Believe it or not, there's still three months until the season. So out of sheer boredom, I compiled in my head a composite roster of the biggest disappointments in Jets history. Keep in mind I only know the mid/late 70s on. My criteria was expectations and what we spent (usually draft picks) to get these guys, vs what they did for (or to) us. Feel free to debate, correct or add to this list. QBs 8-Browning Nagle: Supposed to be our future, became the past really quick. 14-Glenn Foley: Handed the starting job twice, couldn't keep it. RBs 32-Blair Thomas: If there was a Hall of Fame for this kind of thing, he'd be a first-ballot inductee. 43-Roger Vick: A #1 pick in 1987, never did much. 31-Marion Barber: Decent ST'er, but concussion in rookie TC prevented the envisioned backfield with Freeman McNeil. WRs 80-Johnny "Lam" Jones: Maybe not first ballot, but close. 88-Reggie Rembert: A #2 pick in 1990, I don't remember him ever catching a ball. 87-Ryan Yarborough: #2 pick in 1994. Scored 1 TD I can remember. 88-Alex Van Dyke: First pick in round 2, 1996--after we took a WR (Keyshawn) #1 overall. Horrible. TEs (We're loaded here) 86-Johnny Mitchell: A pre-season magazine preview in 1994 said it best: "Body by Porsche, head by Mattel". 88-Kyle Brady: Drafted ahead of Warren Sapp. Who knew Sapp had better hands? 88-Anthony Becht: Upheld the tradition started by Brady. 88-Doug Jolley: Maybe it's the number? O Line (one big category, because like most bad O lines, they have to all shuffle around anyway) 79-Mike Haight: #1 pick in 1986, almost didn't make the team out of TC. Unheard of. Doug Williams: #2 pick in 1986, didn't make the team. 66-Dave Cadigan: #1 pick (8th overall) in 1988. Almost singlehandedly shortened Ken O'Brien's career. 70-Siupeli Malamala: #3 pick in 1992, barely cracked the lineup. D Line 74-Ron Faurot: #1 pick we got for Richard Todd. We got robbed. 99-Bryan Thomas: #1 pick, 2002. Still time to play his way off this team. 56-Jeff Lageman: Decent career, but we could have had Andre Rison and still got Lageman in the 2nd round. 98-Dorian Boose: #2 pick in 1998. About the only thing that went wrong in 1998. 75-Tony Casillas: As soon as free agency was allowed, we jumped in with two feet to show we're bad at that too. LBs 55-Alex Gordon: #2 pick in 1987. Never did anything. 56-Sam Cowart: Ted Cottrell jumped on a table and demanded we get this guy. Both guys and the table are now gone. (We're thin at LB, oddly) DBs 27-Russell Carter: taken 10th overall in 1984. suprising Dan Marino didn't thank him at his HOF induction ceremony. 26-Donald Dykes: late 70's. Disaster followed this guy everywhere he played, STs included. 45-Tony Stargell: #3 in 1990, never started. Maybe the worst draft ever by one team. Coach Al Groh: Never did a coach start so great and fizzle so quickly. And all in one season. Your thoughts?
Nice bummer of a thread IS.. Thanks... But how can you leave out O'Donnell for QB's since you are including FA's and then that would include Marshall and Atwater. I disagree with Dykes. Him and McMillian were a great spark for a couple of years.
Aaron Beasley was a horrible FA signing at CB and who can forget about Scott Frost. Talk about a wasted draft pick. ***edited due to a senior moment*****
Jeff Lageman? Compare his production to DRob and factor in what we gave up to get each of them, and imo, lageman is off the list and Drob is on.
That's fair, but D-Rob isn't done yet. We don't have a kicking game either, we've been surprisingly stable there.
Tony Stargell started the 1990 season and got good reviews for his play. For some reason he faltered in 1991 and lost his job to Mike Brim. Reggie Rembert got his rights traded to Cincinnati during the 1990 training camp. The acquisition of Rob Moore in the 1990 supplemental draft was a factor. Marion Barber was more than a decent ST'er...he had a rep for being Pro-Bowl caliber at that position. Disappointing GM was Dick Steinberg. Carl Barzilauskas was a very disappointing pick for DT.
Free agents? Dexter Carter (ran so fast he left the ball behind on various occasions) and Erik Howard in 1995. Art Monk in 1994 (made no sense whatsoever...it killed the develpment of the your WRs we had).
I didn't realize Rembert's rights were traded to Cincy. I thought Coslet took him there later. My bad. Mike Brim instantly reminds me of the MNF debacle at Chicago in 1991, getting beat with :00 on the clock to go to OT. Carl Barzilauskas was one of the first Jets I remember, #77. And yes, a bust. Wasn't he a #1 pick in 1974?
Also, ButtleMan, Donald Dykes was about 10 years before Erik McMillan. There was another good DB who played with EMac but I forget his name. Lester Lyles, maybe? I was going to put Bobby Jackson (#40) on the DBs, but he actually played a few seasons, though not too well. Darroll Ray (#28) was another high pick DB from that time, early 80s.
Al Groh? Please, with the likes of Lou Holtz, Ken Shipp, Charlie Winner and the infamous Rich Kotite, how can you have Groh anywhere near the list. It must be bad, because I didn't even think of putting Herm Edwards on this list...what does that say about our history of coaches? Carter is one of our better corners of all time - compared to the likes of "Petey" Sowells. Scott Frost, what a joke! Mark Merrill - was a #2 pick at OLB and was a STIFF! OK, so he was a black belt in karate...Mike Taylor was another stiff #1 pick in 1972. Faurot was a stiff from day 1, but Carl Barzilauskas was a Pro Bowler one year, and a big fat lardass the next...which is worse? You did very well on the Oline, but if the word is DISSAPOINTMENT - the guys who dissapointed most to me were Chris Ward and Gordie Brown (#2 in 1974 at OT). Ward played well at times, but never lived up to the expectations and talent. Lam Jones was the biggest bust in Jets History!
**70-Siupeli Malamala: #3 pick in 1992, barely cracked the lineup.** As I remember, he was a quality starter at RT for several years.
I thought of Monk and Ronnie Lott, but we kind of knew they were done when we got them. But Dexter Carter, yeah, one of the worst FA signings of all time. Still.
My thinking there was that we had hope for Al Groh, being from the Parcells camp and all, and he started 4-0 and 6-1, then had an amazingly fast flame-out. Kotite was coming off an 8-game losing streak when we got him, so I had no expectations there except for what we got. Winner I barely remember and Shipp I don't. Holtz was a Kotite-esque disaster, though. At least his was only one year. I thought of Ward but he was almost too good for this list. Brown was before my time.
