ok, i am optimistic that we can turn this franchise around if we make the correct moves this offseason. it always seems like we the fans have more insight than the jets FO when planning who we want to draft and sign in the offseason. my idea which i might write in a formal letter to the front office is as follows. on defense, we need a pass rush from the OLB position. we've invested too much money in bryan thomas for him not to start for a couple more years and with better talent around him, he might be able to regain his form of 2 seasons ago when he broke out with 8+ sacks. we should draft and OLB this offseason whether it be in round 1 (gholston) or round 2 (groves, crable). it all depends on who falls to us. for example, if mcfadden and gholston are gone by our pick, we should take jake long (though i hate picking an OL yet again but he is the best value here without trading down) and put him at RT. i firmly believe that we need to draft OLB and RT in the first 2 rounds. then in the second round, we would take an OLB (groves, crable). now if gholston is there at 6, then we take him and take RT with our second pick. however, we might need to trade up to the late 1st round (our 2nd rounder and 3rd rounder) to grab gosder cherulius who was suppose to be lighting it up at the senior bowl and looks like a huge beast at 6'7 315 with huge hands. this is my preferred option. with all this samuel talk in the FA market, i do not disagree this would make our team instantly better. yes, i understand people will say hes on a good team and hes not as good as his stats project, or that he is not worth the money. but if he makes our team better and gives us a chance to win, isnt it worth the agony we will feel each sunday losing with such a sad team? also, signing him might attract other good FAs to our team because it will show that we are serious about winning and making a run for the playoffs. so he makes 8-9 mil a year. so what, now we dont have to worry about our CBs for another 5 years. the vilma subject is so touchy because there is a belief that he might be able to regain his pro bowl form with a better team around him. i wouldnt mind giving him 1 more chance if we make a serious run this offseason to get a better team around him. otherwise, we should just trade him to a 4-3 defense outside our conference and draft a ILB to replace him. now our defense looks like this: RE- robertson (heard he might be moving to DE with the emergence of pouha at NT) NT- pouha (will rotate in and out but should be sufficient to start) LE- ellis ROLB- thomas ILB- harris ILB- vilma (or a replacement ILB from this draft using the pick we acquired from the trade) LOLB- gholston (or groves, crable) CB- revis CB- samuel FS- rhodes SS- elam (hopefully we can replace this guy and make our secondary a superunit) that looks way better than this years defense. now our offense is behind our defense in terms or development but it shouldnt be too bad: we obviously have to improve our OL this offseason. i stated above that we should draft a RT since they are in abundance this year and a few 1st round talents should slip to the 2nd round. we should pick up a young LG in FA (bell, lilja, andrews) and that should make our OL much better than this years OL. maybe we should use a 4th or 5th rounder on owen schmitt from UVA and we wont have to worry about the FB position for 5 years or so. QB- clemens RB- jones/washington FB- schmitt WR- coles WR- cotchery TE- baker LT- ferguson LG- (bell, lilja, andrews) C- mangold RG- moore RT- cherulius (long, otah, clady, williams, baker, nicks, collins) someone will drop to us in the 2nd round now we look like a team that should do decently next year. and the only maybe FA signing we made is samuel, LG. we will have to spend money on our draft picks, but it wont cost more than 10 mil this year, and with our FA costing around 12 mil, we will still have 5 mil in cap space to spend on extending rhodes and baker. we also will prob ask some veterans like pennington, robertson, ellis, thomas to take paycuts along with cutting players like barton, maybe hobson, barrett, mccareins, kassel, chatham, clarke, clement. so we should be fine this offseason with our current cap room so there are no worries about making a splash in FA and in the draft since we have the money. might as well use it.
totally agree with the offense, draft a good OT that falls and try and get a guard in free agency, on the Defense Drob and puoha will both be NT, and I want to emphasize that, Drob is going no where but playing NT for the NYJ, face it, hes not that horrible either. Him and Puoha form a good combo, you need to keep the D-Line fresh. Gholston does look like as of now hes going to be our pick, so adding him is a good thing, and maybe since the Jets are "reportedly" high in Erin Henderson, he would team up with Vilma on the inside. Which still leaves that whole on the other DE but the D would be much more upgraded.
