that was... awesome. and since Champ will no longer respond to you, i'll ask on your behalf (if you don't mind). Champ, when/who/what round did the Pats draft gamebreakers? cheers
A bit too optimistic. It certainly is possible, but lots of things are possible, that doesn't mean it will be likely. We will start off slow, almost guaranteed. The team doesn't have enough playoff experience either. Best case scenario, We struggle and get a wild card game, and next year is the run. Most probably scenario, we miss the playoffs this year, but hopefully finish strong.
8 teams on paper that are better than us? Denver is better than us NE is better than us Cincinnati is better than us Pittsburgh is better than us Jacksonville is better than us Indiana is better than us SD may have the best defensive player in football on their team in Merriman but they have a huge question at QB. KC is a bust in progress. Baltimore is potentially very good but they are in a division with Pitt and Cincy, they aren't gettin in unless they knock Pitt out. Houston, TN, Oakland, Buffalo are starting the season with more questions than us. Miami and Cleveland I'm not sold on. We have a very good D that may be better than Denvers, Cincy and Indiana. We don't need great play out of our O we need mistake free play. Again with Chad we aren't going to beat the real solid Defensive teams but we don't play a lot of real solid defensive teams. The season starts in a week, I'm pleased with where we are now from where we were at the end of last season. I'm willing to go into this season with a positive attitude and let it unfold before me. I like what I have seen out of our D, I think it's going to be very good. I don't like what I have seen out of our O but I temper it a bit when I look at who we have played and who we will be playing.
Merriman isn't even the best defensive player on his own team. If JW wasn't pushing 3 o-linemen straight back into the QB's face on every play, guys like Merriman wouldn't be getting those pretty highlight reel sack that you have obviously been watching.
There aren't 2 players on the Jets and a draft choice that I wouldn't trade for Merriman right now. Take a look at the INT he had last week. This guy has more talent coupled with more effort than any one on that Charger team with the exception of Tomlinson and that includes Gates. Let me know which players on SD you would keep ahead of Merriman? http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2006-06-07-upcoming-lb_x.htm
All I can say is we will see who can forsee the future better after game 16. As a aside I did not include the KCCs as a team better then us.
All I will say is that I think that last year's team was much more talented then it's record and that the injuries were the key to most of the problems. That being said, through the draft and some FA pickups some of our areas like the OL look to be a bit improved and/or at least in better shape for the future. There will still be plenty of growing pains from a new system and new players and we still have a few question marks but overall the team at least has future potential. They should win a few more games this year then last and it will be interesting to see how they do. This could be like Herm's first year where he tried to implement his scheme without exactly having the right players to fit it yet he was able to get us to the playoffs. The big difference is that Mangini seems to be about flexibility and people being able to fill multiple roles which might be key in the future.
Good to see you back on the board! :beer: We could come away with 7-8 wins and still consider this a "good" season at least from the perspective of taking a step in a forward direction. On paper, the schedule is favorable to us.
On paper New England, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Denver, Indianapolis and Jacksonville are not in the same league as the Jets right now. San Diego and Kansas City are definitely better, although not by the same margin as the 6 teams above. All of that said there are a few teams above that could suffer the same catastrophic drop that the Dolphins experienced in 2004 and the Jets in 2005. Kansas City and Pittsburgh are both getting a bit long in the tooth, KC on offense and Pittsburgh on defense. Also Jacksonville and San Diego have either durability concerns at QB or a new face there. I see the Jets as about the 10th most talented team in the AFC right now and if the young players step up they could be 4th next year.
I kind of agree with you on this post. What I really hang my hat on is I think the game is still a QB driven game and outside of Palmer, Brady and Manning I really don't fear any of the other QB's in the league. We might have a tremendous D? I think it could be a top 4 or 5 in the league if the line holds up. No doubt if our OL doesn't step it up and the RB by committee doens't work we are in for a long season. I think it will hold up against most of the competition we are going to face and we are going to have a winning record. Where we get those wins and where the other teams with equal records get their wins will ultimately decide if we make the playoffs.
Just curious if you really think we could have a top 4 or 5 D? With a new scheme and some key players playing out of position I'm a little nervous. I see potential but I don't see our DL having that scary of a pass rush. Don't get me wrong, with Barton back and the things I've ready about DRob and BThomas having solid camps there is potential there. Plus Vilma will be Vilma. The secondary still looks to me to be like last years. One "good" player in Dyson, then the rest depend on how they do. I'm one who likes Barrett and thinks he got a bad rap his first year and Miller definitely has talent. Just haven't seen or read about them looking all that scary so far. If it all clicks, why not though I'm thinking top 15 D, maybe top 10 if we're lucky. Then again, some of you have been hearing more from TC then I have.
I think this squad has a weaker DL than with Abe obviously, but we have a much stronger back 8 than in any time since we had Glen and Coleman back there in 98 along with a really solid LB corp. I think our LB's could be very good. I love Barton and Thomas in the 3/4. Vilma is going to be a little less effective but I was very encouraged by the play of Drob and Balls against the Giants. Ellis has to play at a very high level every play for this thing to really work.
Wow. What's been going on in here? Too bad champ ditched again. I would have loved to read his comments on this one.
Just wanted to say sorry to winston for putting that post in his thread..just got a bit tired of being told to "move on" like everybody is an idiot but him. This is a great thread...lets just move on..oops.
Getting back to a very good thread...you know Winston...whether you truly believe everything you have posted on this thread or not..and Im completely convinced you do...Im not totally sold on this season the way you are...but Im officially totally sold on this new regime. Im watching what they have done over the last week..and what they tried to do with New England today...and Im thinking...these guys get it. They are like computer nerds sitting in front of a computer for hours..days...weeks at a time. Whether you want Branch...you dont want him...it amazes me that not one local media guy will sit down and right an article on how these two young guys are just going to outwork every other front office. Will it produce superbowls? Wins? Only time will tell...but the work ethic and attention to every detail they have shown has sold me.
The NFL is an organization that used to be about great football and is now a club dedicated to making money through corporate sponsorship and selling shirts. The league is awful. There are about 5 QB's in the league who are anything more than game managers. You can compete in this league with a smart front office and good coaching. Fortunately winning big still takes great talent but winning against equally bad teams takes smarts not talent. I think Tannenbaum and Mangini are pretty smart football people. I think we can win 8 to 10 games on that coupled with a powder puff schedule. You hit the nail on the head these guys are smart and working hard and I think they can compete with most of the league. Carson Palmer will abuse us, Payton Manning is going to be confussed when he plays us, probably not enough but who knows. BB team will over power us. Jacksonville will probably over power us. I think we are in every other game.
I think we have strong LBs but we've had that the last two years, I'm just not sold on our DBs just yet. I mean I like the potential of all of them and think they are all pretty good, but I've watched the same sort of talent get beat game in and game out for some reason or another. The difference here may be Dyson is younger then Law and not need to "get into game shape". Barrett is Barrett. Miller has a year under his belt and can hopefully utilize his talent. Rhodes has another year and hopefully improves and Coleman too has another year and seems to be focused on forgetting his sophmore slump. The question to me is the same every year, can we get off the field on 3rd down? If so, we'll be OK. If not, we're going to be stuck watching teams drive 70-80 yards eating up the clock which for whatever reason has been a staple of Jets Ds for many years.
That's going to come down to the pass rush. My guess is that Mangini is gonna be blitz happier than any coach since Parcells. We'll see a lot of Eric Barton up the middle and Bryan Thomas from the right side. One thing Vilma is supremely suited for is covering for a blitzer beside him. His speed will help a lot in keeping the broken sets from turning into long gainers.
No, seriously Champ, you are a post whore and nothing less. You pop into any positive thread and take a shit on it. You're sort of like cancer. In 4 years you have added relavent input to maybe 2 posts, and they are long since erased. There is no "gist" you can throw out that I cannot "get", except when you go into acronym mode and I just ignore you completely. So in the slightly altered words of mormon kid on Southpark: "Champ, all we ever wanted was to be you friend. We had different views than you, but we didn't let that get in the way. Champ, you have a lot of growing up to do. Suck my balls."
