I posted this as a response to the Football Outsiders recent AFC article http://www.footballoutsiders.com/four-downs/2012/four-downs-afc-east-0 EVERYONE IS AMAZED WAYNE HUNTER IS STILL AROUND..... Hoping for some Constructive criticism, discussion and maybe helping me fill in the blanks.... Gonna throw some #### at the wall regarding Hunter and the Jets OL: Not gonna pretend I know it all and I'm not gonna spend time researching every last detail of who played when or who was injured when but....... 1) Teams transition players on a particular unit all the time and the Jets have done it in the past - they placed Matt Slauson at LG with little issues. Why? Because the entire line around him picked up the slack and STAYED HEALTHY - Plus they had a complete offseason to get him up to speed... When you make a transition like this you roll the dice - often due to Cap issues. You pray the player will get help and the pieces around him will stay consistent. With Hunter he had no offseason. He also had a RG in Brandon Moore who was nursing himself back from injury. Then They start off with Dallas and BAM like many players he gets owned by Demarcus Ware. Game 2 - Mangold Goes Down - Jets have no backup and trot out a FA off the street at Center - Game 3 Oakland, Seymour and Co and Game 3 THE RAVENS!!!!!!!!! And all hell breaks loose!!! Somewhere along the line LG Slausson bangs up his shoulder and is well below grade at that spot. So, now you have no Center, banged up Guards and a RT Wetting his pants!!!!!!!! * Mind you the Jets have been lucky up until this year recently regarding injuries and Yeah, no doubt they Failed at having proper depth especially when you had a Street FA replacing Mangold. No excuses - Just not ideal at all and when you have oline in shambles, Demarcus Ware, Seymour and the Ravens are going to destroy whoever is in their way... 2) The 2nd issue is how you Game plan and Play Calls in a situation where your OL is a mess and your RT needs help - As Rex now admits, Hunter was out on an island way too often last year - When you have a Street FA at Center and banged up Guards it's probably hard to cover the rest. But, IMO Schottenheimer was a Disaster and really never helped the Offense with anything creative - Roll outs away From Hunter - Quick passes etc. Schottenheimer seems like the guy who always trys to trick the opponent instead of taking what is there - Rex IMO is all about Taking what is there, as is Sparano - No nonsense SIMPLIFY IT ALL leading to: 3) Scheme Change - Would love Input here* - But, Jets are changing from a Zone system to Man and they want to Simplify everything away from the Schottenheimer mess that seemed to leave players scratching their heads, wondering what to do and causing lots of penalties, unneccessary Time out and confusion. Given Sanchez is the QB, I think Sparano is a TREMENDOUS hire to just keep it simple and REALLY Ground and Pound, Play Action take shots at the right time which IMO Schotty never did. 4) How does the Scheme change effect Ducasse? Hunter? It's easy for internet people to look at Jets tapes last year and say HUNTER BLOWS!!! But, the Jets see what he does in practice and what he can do - they know what Ducasse has and Talent wise he is supposedly off the charts, Does a Man system and a simpler offense allow him to use his talents? He is obviously thinking way too much out there - can he just line up now and let R rip? 5) FA?s Vernon Carey? I guess we will see what the Jets have up their sleeves but, obviously the jets are more confident than a lot of people going Bonkers over Wayne Hunter and I think at least some of my #### has to ring true.
Listen Wayne Hunter had a repectable 2010 post season when Woody went down.. What I don't understand is why he feel off so much from that ride.. Lets Hope Spo can get something out of Ducasse not Hunter... Ducasse Lies the answer for RT
Hill at receiver will be a huge help at RT. First, Hill is an excellent blocker in the run game which will help establish our ground and pound, which in turn will help Sanchez in his play action game, which is his strength. Second, after Hill pulls down his first 40+ yard reception, he will pull defenses out of the box and away from Keller and Santonio, which means Sanchez will have a shot at getting a pass off in under 2+ seconds, versus 4+ seconds last year waiting for Holmes to beat triple coverage. IF Hill can block well in the running game, and IF Hill can be effective between the 20's in the passing game, WFH will get the comb-back player of the year award.
I'm not completely sold on that, but I do expect improvement. OP hit on major points. No offseason for WH. Moore coming back form injury. Mangold down Turner lost in the Preseason...who would have filled in for Mangold with nary a hiccup. Slaw got hurt covering for DBrick's down year. I can almost see the play in my mind when Slaw left his man to help Brick who was getting double teamed and the DL came past Slaw's right side between COLON Baxter and took Sanchez's head off. That play and the blitzing Reed off the corner in the Ravens Game. Brick went toward Slaw and Reed decapitated Mark for a TD. Its almost a no wonder moment that Hunter looked so lost.
Oh yeah - Totally spaced on losing Turner.... COLON Baxter - LOL. I think the Jets OL has been so healthy for so long they took it for granted. I wonder if a Man Blocking system allows an easier transition in case you do need to Plug in a Colon type guy.
It's tough to predict how Vlad and Hunter will react to a simplified, man to man system. My hope is that minicamp will give the CS an idea, and then training camp will be a further test. If it isn't clicking by the second or third preseason game, there needs to be a contingency plan to either sign some veteran FA help or make a trade. I hope we learned our lesson about lack of depth last year, especially for a team that wants to establish the run.
This is a great post. Bottom line is this: Jets front office clearly feels there were alot of moving parts/factors that contributed to a down year for this unit. They are hoping that with many of those factors no longer at issue..that the unit will stablize & return to form. Acouple things to consider: 1. Despite the disasterous performances against Oakland,Baltimore,New England & Philly, This O-line statistically still finished 12th overall on many ranking services. What does that tell you? When they were on..they were really on..having some outstanding games to offset the negative. The games against San Diego, KC & Buffalo come to mind 2. 2004 preseason: The Pete Kendall trade. Jets went into TC w/ lingering questions at both guard spots w/ Brandon Smith & a very young/unknown Brandon Moore as the pairing. They let camp run its course & ultimately realized their was not only a hole at left guard..but an opportunity to upgrade by trading for Pete Kendall. Jets went on to have arguably the best O-line in the AFC that season. Here we are w/ 2 possibly 3 candidates for the RT spot. If things look rocky after a preseason game or 2..."Trader Mike" will surely go to work.
i'm reading a lot of homerism and wishfull thinking, but the fact is, the jets did little to improve the major team weakness of last year, which is obviously the oline. all this talk about sporano being a savior and making the offense, sanchez and oline better is a joke! phin fans whined all year and year before about how predictable and boring his offense was and now because he's a jet, he's now something special, LOL. people see what they want to see and not what is! the jets did next to nothing to improve the oline and the only decent backup olineman (turner) left in FA.
Sparano wasn't in charge of the oline in Miami. He was in Dallas, and Romo flourished behind a Sparano-coached oline. Instead of making shit up and letting your bias opinions affect your judgement, do some research first before you start embarrassing yourself.
First off, phins fans are idiots. Second, the Jets play their best football when they are predictable and boring. Run the ball, set up the play action, and play great defense. Third, I remember countless times last season when I was begging the Jets to be more predictable and boring. If you go back into the game threads, you'll see many others who felt this way. Schotty's scheme perpetually undermined Rex's philosophy. Fourth and finally, there is only so much money to go around, and every team has warts. Did you want to see Carl Nicks in a Jets uniform? If so, were you willing to trade Revis? Should we have taken DeCastro over Coples? Shit if I know - even the guys who get paid to evaluate talent are making an educated guess. I don't think anyone commenting in this thread is delusional enough to believe that our OL is a strength given its performance last year. The HOPE is that it will improve under a new OC, and changes will be made if necessary before he season. It is a fluid process.
That Kendall signing was one of the luckiest and most effective ever. We can hardly count on something similar happening this year. I still have a hard time believing AZ let him go like that.
The Jets let him go also over about a half million dollars. We weren't any smarter than the Cardinals at that point and we paid for it by looking like the Cardinals for a season.
At this point, I’ll take anyone over Hunter. The guy is 31 and is a life time backup, he’s not going to get better, or at least enough to not hinder the offense. At least with Vlad or even Austin you have a guy that has a lot of potential and most likely WILL get better. I would much rather sign Vernon Carey and start him if it came down to Hunter. I understand he was probably poorly effected by everything going wrong with the OL, but he is what he is and is nothing more than a good backup. This situation is probably one of the most interesting situations (to say the least) entering training camp, because anyone trying to answer this question is taking a shot in the dark. I remember mumblings (basically NFL.com bullshit) about Jake Long possibly being under the ax... *prays to god*... but like every other BS rumor, it will never happen.
OK...and our position right now is: Wayne Hunter is still the right tackle Slauson coming back from injury Mangold or D'Brick can go down and there's no viable replacement for either.
