I had the same thought when I was watching the other teams in the league with young talent making impact plays. Who can you point to over the past 3 years that the Jets have drafted who has emerged? When you draft poorly it usually doesn't show up until later and when it does you find yourself in hole that seems pretty hopeless to get out of.
It's not 3 years, it's 5 years. The last draft the Jets had that produced clearly superior players was 2007 with Revis and Harris. The impact of the poor drafting has been covered up by a huge amount of money spent on free agents and several trades to pick up other team's unwanted chaff.
That's the big question running through my mind. Where is this guy? Didn't notice if he was on the field and I'm not seeing his name mentioned on anything I read concerning the Jets. His name isn't brought up in any interviews either. Not saying he's a bust or anything extreme like that. Just would like to hear some kind of update on how he's coming along. My big hope was that he would be ready to start or at least be a solid backup LB when next season starts. There's gonna be so many holes on D this offseason (assuming Jets let both safeties walk after getting rid of the LB core).
has it been that many years I lose track. I always feel torn, I'm a Jets fan but I can't ignore how poorly this organization is run. Who would say they are a fan of Dan Snyder but are the Jets that much different? Maybe Woody is more hands off, takes a back seat and isn't douche, but you can't deny the whole throwing around money to grab the sexiest free agent and get yourself into the headlines so your still relevant. No wonder a Bill Cower or his equal would come here. How can you respect a team who can't develop their own prospects but has to buy it some where else? It just disgusts me.
its only been 3 games and hes competing against some of rex's favorite vets for playing time. after the bad play by our linebackers the past few weeks though i think that will change. rex is loyal but he isnt dumb.
Woody Johnson spent a *lot* of money to try to get the Jets window open for the first few seasons in the new stadium. He basically spared no expense in the process. The problem is that good players don't hit the open market very often and when they do it is because their demands outstrip the production they are capable of for various reasons. The Jets clearly need a reset at this point. The question is what takeaways Woody has accumulated from his decade plus of watching his teams keep cycling between not quite good enough and bad. My takeaways would be: 1. You can't wish a guy with physical talent into a superstar. The guy either has it or he doesn't and if he doesn't no amount of wishing is going to take his raw attributes and make him any better in the NFL than he was in college. In fact, he's going to break even or get worse because the NFL is 10x harder than college. Case studies: Dewayne Robertson, Victor Hobson, Vernon Gholston. 2. Taking other people's trash just leaves you with trash most of the time. The Jets have a curious habit of acquiring other team's veteran problems. They take on injury cases, attitude problems, bad actors, etc. Most of the time the reason a team is passing the trash is because it is trash. Every now and then you get lucky but in the process you have dealt with major issues multiple times at other positions and those have caused competitive disadvantage. Case studies: Sam Cowart, Kris Jenkins, Santonio Holmes. 3. Turning over a lot of rocks just makes the water muddy and slimy things crawl out often. The Jets claim to look under every stone to find talent. This results in a huge number of transactions at the bottom of the roster. It does not noticeably produce players of any real value though. The Jets claim to be looking for the next Victor Cruz, they just haven't found a player anywhere near that good in a decade of trying the picking through the dumpster method. Case studies: David Boston, Derrick Blaylock, Adrien Clarke. 4. N-F-L = Not For Long. The Jets acquire a lot of players going post-prime and pay prime time money for them. This causes a significant percentage of the cap in any given year to be going to players who will have less value for the year and no value moving forward. 28 is a killer year. If you acquire a 28 year old and give him a 4 year deal you've just screwed yourself. If you acquire almost any player at 29+ and rework his deal you've screwed yourself. The Jets have acquired players at 30+ recently, they just don't have any of them any more. Case studies: Damien Robinson, Pete Kendall, Damien Woody, Bart Scott 5. You can't fix last year's problems this year. You can fix next year's problems though. The Jets spend a lot of their effort trying to figure out what went wrong last year and patch the holes for the current campaign. The problem with that method of operation is that even if you fix last year's holes new ones open up in front of you and sabotage the value in the fixes. Signing a vet to fix last year's hole opens up a problem a year or two down the road (see point 4). Drafting a rookie to fix last year's hole likely keeps it open for a lot of this season. You fix next year's holes and after a few seasons you have fewer holes and fewer dropouts from season to season. This is what the elite teams do well. Case studies: Sam Garnes, Aaron Beasley, Alan Faneca, Curtis Conway. These aren't hard concepts they're just concepts that go against the displayed wisdom of the current Jet's management. The answer in most cases like that is to get new management.
I have mixed feelings about Woody. Not all owners are willing to open up their checkbooks and roll the dice on a free agent who fills a hole that might keep you from making a playoff run. On the flip side I think Woody has become addicted to picking up a Favre or Tebow and have everyone talk about you and the tantalizing possibilities. Let's not forget Derrick Mason I agree to a point. The Jets are reactive. When our RT is awful or our Saftey goes down were left scrambling. Just look at the QB position for all the years Sanchez has been here there has been no backup. Brunell at what 40+years, and now Tebow (who can't run the offense that is installed). There has been no one to compete with him and or take over if he got hurt. What would we do if went down for a season? But sometimes the Jets don't do anything to address the problems of the prior season. Last year our offense was atrocious and nothing was done either in the draft or free-agency. (the o-line, Wayne Hunter,...) And guess what it didn't magically fix itself and we have the same problem this year as last. It's funny how many ppl love Tanny.
Best post I've read in awhile. Jets problems in a nutshell. And as the saying goes: "If you keep on doing what you've always done, you'll keep on getting what you've always got."
Switching to a 4-3 front would not help here. Essentially it would replace Bart Scott with Kenrick Ellis - that would just make the front seven slower. We don't have 4-3 defensive ends - guys that are 280 lbs and fast to the QB. The closest we could come would be a line of Pace, Wilk, Pouha, Coples with LBers of Scott, Harris and Maybin/McIntyre. Its essentially the same exact defense we have now with the only change being whether or not Pace puts a hand on the ground.
Same guys, different responsibilities. Ideally, right now Wilk, Pouha, Devito fill the A, B and C gaps and let our LB's get to the QB or make tackles. Sacks from any of these 3 would come from a lineman falling down or a coverage sack. In a 4-3 with Pouha/K Ellis in the middle creating way more push than Pouha can by himself, could allow Coples and Mo Wilk to get into the backfield.I agree neither one are ideally the speed rusher body type, but I see Wilk more in the S. Ellis mold and Coples being more of the J. Abraham role. I know body wise and speed-wise Coples isn't the same player as Abe, but I think he could create problems for a tackle one-on-one like Abe did. Honestly, IMO it's worth a shot at this point. Through 3 weeks this D is getting gashed even with Revis. From there I'd mix/match the LB's with Harris being the only 3 down backer. Obvious runs = Scott, obvious passing situations I would use Maybin. I think the secondary has to mix it up and go zone/man to deal better with the current situation. Not exclusively either one, just something to make it bit harder to game plan against.
Why would we switch to a defense that stops the run when we're potentially about to get slaughtered with the pass?
With all due respect, I'm gonna trust Rex on this one. :beer: He's the defensive guru. I just don't think we have the personel to attempt a 4-3... heck I'm not sure we have great 3-4 people either. Additionally, I think it should be mentioned that the Jets don't run their base defense that much anyways. It seems like they are in a big nickel an awful lot more than a 3-4 base. Being in the nickel may also be the reason why teams are having success running the ball. I think its a bit of a Ryan staple to almost allow teams to run when he is more concerned with the opponent not passing - selling out all on the pass defense at the expense of the run defense. The loss of Revis will surely change the defense but I don't think it will change the over all scheme Rex has built all these years. The 3-4 is meant to confuse; Rex is always attempting to confuse.
No offense at all, I trust Rex as well. I wasn't trying to sound like the be-all, end-all, I was just sharing my opinion on how we could maybe navigate around losing Revis and utilize our personel in a different manner. I agree our LB's are less than ideal for either a pure 4-3 or 3-4.
Sadly, we wouldn't even have this conversation if Calvin Pace was giving us even 75% of what he is paid to do. Pace has turned out to be a horrible signing. There is a lot of hate for Bryan Thomas but he doesn't cost that much; and the fact that they keep bringing him back shows that he is serviceable. Pace is serviceable but getting paid like a rock star. Damn shame.
Our run defense has been a major problem, when Devito and Pouha are on the line. We have had great success when Ellis, Coples are in. I really don't have a problem with Devito, but he is most definately not a defensive tackle. The defense we saw the first 3 weeks will get destroyed against a face paced offense like New England, Houston, Denver, etc. In my opinion, our best front four would be Thomas at LDE, Couples as LDT, Ellis RDT, and Wilkerson as RDE. Our linebacking corp would be Davis at LOLB, Harris at MLB, and McIntyre at ROLB. We would maintain a 4-3 Front as our base, and have the versatility to transition in to a 3-4 front with Coples at our LDE, Ellis NT, and Wilkerson as RDE. Thomas would move out to LOLB, Davis to WILB, Harris to SILB, and McIntyre at ROLB. I would also prefer Maying as LOLB/LDE if I knew he could cover better. In addition, Ryan tested Coples as an OLB, and would love to see him take that role if he could handle it. Pouha and Devito would make exceptional depth at NT, DT, and either end in the 3-4. We still have Dixon who has played pretty well. Of course, the boner this team has for Scott, and Pace make this completely irrellevant. Personally, I belive Scott has value as depth, and keeping him fresh.
Opps! He is a ping pong ball, who knows what the plan is? However, I digress. Doesn't change my view.
Maximizing personnel to hinder something that's ALREADY happening vs something POTENTIALLY. There is no arguing that losing Revis is a huge blow (one that may kill our season) but Cromartie & Wilson is FAR from the worst starting CB combo in the league. Speed (or lack of) of the LBs (for the past TWO seasons) has already proven to be a weakness. Maybe it's time to mix that up. How the nickle cb works out is the x factor..... maybe it's time to use that nb as a blitzer again.
