Though some may disagree with this praise, IMO, our gm and football staff have done a great job the last few years upgrading the talent and being aggressive in signing players.... of course this may ruffle the feathers of some of the ole veterans in football - those who religiously teach that building thru the draft is the only way to winning............ well those days are gone and FA is just as important as the draft. if you manage the cap well, cut your dead wood accordingly, and follow strict criteria in selecting players you will be ahead of at least 1/2 to 2/3rds of the other teams. none of us should take issue with the perceived spending sprees of the last 2 offseasons.....essentially this was sorely needed to recover from the very questionable drafting during the 01-04 seasons - mostly at the top of the drafts. as we know the middle rounds have been pretty good to us. you will not find any media outlet including our local media here in NY giving the jets an A. they will always question the motive, the costs, and the players involved. the front office has done a great job recruiting talent and upgrading positions - now its the coaches and the players jobs to show the fruits on the field. i am already excited for 2009 and hope everyone is as well. disclaimer - this post is a sharp contrast to my usual darksider ways. just goes to show that even the most negative same ole jets fan can still get a boner about the team.... jil
I agree. It has been a suprising offseason. I never agreed with releasing Moore, but here they get him back on a new deal, get Scott to solidify the LBs, and the suprise was the Lito Sheppard deal. If he can return to form of a few years ago, what a secondary it will be. The D should be much improved in the pass defense area and it will be exciting to watch.
Man, I'm excited already. The staff has done a fantastic job. I don't have much else to say other than that.
How true.The fact that we have had back to back years in which we could grab some good impact players in the FA is great. They really have put together a talented group of players on the field and yet our cap is manageable. I give a lot of credit to Tanny for managing all this. There will always be some blunders, but for the most part hes done a great job. and for the fact we have FA's that want to come here is a great feeling. I am really looking forward to our upcoming season
I agree with your assesment. IMO, there is nothing that can be argued against obtaining productive talent. The key to being successful is to build a team with key pieces to a puzzle that go towards assembling the big picture. The only way teams fail(Redskins, Yankees) is when they haphazardly try to assemble a team of allstars. Sometimes the "superstar" at any given position is not necessarily the best fit for the overall picture. I feel to be a successful GM/HC you need to look at the team your trying to build and then look for the players that fit that mold. For example, IMO the Jets have lacked leadership for quite some time.To me that's just as important as what you do on the field. Sometimes moreso. I think teams fail when they try and fit square pegs into round holes. To me the sign of a great coach is not the guy who comes to a new team and says"this is what we're gonna do". A great coach is a guy that looks at his team and plays to thier strengths, and is able to adapt to the players he inherits until he's able to assemble a team of guys that can play his style of ball. We're very lucky that Rex seems to have Woody and MT saying "tell us who you need to play your style of ball and turn this thing around". We seem to not only be building a team, but also forming an identity. Thats something we haven't had around here in quite some time.
What's funny is that Tanny will be an ass if we don't make the playoffs. TGG will be calling for his head come January if things don't go right. You know I'm right too.
Its almost as if the Jets FO has finally learned how to play the FA game and win. We may have gotten burned with the Ghost but that remains to be seen. He might even thrive under Ryan but one thing is for sure, he'll be gone if he doesn't. Kudos to the FO and new CS. With any luck at all, they'll make all of us darksiders extinct within two years..
I must say the Jets have really surprised me. You guys have made some very solid decisions, and have added some excellent talent this off-season in my opinion. Great job so far, now all you need is a solid QB....
I feel the same way about the draft, we have had 3 terrific drafts overall so our we hava good core group of young verteran players that will be around for years if we wish to keep them. Add that with free agents and you have a talented football team
to be good or great at something, takes years of practice, i guess it was practiced enough, ask allen iverson, he talks about practice.
