isnt this EXACTLY what joe namath said last season and everyone got on him about it? another thing he was right about, along with his comments about respecting the opponent...
It's about playoff success and we have had almost identical playoff success. We lost a few seasons due to Chad getting hurt and we didn't have Cle and Cincy to beat up on to fatten our record. Do the Mets have almost identical postseason success? does Cle have almost identical postseason success as Pitt? Some of you guys act like this is the '87-'96 Jets.
You can't just count the draft you have to use the draft and free agency to build a team. Come on guys the Jets were 8-8 last year and 11-5 the year before the sky is not falling. Each year it is finding a mix between the young and the veteran players a balance between leadership and potential. The biggest factor in being a contender each and every year is good to great QB play and/or a great defense. The Jets QB play over the years has just not been good enough for a consistent 10 to 11 win seasons. It baffles me all the Jets fan are willing to dump a potential Franchise QB after three years. Nobody thought Brady was going to be Brady after just an average third season. If Sanchez takes the step this year most of us expect him to take the Jets will be contenders for a long time. If he does not and the Jets dump him we will be starting over again and the doom and gloomers can come out. We all knew when Sanchez was drafted Rex's fate would be tied to him. Lets see what happens.
I agree w/ most of what you wrote except for the Brady part, after 3 years starting he had 2 SB winning drives. I am very happy mark is our QB and think he'll be here for a long time but there's no comparison there.
His first year as a starter he was good but played and was protected like a first year QB. He had a great drive in the SB no doubt but Bledsoe was a big reason he was there. Nobody was predicting Brady being anywhere near a Manning after his third year. My point is not to compare the two but to give some perspective that it takes more than three years to become a good QB. Mark is not yet a bust or is he a success. This year we should get a pretty good idea if he is a legit good NFL QB. We will not know if he can be an elite QB until year five or six.
Bledose did nothing all year, the best thing he did was not turn it over in the title game. NE was a sinking ship until; Brady came in and the season turned around. His #s were '07 Brady like but he won games. After his 3rd season where he ahd TWO SB winning drives he was already in manning territory, not w/ the fantasy #s but more importantly in winning and playing big in big spots. There is no comparison btw young Brady and young Mark.
Which great teams have used free agency as a big part of the formula? Giants? Nope. 2 Super Bowls in last 5 years though. Steelers? Nope. 2 Super Bowls in last 7 years though (3 played in.) Packers? Well they got Woodson and then 5 years later they won a Super Bowl after getting their QB, OLB and WR's through the draft. Saints? Got Drew Brees, which was a no-brainer. When you're getting a top 10 QB via free agency you go and do it. Brees was only available because A.J. Smith was a dumb-ass and blew picks on another QB instead of trading the #1 for a windfall of players that likely would have gotten the Chargers their Drew Brees Super Bowl win. So sad for A.J. Smith. Colts? Puh-leeze. The Colts haven't signed a free agent since Johnny Unitas walked off the coal fields in the late 50's. Seriously, free agency is a loser proposition for most teams. A little bit of hoopla in the off-season. The prospect of ticket sales which evaporate quickly because only loser organizations keep hitting the free agent bazaar and it gets old quickly. Used right, to pick up one key player you couldn't get any other way? Well maybe but nobody has won a Super Bowl going hogwild in free agency. They just created cap monsters down the road some.
And what do everyone of those teams have? A franchise QB. That makes building a team alot easier doesn't it? You left out that little tidbit though, didn't you?
3 keys to the '07 team were FAs: Burress, McKenzie & pierce Only 12(including Eli who was technically drafted by SD) of their '07 starters were drafted by the Giants. 13 from the 2011 team. in 2012 we will most likely have 13 drafted starters(14 if Eric Smith starts). all of those teams had key FAs on them w/ the exception of Indy: NYG: Canty, Rolle GB: Woodson NO: Brees Pitt: Farrior NYG: Plax, Kareem Pierce
The Jets have a franchise QB too. They've just had him in a crappy system with holes around him in the offense and a head coach who is on the other side of the ball and fairly clueless about how to exploit having the QB you know you want calling signals for you. To make it a bit clearer: David Carr was definitely a franchise QB. The Texans were a clueless expansion team and so they wasted that. The Jets are well along the path of wasting Sanchez at this point, which will be a shame because we've all seen what he can do when things come together. The thing he can't do is bring things together himself. Very few QB's can. The Colts kept losing in the playoffs with Peyton Manning until he was 27. Why? Because he couldn't make it all happen himself and he kept failing the attempts. Eventually he got to the point that he could source wins but the best QB of all time took a long time to get there. Sanchez? Please. The Jets better go get their Emmitt Smiths and Michael Irvins if they want Sanchez to become Troy Aikman, which he is perfectly capable of doing.
Bledsoe was 5-13 (200-2001) as a starter before Mo Lewis knocked him into next week and Brady took over. He played admirably enough in the AFCCG against Pittsburgh when Brady hurt his ankle, but it's not like he came in and lit it up. Made a couple of nice throws, but overall looked very rusty in that game. This isn't the type of thread I normally comment on (being a Jets matter 100%), but after the first Super Bowl, the comparisons to Joe Montana were already being made (though prematurely at that time, IMO), and the HOF resume was well underway.
In 2009 & 2010 the Jets had arguably the best Defense,best O-line & best running attack in the NFL. At what point do you come off this INSANE level of negativity. Are you really comparing this era of Jets football with the expansion Texans w/ David Carr??
The Jets have done nothing rational to support Sanchez since they drafted him. They threw him into the fire without an acceptable backup available to allow them to time him out when he was rookie bad. They've changed his receivers out like a high school girl changes clothes. This has included having a key WR show up after the season started in both of his first two seasons (Edwards trade/Holmes return from suspension.) They've changed the offensive scheme over and over again to the point that they had no offensive scheme by the end of last season. Brian Schottenheimer was doing a radically different game plan every week just hoping that something he threw against the wall would stick instead of sliding to the floor. They've gone into the last two drafts with real questions on the offensive line and have done nothing rational in response to those questions. They have aging problems about to show up at RG alongside the RT hole and they wait until the 6th round to draft an offensive lineman? The INSANE negativity that I am displaying right now is in reaction to the accumulation of evidence that the Jet's FO is out of it's depth at this point. Am I annoying right now? Yeah, probably just as annoying as I was in 2003 when I said the Jets were going to collapse shortly because they were making bad decisions in the draft and people were aging in key places.
They were making Pennington comparisons to Joe Montana also. Bledsoe made a couple key throws in that game to warrant a mini controversy of who the starter would be. Yes, Brady showed promise as has Mark the superbowl drive was his only real brilliance in that game throwing for 145 yards as he was mostly a game manager for that superbowl. Reality struck in Brady's third season again being good but not great and the Pats going 9-7. His fourth season was his coming out party and his 8th season propelled him into best ever talks. The point is all QB's get better it took Brady eight years to play his best football. I am not comparing Mark to Tom but just pointing out Mark has not reaches his full potential.
Bledsoe did not play well, he led NE to one TD after getting the ball in great FP when Brady got hurt, the best thing he did was not turn it over and allow the D/STs to win it. Brady's 3rd season starting he had TWO SB wins w/ 2 last minute SB winning drives. Mark is not a bust, he's actually a quality QB who had a touhg end of 2011 but he's not Tom Brady and never will be unfortunately.
This team is being built on defense and looking for a serviceable offense. Very few if any teams have great offense and defense. The Jets have chosen to try to win with defense. The only scenario I see of Tebow being the Jets starting QB is Tebow being Rex's Randal Cunningham. I hope he has learned from his fathers mistakes we will see if they have done enough on Offense to make a run. I do not see this big collapse as you do there is just to much talent on this roster and teams with bigger holes than we have. I just dont see the Pats being as good as last year the Dolphins are not good the Bills made some moves but how quickly will they Gel? Relax guys we have improved the team from last year and if we stay healthy the Jets will win 10 at least games. If everything clicks maybe more. If the wheels fall off and the injury bug hits like last year we will still win eight games.
