Why I think it's good to have few draft selections

Everyone here on TGG (me included) wants/wanted the Jets to have more draft picks... but I ask myself, are they really all that necessary (in our case)?

Let's say every year we bring in 4/5 players through the draft (on average) and 3/4 players through FA/trades, for a total of about 8 players per season.

Consider that every year 1 undrafted rookie makes the team and that during the teams final cuts we always sign someone and that brings us to about 10 new players per season.

This means that out ot the 50 man roster (let's not count K, P and LS at the moment) we get to keep around 40 players from the previous year.

I think this is a good thing, in the Jets case, for a number of reasons.

1) Team spirit
A big reason of why we got to where we are is because this team plays like a team... not just the starters but everyone! If every off-season you change a lot of players how can you build team chemistry?

2) Better understandings of the schemes by second teamers
Sometime a player can't express how good he is because he is slow in learning a new system. If he changes team every year in the long haul he'll become a bust while staying on the same team for a while may help him reach his true potential and contribute.

3) Coaches coach
A coach can be as good as you want at developing talent but sometimes it takes more then one season for him to develop a raw player... Take guys like DeVito, Turner, Stuckey etc. They weren't great to begin with but they got to work for 2/3 years with the same coaches and became NFL capable players... like QBs don't succeed if they change OC every year the same applies for other positions.

4) NFL players have lives too
Football players don't come from Mars... they have families (or want them) like we do and don't necessarily enjoy living one year in NY, one in LA etc etc. Giving them the opportunity to settle somewhere for more than a year puts them in a better position to concentrate on playing football rather then relocating their family, finding new friends, etc again and again. And the more a guy just conctrates on playing.. the better he develops.

5) Learning from the great
We have some very good players. If I'm a CB on this team the first I'd do is go up to Revis and try to pick his brain and copy the way he works as much as I can. Giving fringe players the chance to stay on the team for more than a season also gives them time to bond with players who are better than him and learn from them how to become great. If you change team every year it's not that easy to build relations and most importantly work habits (like studying tape together).

6) Knowing your place on the field
The problem with fringe players is they go on so many different teams that it's hard for them to learn the habits of the starters on the field. Staying on the same team for more than a years allows them to learn how their team-mates play... this way when they'll get on the field they probably won't screw up as much as they would if they didn't have any clue as to how their team-mates play. The more you play toghether the better you do.

7) ST
The more you stay on a team as a reserve the more you work with Special teams the better you become in those specific special teams.

All of these motives apply for a team that has continuity on the CS and on their style of play/schemes and that has talent like ours.

Since I think Rex and our "Run&pound" will be around for a while I'm cool with keeping 40 or more guys from one season to the other and have no interest in drafting a 100 guys per draft.