I've got nothing to bitch about now. The RT, the safeties, the offensive woes, the WRs, and the QB. They all improved their game. We also got a new OC. What the fuck am I going to bitch about now???? Oh wait, our LBs!! That's right. After we blew the fuck out of Bills, we HAVE to have some bitching. Could have bitched about the Sanchez int, but he Played so well after that I'll get chewed here. Let's just bitch about the LBs coach. Pathetic!
This is probably not the right move though. The Jets taking Coples this year was the right move. You take the the person who is highest on your chart with the early picks. If you're an organization that does this reflexively and has good talent evaluators then you've always got a fairly strong roster because you're never giving up 5% or 10% on overall value to fill a need. If you reach for need you build weakness into the roster because the guys you add are not as good as the average guy a team is adding in that draft slot. If your evaluators aren't all that good then you build weakness into the roster even if you take the best player on your chart. You have to have both: BPA and people who can evaluate talent well. Step 1 for the Jets is going to be getting better talent evaluators.
Believe it or not there's a big difference between worst OC and worst RT in the league and 3 LB's that are in the bottom 1/3 at their respective roles. To lessen the effects even more we have a great 3rd down pass rusher in Maybin and just the type of prospect we need already developing in Davis. I just wish we could get those 2 guys on the field more this year to get the dead weight off of it. The LB's are an annoyance to work on. Schotty and Hunter were death.
Its not as though the Jets have (historically) ignored the LB position in the draft - looking back at the last 10 drafts the Steelers have selected 10 linebackers to the Jets 7, and the Jets have tended to burn higher draft picks on linebackers (with nearly half of the Steelers selections being 5-6 rounders). We have however not looked there much of late - only 1 LB taken in the last 4 drafts (5 drafts if you consider gholston to have been drafted as a DE) - which is probably a consequence of us having so few picks in some of those drafts (though also a reflection of the fact that we largely looked at FA to stock that position).
Coach or no coach.....Jets need to upgrade there LB position. They need to upgrade there LB talent & speed. Jets need to spend 2 high draft picks next year on LB's. They need 2 OLB's and another ILB. Lb has now become the weakest unit of there defense. Ricky Sapp.....Jets keeping him around. He was a good college player, will he become a good OLB in pro's. Pace & Thomas are too slow & need to be upgraded.
If we get a OLB who can set the edge to replace BT and maybe sign a vet FA to rotate with Maybin/Sapp/McIntyre/Rookie thats 5 OLB rotating in different sets, you know Rex loves versatility
Do "done" players have excellent games? Tell me what Pace did wrong, or did not do, in the game against Buffalo? Again, what his contract situation is and what that means about next year is another matter. But I notice how certain false perceptions take hold around here, one of them being how people don't understand football and how that leads them to accept those false perceptions. The fact is Pace had a near flawless game. He was blocked off one running play, but other than that.
I'm gonna agree with you here and say that our LBs-- especially Pace-- don't deserve half the criticism they are getting. I do believe that we are vulnerable when we don't get pressure because our crew's strength is not playing the intermediate zones. Receivers and TEs are going to find holes in the middle of the field, but as long as we play to our strengths and get after the QB, those holes will rarely be exploited. Also-- Spiller was able to rip off a couple of doozies, and those really hurt our numbers, but for the most part, I thought the LB corps did a good job plugging gaps and wrapping up. We need to limit those big plays, but overall our run D was not as bad as the numbers make it out to be.
Many forget that the absence of Pouha hurt the run D, and Ellis did not play well enough to keep himself in the game much. The botched play by Scott was partly Landry's fault as well. Isolating the LB's for sole responsibility is not fair. While I do not like that the LB's as a group are slow, it is not fair to paint with too broad a brush. Pace in fact had an excellent game, and Harris's was above average despite a missed tackle.
