLB. Sione Fua has been impressing me lately particularly with his work at the senior bowl, I think he can develop into a solid NT in the future. Joeseph Barksdale is a mid-late round tackle prospect who can be groomed for long-term OL depth. We already have seen what Callahan can do with a late round OL prospect in 1 season, so it's reasonable given the right guy, BC could easily turn him into a long-term depth option, if not into a future starter down the line. I feel he is probably the least likely to be around in the area I selected him in, but stranger things have happened on draft day. FA We lose Cromartie from our "core 4 of 2011." But with that money saved we are able to bring in a pass rusher in Tamba Hali from KC. A lot of people have their eyes on Woodley, but I am looking at the guy from KC who won't command the same money as Woodley, and might outperform him in our system. Woodley has played across from Harrison for the majority of his career. Woodley has obviously benefitted from doing so and as a result he sees more one-on-ones which credit to him, he manages to beat on a regular basis. I question how effective Woodley would be as the primary pass rusher? The guy who opposing OL coaches focus their protections around blocking? Will he still be as effective as he was in Pittsburgh? I don't think he will. To me Woodley is an elite #2 rusher and probably an average to above average #1 guy. He would be the best pass rusher on our team, but I don't think his production would match the salary he will require. Hali on the other hand, has steadily improved as a pass rusher since he was drafted, he posted 14.5 sacks this year and did it as the #1 rusher on his team (he played across from Mike Vrable the past few years). He isn't as widely known as Woodley (because he plays in KC) so he will be cheaper, not drastically but cheaper none the less. If we were to pair Hali with Pace as our rush LB's I think we see a much stronger pass rush next season. Not only will Hali improve our pass rush, he will turn Pace from a below average #1 rusher, to one of the better #2 pass rushers in the league. Pace will finally be healthy (theoretically he won't miss the first month of footbal this year) and he will be getting all of the 1 on 1 matchups, which he has the ability to take advantage of fairly often. Not as much as we would like, but certainly capable of doing so. It's true that by adding an top end rusher (in either woodley or Hali) Pace will improve simply based on the matchups he will be going against, I think for the money, Hali is the guy we should target. The other FA I targeted to bring in was Cullen Jenkins. Big Jenks younger brother decides to come to NY and help big bro win a ring. Cullen will sacrifice some salary to play alongside Kris in the Jets revamped DL. Kris will drop some salary himself to help bring in his brother, and because he knows the Jets can't afford to pay him the money with him basically not playing for the last two seasons. Special Teams: I decided to bring in a young kicker who has played very well since he started his career, but after kicking for NO, can he be trusted outside of a dome? Weatherford was horrendous in the postseason, that got Jay Feely canned last offseason, I see this as being no different. Conley came into camp last year as an NFL punter, but the FO had more faith in Steve. This year Conley will have continued to improve and the FO will move on from Weatherford after his disasterous PO performances. I like the mock offseason. Its probably completely unrealistic and quite likely to be so far off the mark its ridiculous. Still it was fun, and I would be ecstatic if this is the lineup we put on the field opening weekend.
Yeah thanks. It took some time to formulate, and I wanted to create a draft different than your normal one, and when it came out that way I made some changes to the normal offseason paranoia and said what the hell it looks good and seems pretty realistic to me.
Typically the point of calling someone the starter is because they will get most of the playing time. Until he proves otherwise, Jenkins is a rotational player at best right now. He can come in on passing downs but giving him a starter's role is asking him to destroy another ligament again.
True, but hey it would add to the comedy of a game by trying to get announcers to get it right... Could you imagine if Fua was one number off Pouha? Sione Pouha with the tackle, no I mean Fua, or rather I was right it's Pouha, no 91 is Fua... oh never mind a Jet DL with the stop.
Hali and Jenkins are both likely to get hit with the franchise tag; they'll both be more expensive than cromartie. It would almost impossible to get either, let alone both.
I'm a huge Weatherford fan, and I think it is extremely possible that he returns (if not probable), but he was absolutely awful in the playoffs. I put Conley in my mock offseason because I think that the front office will try to save small amounts wherever possible in order to raise funds for keeping Holmes/Edwards/Cro on the roster. Personally, I hope Weatherford returns, but I think we might penny pinch.
the chiefs have 5 young players who they want to retain, they can't keep them all. They really have two choices here, either pay a ton of money to retain Hali and maybe 1 more of their good young players, or they keep 4 and let Hali walk. In my opinion 4 good up and coming players (including 2/5 of your starting OL) is better to hold on to than 1 budding star. They would be sacrificing a lot to keep Hali. They are well within their rights to do so, but with the way they have been drafting lately, I expect they feel they can find a replacement for him at a much cheaper price. Ryan O'Callaghan, RT Rudy Niswanger, C Shaun Smith, NT Tamba Hali, OLB Corey Mays, ILB I honestly think Cro will get a deal in the 6-8 mill per range. Hali I have a feeling will be undervalued and get in the 5-7 million per range. As for GB they have the following list of FA's (they actually are in a very similar situation to us. And looking at that list you can't tell me Jenkins is the guy they want to tag above all others... A.J. Hawk Cullen Jenkins Daryn Colledge Jason Spitz Atari Bigby John Kuhn Mason Crosby James Jones Charlie Peprah Sam Shields Korey Hall Brandon Jackson Jonny Jolly Erik Walden Tom Crabtree Brett Swain Nick Macdonald Frank Zombo Dimitri Nance Matt Wilhelm Josh Bell Spencer Havner Diyral Briggs Josh Gordy Evan Dietrich-Smith Robert Francois Jenkins is one of their top fa's, but they just drafted DE Mike Neal last year (a guy they really like) in order to prepare for the departure of Cullen Jenkins this offseason. Also like I said, Little Jenks could be persuaded to play here for a little less to help get big Jenks a ring. I could definately see Big Jenks be more willing to restructure to be able to play with his brother, especially since he loves Rex and wants a ring badly to not be behind his brother forever in that category. I think that Cro leaves and the money we would have signed him for would be slotted for our pass rusher (Hali) and we have enough money in the budget for Jenkins at a reduced rate-ish. I think Rex had the best corner tandem he could have asked for this season, and still couldn't get it done. He realizes he needs a pass rush and that is where he would rather spend the money than in bringing back Cro (when we have Wilson waiting in the wings).
His performance in the PO was by far the worst of any punter in the postseason. He was trash and if the FO wanted to rid themselves of Jay feely after the 2009 postseason (where he missed 2 kicks in the AFCCG against Indy, after having a solid first 2 games) then they will want to be rid of Weatherford who sucked in all 3 games, and we simply overcame it the first two games, and nearly were able to in the AFCCG against Pitt.
Jetsrule, Who else on that list would GB possibly want to franchise? Other than Hawk, Colledge, Bigby, Crosby, and their #3 or 4 WR Jones, and maybe Peprah, the rest are backups or STs players. Jones drops too many passes and Colledge isn't all that great. I will be surprised if Jenkins doesn't remain a Packer, although I'd love to see him on the Jets. I find it hard to believe that Shields is really a FA. I think he was just a rookie this season. At least that's what the announcers have been saying for the last month.
Hawk is the guy they have no replacement for, so he is the guy they will ensure his return. They drafted Mike Neal a year ago expecting to lose Jenkins this offseason. They likely will have a starting DL of Neal/Jarius Wynn, B.J. Raji and Ryan Picket next year. Thats solid young and reasonably inexpensive. I can't see a reason to pay good money to Jenkins with young depth ready to step up behind him. Is it impossible that Jenkins returns to GB? Of course not, but it's not like its guaranteed or even expected that he will return. I made the point that GB and us are in a similar place, a few top guys where they can't keep them all, and a ton of role players who need to be brought back. Not top guys, but the money will add up... Shields was a UDFA, he made the roster in TC and he only was under contract for a year. Clearly he will be brought back, they expect that he and Tramon Williams will be their long-term starters. His contract is likely to be the biggest jump for them from last year to this year (for the guys to be resigned anyways.)
The Chiefs have about $45M more than us in cap room to play with, and if Hali is only going to command $5-7M, then they can afford to keep him, and the rest of those guys too. I think it's insanity to think we're really going to be players in free agency.
You're delusional. First Hali is a pro bowler in his prime who had 15 sacks last year. If the next CBA/Cap rules are anything like this one he's a 10-12 million player, not a 5-7 million contract. He's going to get a Demarcus Ware type contract if he hits free agency. Second the Chiefs have a cap value of about 75 million so they can sign everybody. Heres an ESPN list that has cap figures for every team (their Jets number is a little higher than nyjetscap-I'm pretty sure they're counting the J. Taylor roster bonus that everybody knows isn't going to happen). http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/37327/looking-at-2011-salary-cap-figures Third, even if the Chiefs decided they didn't want to tag or resign their best defensive player, some other team with tons of cap space would sign Hali. Fourth the Packers aren't in the same shoes; yeah they have a bunch of free agents but most of them are pretty inconsequential. They have one starter on offense who's a free agent (College) and one on defense (Jenkins). All their good young talent is signed for years. The Jets have two free agents on offense (Edwards/Holmes), four on defense (Harris, Cromartie, Elllis, Pool), and four of those players (Edwards, Holmes, Harris, Cromartie) are core, young players. Fifth AJ Hawk isn't a free agent. He is due a huge amount of money next year (10 million) so they'll probably restructure or cut him. Sixth they do have pretty good options for replacing AJ Hawk. Hawk didn't even start all the time: their number one inside backer Barnett went on IR early and Hawk split time with Chillar for the number two spot. Chillar and Barnett both went on IR, and they're both under contract. Plus Desmond Bishop is very, very good and probably the best of the ILBs, and the Pack signed him to a long term contract. Seventh, Shields is a restricted free agent so he'll be back cheap unless they sign him long term. I agree that it's not 100% that the Pack franchises Jenkins-he's very good when healthy but he's getting older. But if they don't he'll be the number one d-lineman on the market and he'll get a really big contract. From somebody other than the Jets.
Offense: QB: Sanchez HB: Greene FB: Connor WR: Braylon WR: Cotchery LT: Brick LG: Slauson C: Mangold RG: Moore RT: Big Vlad Defense: DE: Ellis DT: Pouha DE: DeVito OLB: Justin Houston MLB: Scott MLB: Harris OLB: Pace CB: Revis CB: Nnamdi S: Leohnard S: Richard Sherman
