adalius thomas will be 30 by the start of next season. there is ABSOLUTELY no way that we should court him in free agency. i wasn't sure before since i was highly intrigued but such a rare specimen (i am sure i am not alone) but the cons outweigh the pros by a wide margin. 1. we have to remember that we are a young team, a new team that has a young minded management that wants to build from the ground up. we just got out of cap hell thanks to our GM MT, there is no way we can sign a 30 year old OLB for money he wants. there is a reason the ravens are letting him go. because he is old and has 3 years left in him at most and they do not want to commit a large portion of their cap to a player who will have his production decline after this year. are there even any players that go to another team at the age of 30 and produce more or at the same level? we know that after they get their pay day, the production goes down, just due to human nature, and age. 2. they did the exact same thing with peter boulware. he was a sack specialist for the ravens, a DE/OLB tweener that they let go after he hit 30. we cannot be the stupid team that overpays a player because he is the biggest name in free agency. we are not the washington redskins who are by far the dumbest franchise in the world. lets sign 4 slot receivers and give each of them 8 million a year? after hiring a run first coach?? now you have the 6th overall pick in the draft, AND you play in the NFC, good work dan snyder. 3. this year's draft is so deep for OLBs for our scheme that is would be absolutely moronic to sign a FA for that position. there are 8 OLB prospects, moss/woodley/spencer/adams/moses/crowder/abiamiri/atkins and that is not even mentioning the players that will impress at the combine. one will drop to our second rounder at pick #57. 4. off topic- for FA, we have to get samuel from the patriots bc a. he will give us that cornerback we need, and more importantly, b. we will take him away from our division rivals. we all know cornerback is a crapshoot in the draft, (ei- miller was highly rated and dropped to the second round due to behavior, and look how unpolished he still is) samuel will be 26 by the time next season starts and that is still quite young. he matches the youth system that we have here, unlike adalius thomas. he has prior familiarity with mangini, unlike AT. our leader on defense, vilma, rhodes, hopefully dewayne are all 25-26 too. he will fit in here, unlike AT. if we can use the FA to get samuel, and use the draft to pick up a DE (carriker), power running back (bush) and then an OLB (any listed above), then our team will seriously be on the road to dominating the AFC EAST.
He hasn't said anything that would indicate he's in for a huge contract. He has been dominant the last three seasons but you're assuming he's going to pursue a contract through the roof. We don't need Asante Samuel at all. He's a systematic player, and we run that system. That doesn't mean we need him. All of the Pats defensive backs are mid round draft picks, why overpay for one who has had one dominant year and three eh years.
How is Samuel a "system player"? The safeties for the Pat have been injured most of the season and the LBers aren't as good as the once were. Granted their front seven creates pressure consistently, but that is always the ingredient in a good CB. Now, I am in the camp that Champ Bailey is the only shutdown corner, but Samuel played like a Top 10 CB this season. The Jets desperately need to get better on the outside. Miller, Coleman and unfortunately, Barrett don't seem to be the answer. If the Jets were better in coverage they could more aggressive upfront getting to the CB. As for Thomas, all that I have read says that he is looking for big $$. The guy is about to sign his last contract and has never been a big money, hyped player before. With all the cap money around this offseason his going to get a big deal unless he is franchised by the Ravens which is a definite possiblity.
I don't disagree about what you are saying about thomas, but LB and RB are not needed nearly as much as a massive 330+ NT and 2 big road grader OGs.
well since there are no massive NTs in the draft worth picking, and we can find OGs in later rounds, we should concentrate on drafting dline, then rb, then OLB. the best would be carriker, bush, then woodley/spencer/another OLB.
I strongly disagree with the underlined portion. A good CB will consistantly cover his man for x amount of seconds regardless of the pressure on the QB. Samuels is a system CB in the regards that his INT numbers this season were a result of the pressure put on the opposing QB's. I have friends who root for the Patties(ugh I know) who have told me point blank that they will probably lose Samuels because his value will be inflated due to the INT totals. He isn't even close to a shutdown corner and his run support is nothing spectacular. If it is in the budget to spend big on a CB and the contracts are comparable - of the two I hope we get Clements.
I don't understand how you can make the statement in bold and still prefer Samuel to Thomas. Granted, the age difference is there and pretty important, but that's the only reason why you would ever prefer Samuel. You say front seven pressure is key for any cornerback. Well we don't get any, and we still had one of the better pass defenses this year. That tells me our secondary was pretty good, and it was. We can get another mid-round guy and throw him into the mix. Dyson is good; Miller, Coleman, Poteat, and Barrett aren't bad. If you want to add a mid-rounder, fine. No reason to take a corner early though or to sign a guy like Samuel. If we can improve the pass rush, like you said, the cornerbacks will be better. A pass rush is necessary for any cornerback to be good, like you said. So why take the cornerback over the pass rusher?
I think I mis-spoke in my originial post. I think Samuel is a very good CB that is made better by the pass rush (like most Top 10 DBs are). I believe the Jets lack of pressure was due to the fact they couldn't be agressive up-front (typically rushing 3 or 4 if the RB didn't leak out) because of their suspect coverage. The LBers were dropping into coverage to help out the secondary. Sutton said as much in an article about the emergence of Bryan Thomas (that unfortunately I can' find right now...I'll keep looking). I though Barrett would be a good enough #2, but for whatever reason, Mangini didn't think so. Miller and Coleman aren't the answers and while Poteat was nice, he was picked on all day in the playoff game. From what I understand, generating a pass rush in the 3-4 is predicated on sending LBers from all different angles. If the Jets can't do that because the need to cover for their secondary, than the scheme won't work. Bryan Thomas has the ability to be the pass rushing LBer in my opinion. He just could use a little more pressure from the front 3. I understant the d-line's job in the 3-4 isn't to get sacks, but that doesn't mean they are expected to generate pressure. I think the Jets needs on defense are #1 a NT and #2 a CB.
So wait, we weren't good up front because our coverage sucked? I'm not agreeing or disagreeing, i'm just making sure I understand you correctly. I don't want to comment before I make sure I get what your saying.
I agree with you. I don't care much for Thomas either but won't care if we get him. Thomas will demand a lot of money, it's funny when people say nothing indicates he wants a hugh contract... this is the NFL... As for Samuel, I perfer Clement but Samuel will probably be easier to get if the Pats let him go and cost less then Clement. When you look at our corners, their not bad BUT we need a playmaker and a game changer. We need a shutdown corner. I look at our corners and they are just OK... I think our most important need a d-line player. We need to draft a DE or NT with our first pick in the Draft.
