Our defense won't be bad. Williams is a stud, Wilkerson can't be worse than last year, and Richardson will try extra hard in a contract year. We have three young linebackers in Lee, Mauldin, and Jenkins; improvement from them will result in a better LB unit as long as David Harris doesn't collapse. Revis is gone, but we won't miss him. Skrine, Williams, and Burris have potential, and Adams should take pressure off them and Pryor. Our offensive line is decent. Beachum, Shell, and Ijalana aren't bad tackles, Carpenter and Winters are good guards, and Johnson has improved a lot at center. Decker and Enunwa are a good 1-2 punch at WR as long as Decker stays healthy, and Powell/Forte can hold their own at RB. Draft a couple playmakers today, and whoever plays quarterback will have good teammates. Special teams is a concern; I don't have much faith in Catanzaro and Edwards, and I have no idea who'll return kicks and punts. But if we had a good quarterback, we could easily be a playoff team, Bowles and all. Of course, we don't have a good quarterback. Instead we have McCown, Petty, and Hackenberg. Here's a list of quarterbacks I would take over any of those three: Brady, Garoppolo, Brissett, Tannehill, Taylor, Roethlisberger, Flacco, Dalton, McCarron, Kessler, Watson, Mariota, Luck, Bortles, Smith, Foles, Mahomes, Carr, Rivers, Siemian, Lynch, Prescott, Manning, Wentz, Cousins, Rodgers, Stafford, Cutler, Glennon, Trubisky, Bradford, Brees, Ryan, Newton, Winston, Wilson, Palmer, Goff, Hoyer, and Kaepernick. 40 quarterbacks. There are 31 other teams in the league.
The draft will tell us a lot about how the CS feels about Hack and Petty going forward. I have a feeling we liked Trubisky the most out of the available QBs but reports say we weren't one of the teams trying to trade up. We were also super high on Jamal Adams and clearly liked him better than either Mahomes or Watson. This tells me they either like Hack/Petty more than those guys or they are confident they can get a better prospect next year. If we draft another QB during the final 6 rounds I think it spells the end of Petty and doesn't bode well for Hack considering next years supposed blue chip QB prospects. Personally I think they like Hack's progress and will give him a legit competition against McCown going into the season and barring another unlikely playoff run from McCown, will be starting by the end of the season regardless to see if he can put it together before they go all in on another prospect next year. This seems like the obvious route to me.
I'm not as optimistic on the o-line as many on this board. Both tackles and the center spot scare me. I hope the o-line and/or the lack of playmaker get addressed tonight.
I'm not as optimistic as the OP....the OL sucks, RBs & WRs are JAGs at best and no QB or tight end to speak of. Defense, well it was supposed to have been the strength last year and it turned out to be the weakness of team - and the guy who ran it into the ground last year is back - I'm not confident. With the upcoming rounds of the draft coming up, they need to ace the remaining picks or this coming season will be as bad as the 96 season.
Okay some of you were born into this. Like you were either born in New York metro area or some of you became a Jet fan due to your family. You basically didn't have much choice. I chose this team with clear conscience when I was a 29 year old. I read both Giants history and Jets history and fell in love with Namath and Jets and their underdog status. I did this to myself. I am so pissed, I want to punch a Panda.
