The biggest complaint about the Jets draft strategy is we don't draft enough back-ups (we don't have many picks). But at the end of the day you do end up with a 53 man roster and you can't draft 8 players a year without cutting many players already on the team. Except for guys like in the first 2 rounds you have to wait at least a couple of years before they develop into NFL players... and if you keep on drafting 8 players a season you're just not giving the coaches time to do their job. I also think it's detrimental to have huge turnovers every year when the team is producing and is showing cohesion (like ours). Having said that let's take a look at what positions haven't produced enough / don't have enough talent and can be upgraded in the draft. Offense: QB: Not even worth discussing. We have 3 young QBs (already counted Clemens out) and there is no way we are drafting another one. If another QB is coming to the Jets it's going to be a vet. 1 spots free up here and 0 needed. (3 QB) RB: I think we are set here too. TJ will still produce next year, Greene is getting better and I'm sure Leon will get back. I count Leon as taking C. Washington space on the roster. 0 spots free up here and 0 needed. (3 RB) FB: I'm cool with T- Rich... TE: I'd be ok with Mulligan and Hartsock leaving the team. They are average. In my dreamworld next year we should have Keller, a more physical TE (no idea who, maybe Mulligan wins the spot in TC or maybe we draft someone) and Hunter as a strictly blocking TE. 2 spots free up here (Mulligan and Hartsock). 1 needed (3 TE, I count Hunter as blocking TE) WR: Tricky. I feel we are one WR away from having a complete group. Edwards is the game-breaking WR we needed (but inconsistent), Cotch is the reliable #2, Clowney is the deep threat, B. Smith is the jack of all trades guy and W. Wright is the physical WR that can block people and contribute on ST. My only question is about the 6th guy... at the moment we have Woodhead and I'd like to have him or another guy that can play the slot. However we may also use Leon in the slot when he comes back... in that case as the 6th reciever we could keep either a 6' 3"/6' 4" red zone target or a burner like Aundrae Allison who we kept on IR this year. 1 spot frees up (Woodhead). 1 needed (6 WR). OG/C: I like Turner and I want to give Slauson at least another year to develop after we drafted him... so I'm fine with what we have for this year. 0 spot free up, 0 needed (5 OG/C). OT: We only have D'brick and Woody... if one of them goes down we have to turn to Hunter and as much as I like his versatility I'm not banking on him at T. Also Woody is getting old and it's time to draft a future replacement. 0 spot free up, 1 needed (3 OT). Defense: DE: I feel our DEs have done a pretty good job despite their age. We rotate them a lot so I'd keep Ellis and Douglas (both 33) another year, De Vito is coming on strong (plus he can be emergency NT) and the coaches seem to be high on Pitotitua. However since our starters are 33 I'd like to draft someone high to groom as their replacement. 0 spots free up, 1 needed (5 DE) NT: I know I might get bashed for this but with Pouha performing like he has and DeVito ready to fill in for any emergency + Jenkins coming back (even in a limited role) I feel DE is a bigger need than NT. And since I don't want to carry 8 DLs I'm sticking to what we have. Then next year when Ellis and/or Douglas retire we can draft a NT. Jenkins takes the place of H. Green. 0 spots free up, 0 needed (2 NT) OLB: This is where I feel an upgrade from the current starters will be more useful... and it's why I hope we get an OLB in rd 1. With Pace still starting Thomas can be kept as backup. Westermann is a solid prospect to groom (plus he can play ILB too) so one between Murrell and Gholston has to go. 1 spot frees up (Gholston or Murrell), 1 needed (5 OLB) ILB: Behind Scott and Harris we have NO ONE! I feel we may be able to find a vetaran but it also wouldn't be bad to find a young ILB to groom. Fowler is a solid ST player so Cummings will have to fight for his roster spot in TC. 1 spot frees up (Cummings), 1 needed (4 ILB) S: We are fine at S. Ihedigbo hits like a truck on ST and blitzes, E. smith is solid on run support, Leonhard QBs the D... the only question is will Rhodes stay? If he doesn't the pick we get in exchange will be used to draft his sucessor so as far as space on the roster it cancels itself out. 0 spot free up, 0 needed CB: WE could need an upgrade over Coleman... except forthat I'm cool with keeping all other 5 CBs... Revis is God, Lito is a good #2 corner and will be retained via the Vilma rule , Lowery is solid and so is Strickland. Cole is a good ST player and should be retained. I'm going to say we keep Coleman so... 0 spot free up, 0 needed All this to say the players I don't give a fuck if we cut are: Hartsock TE, Mulligan TE, Clemens QB, Woodhead WR, Green NT, Gholston OLB, Cummings ILB, Coleman CB (but we won't so take him off the list), Washington RB. That's 8 players (I didn't count Coleman 'cause he'll end up staying like he always does). Considering Jenkins and Leon are coming back that leaves me with 6 players I don't care if we cut and 6 positions in which an upgrade is needed: TE, WR, RT on Offense DE, OLB, ILB (strictly back-up of course) on Defense If we get a player in any other position, except maybe corner if we don't keep Lito or cut Coleman, they'll cut someone I like having on the team. Considering we have 6 draft picks and I'm sure we'll address at least one of those needs in FA I'm cool with using our low round picks to trade around a little .
Nice post, a couple of thoughts Unless Bryan Thomas gets traded, there is no way in hell he can be a back up. The only person Thomas would be benched for is Gholston and thats unlikely. In addition, while Thomas is average he is superior to Gholston. In addition financially it makes no sense to bench an average talent overpaid player for a bad talent very overpaid player I also disagree with your thoughts on the receivers, I don't know about Edwards long term future with the team. Sure maybe he is here another season or two but I don't think he is a long term solution. We could draft a WR early this year seeing is how the crop is pretty good or wait till next year (which is probably even better). I agree Cotch, Smith, and Wright are pretty set in stone Also, I think any kind of youth movement towards our D line needs to be done sooner than latter. Simply put we need some kind of upgrade at either end or tackle. We need some youth I dont want to wait around for our guys to get to old we are left scrambling for replacements or they go down to injury. We need at least 1 at a DL position
You can't count Hunter as a blocking TE. Hunter is a Tackle. The Jets need a blocking TE who doesn't make it obvious to what the offense is going to do. The Jets need a guard who is going to fill in for Faneca in 1 year. They need a Guard now who can be groomed. He needs to be a can-do-it-all LG because he's sitting in between two quality players in Brick and Mangold. He needs to hold his own. Faneca is declining in pass protection but what he brings to the run game is gold. With WR, we need another Chansi Stuckey. This team is going to run a short, controlled offense, it needs a 1st down WR guy. Stuckey was that guy for Sanchez when Mark looked like a perfect rookie. He needs that again. Nose Tackle is looking tricky. This is a great draft to find a future NT, but I'm also in favor of trading Jenkins now for more picks. Highly unpopular, but this is an excellent draft. Knowing Tanny, all holes are filled in FA and he goes for the HR 3 times. The problem is, this draft might be full of HRs. So stay put and get more picks.
