The Jets haven't released or have been unable to resign a significant player to get under the cap. I won't miss David Barrett, Chris Baker, Eric Barton, David Bowens, and Coles that much.
I never said we don't sign our own players if we want them. I'm saying that the front office has often been mistaken in not wanting to keep a player. A case can be made that it is better to stick with your own players (as long as they aren't busts) than make risky, big-money signings of the top free agents. You never know how they are going to fit into your team, as proved by the many big-money signings on many teams who don't work out. The Jets draft Coles, he turns out to be very good and they let him get away in free agency. They draft Moss. He turns out to be very good and they trade him to get Coles back. They bring in solid o-linemen like Thomas and Mckenzie and lose them to free agency, then the o-line sucks and they finally have to go out and spend big money on free agents. You can't follow any blueprint slavishly, but I think it makes more sense to foster team continuity than to constantly change a big portion of your roster every year and then wonder which additions are going to work and which aren't.
I wouldn't call 5 starters in 3 years for a bad team drafting great, particularly if you consider some of the players that were drafted after our guys. With the exception of Revis we have not drafted well.
Didn't some other team in the AFC East get Adalius Thomas, Wes Welker, and Randy Moss in the span of a season? Are these not big acquisitions?
All of that happened during the Bradway regime. Tannenbaum was just a cap specialist during that era. He cannot be blamed and it has nothing to do with what is going on now. Since Tannenbaum became GM, the Jets have not lost one significant player without at least getting some kind of return.
This is a very unfair article. The Jets have adapted a combo method of free agents and draft picks to get results. That is the plan - they have committed to many of their draft picks to maintain a foundation - Ellis, Thomas, Moore, Fergie, Mangold, Revis,Rhodes, etc. the key is not the strategy, the key is how good are you at it. I agree with the poster who said that the JETS let certain picks go because they felt they were not worth it. NE does the same. You do not sign resign a draft pick FA just because he is "home grown".The Jets are getting better at mixing and matching, NE is good at it. There is only one team that performs at a high level that uses a draft pick dominated philosophy and that is Pittsburgh. It also helps to have a good coaching staff and consistent philosophy from a coaching regime which is also a common trait of the francjises that tend to win. It's not just drafting.
If New York fans demand results, why don't they get them? because they have no leverage. They're fans and they'll put up with pretty much anything. I've followed the Jets through eight straight seasons without a winning record, including 3-13 and 1-15 marks at the end of that eight-year run. I still wasn't in a position to demand anything, however badly I wanted it.
Tannenbaum's drafts: 2006- 2 solid starters, one very good semi-starter, pretty effective depth players in Eric Smith and Brad Smith, and maybe (remains to be seen) a good QB for the future in Kellen Clemens. 1 4(4) D'Brickashaw Ferguson T Virginia 1 29(29) Nick Mangold C Ohio State 2 17(49) Kellen Clemens QB Oregon 3 12(76) Anthony Schlegel ILB Ohio State 3 33(97) Eric Smith S Michigan State 4 6(103) Brad Smith QB Missouri 4 20(117) Leon Washington RB Florida State 5 17(150) Jason Pociask TE Wisconsin 6 20(189) Drew Coleman CB TCU 7 12(220) Titus Adams DT Nebraska 2007- Not to much going on here because of all the trade ups. Revis is a Top 3 CB right now and David Harris is an excellent linebacker who may become AMAZING under Rex Ryan. Stucker may be our #3 receiver this year. 1 14 (14) Darrelle Revis CB Pittsburgh 2 15 (47) David Harris ILB Michigan 6 3 (177) Jacob Bender T Nicholls State 7 25 (235) Chansi Stuckey WR Clemson 2008- It remains to be seen. Gholston was invisible last year but he deserves a 2nd year to judge him, as most LB/DE's do. Especially with Rex Ryan now coaching him. Keller was an excellent pick and could become a Top 5 TE this year. Lowery showed flashes, but was inconsistent. He was still a steal in the 4th round. Not sure what Ainge, Henry, and Garner will be. 1 6 (6) Vernon Gholston OLB Ohio State 1 30 (30) Dustin Keller TE Purdue 4 14 (113) Dwight Lowery CB San Jose State 5 27 (162) Erik Ainge QB Tennessee 6 5 (171) Marcus Henry WR Kansas 7 4 (211) Nate Garner T Arkansas Anyway, that's a really solid draft record. Period.
The big difference is the Redskins have had tendency to trade away majority of draft picks. That is the model that will fail.....have to build through the draft. The Jets gave up a 3rd and 5th last yr for Jenkins......well worth it. They are giving up a 3rd this year for Favre, and a 5th for Sheppard. However, they are getting a 3rd from Saints, and a 4th from Washington. As long as they don't waste draft picks, I'm onboard with recent approach.
Myers article is accurate. He remains one of the few NY sports writers who calls it as he sees it regardless of whether or not what he writes will be pleasing to the fans (or management and ownerships of the teams he covers.)
I'm sorry but that's just baffling. Argue all you want about overall quality and whether it was right to move on or not, but you just cannot claim that Pennington, Coles and Baker were insignificant. And the Jets just played a very dangerous game with a man regarded by many as their best run-blocking o-lineman. Moore could easily have signed on elsewhere and the Jets would have got nothing. He was not insignificant. Look, I don't want to sound like I'm bashing the Jets here. I'm just saying that through years of watching free agency it does seem to balance out that the big spenders in free agency do not see the returns they are hoping for. The Redskins skew this by being so ridiculous - they overstate the case - but I do believe that holding onto your own players should be the priority.
I think the 06 draft was outright blown. What did we really get last year? Keller looks to be a decent pass catching TE not a full package. Lowery may well be Derick Strait reincarnated. Gholston was totally unproductive. Revis and Harris great job but we gave up two first day picks to get them.
I don't get how you can say they drafted badly - Revis, Harris, Mangold, Washington, Brick, Lowery, Stuckey. We don't know about Clemens, Ainge, or Gholston yet. They find gems in later rounds and even identify castoffs like Ratliff and Clowney. Jones, Jenkins, Sheppard all came via trade. We also received picks with the Kendall, Vilma and Abraham trades. The only real high priced signings were Pace and Scott, and they are young and have big upsides. Faneca and Woody's contracts are not as bad as the media makes them out to be. We extended Rhodes and Cotchery to keep them in house, and Tannenbaum said recently they are in talks to extend Washington and Mangold. The team is younger as a whole and the lines are solidied. Building from the ground up. We are no where near cap hell and have very little dead money on the books. Comparing the Jets to the Redskins is ridiculous.
How was it accurate? Tannenbaum has put together a solid team by balancing good draft picks with free agent signings. There's nothing wrong with spending cap space on good free agents. We're always predicted to be in cap hell but he always gets us out of it with creative restructuring and releasing dead weight. There are so many teams in the NFL who wish that they could make a splash in free agency, but don't have the cap space to do so. We're very fortunate to have such a solid General Manager, and you guys really take it for granted. Our defense, on paper, is freaking great, and I'm sure Ryan will get the most out of them.
Tannenbaum will be gone in a couple of years unless Ryan takes the Jets to the playoffs. And that's a real longshot at this point. GM's get two coaches and then gone unless they are successful.
And no, Gary Myers doesn't tell it like it is. He sensationalizes stories to get reactions out of bitter fans. He's like Mike Florio from PFT. These guys don't look at the big picture. They see a team spending money in free agency and immediately think it's a negative because there's always a stigma attached with spending big in sports.
