Premise: The medium age at which you'd call a player old in the NFL is 32-33. Almost no one can be a starter at 34 (except QB, K, P, LS, some WRs, some ILBs, some OL). Right now we have (age as of December 31st 2010): Bryan Thomas, 31, OLB We've always felt an upgrade was necessary here and with Thomas getting up in age it could make sense to draft an OLB (although he played pretty well in the play-offs). also 31 isn't really that old for a LB. Sione Pouha 31, NT Absolutely no wear and tear and proved stout this year... this guy can continue being a solid back-up for another 3 years. Howard Green, 31, NT Who care about the 3rd string NT (no offense, I think he is a serviceable player) Kris Jenkins, 31, NT Has one or two seasons left in him because of wear and tear... and won't play 100% of th esnaps any more... we have Pouha to rotate him with but we'll need a replacement soon. Thomas Jones, 32, RB The 2010 season will probably be TJs last one (at least the last producitve one). Luckly we have 2 other very good backs and rookie RBs contribute immediately so it shouldn't be a problem finding a replacement in the near future. Marques Douglas, 33, DE Shaun Ellis, 33, DE Now this is a bit of a problem... I think both players have played well this season (Ellis better than Douglas) and both can start in 2010 with Mike DeVito sharing duties with them to keep them fresh. Grabbing another DE in this draft and making it a 4 man rotation (Douglas, Ellis, DeVito, rookie) would make sense. Pitoitua will have to start contributing eventually. Damien Woody, 33, RT Woody is a good run blocker but so-so in pass pro... I hope this upcoming season is it's last as a starter... wouldn't mind having a capable backup in case he gets hurt. Alan Faneca, 34, LG Please let this season be the last one as a starter! It prob will be as I don't see the Jets bringing back for 2011 a 35yr old LG for 8 mill dollars (only 1.6 guaranteed). Tony Richardson, 39, FB Prob still has one good season in him and then it's over... FB replacement can be found later in the draft or in FA. Let's see if Jason Davis is any good. Left out Feely (who cares how old a K is and Dearth). To sum it up this means we have 10 players who will be older than 30 years old next year (not counting Feely and Dearth). Out of these 10: - 5 are full-time starters (Faneca, Woody, Douglas, Thomas, Richardson) - 2 are part-time starters (Jenkins, Ellis) - 2 are rotational players (TJ, Pouha) - 1 is a career backup (Green) Now let's take a look at the positions we want to upgrade through the draft... except for CB where we need a #2 CB because we don't have one our other priority needs are an OLB, a 3-4DE and a slot WR. Drafting an OLB and a 3-4 DE in the first 3 rounds means finding a long term replacement for Thomas and Douglas which means that out of the 7 old starters 2 of them will have their future replacement drafted in this year draft. I'm projecting we trade down from #29. Pouha can play for another 3 years as a backup (no wear an tear and less than 50% snaps a game) so he really isn't an immediate need... Who cares about a third string DL so take Green out of the equation... this means we still have 6 players to address looking at the long term situation (Faneca, Woody, 1 of the 2 DE, T-Rich, TJ, Jenkins). Let's say in the first three rounds of the 2011 draft we address some of those positions (after all if we take care of the #2 CB and the slot WR in this draft we are a pretty complete team as far as starters go). I'm going to speculate that we'll draft a RT, NT, LG. In a 3 RB rotation I'd be ok with bringing in a guy in the 4th round. This leaves us with 2 hole... a 3-4 DE where we have DeVito who will come along nicely IMO (in the new contract he is getting 2 mill a year so they're projecting him as a starter), and FB which can be had in the later rounds... and ta-da we are the youngest team in the NFL! What do you guys think? PS I made this thread to show you that just thanks to the 2010 and 2011 drafts we can become a really young team... consider that we'll be active in FA too when big contracts like Faneca, Thomas, Jenkins, Woody are over...
Yeah I have no idea how he makes some of those blocks. That dude is a BEAST. I wish he could play for us for 10 more years.
The thing that concerns me about your list is that so many of those players are in the trenches, specifically on the D-line. I'd love to see us go DE/NT with our first two picks this year if the value is close when we're on the clock. I think you're a bit off on your age assessment for o-linemen too. They seem to play at a high level in there mid 30's quite often. My point is that I think we can live with Faneca and Woody for a couple more years. I do agree we need to replace them soon though.
^agreed I think we need to youthenize our d-line before out o-line. I think the O could play together for another 2 years before any wholes start to show in their armor.
Not that this has anything to do with shit, but Patrik Jarbyn just skiied in the mens downhill at the rip old age of 40, which in skiing terms is pre-historic. But not only did he finish the course, he was only +2.27 outside the winning run. Yeah +2 might as well be 2 days, but he was still competing. As you were :wink:
yea we need new DE and a NT since pouha and Jenks are old. O Line usually can play longer then the D Line but its still scary that TR Faneca and Woody are all so old.
This requires all our draft picks in the first 3 rds for the next two years pan out as starters though.
i think you meant holes. but that's okay. The OL is more of my concern because they protect the future of the Jets. I know it seems like they are indestructible, but at that age, their production will decrease faster than we know it and they are way more prone to injury. Its time to get youth in there quickly. The good news about the age of the DL is that they are in a rotation, which can keep them healthy. You can't rotate Turner and Hunter with Faneca and Woody. It doesn't work that way. Get me those OL replacements first, then we can worry about perfecting one of the top defenses in the league. And anyone saying Bryan Thomas can still play - he's now past his prime and entering the twilight of his career. He is going to be a below average JAG real soon which will put his head on the chopping block at TGG. Its time to find thomas' replacement, and then 2 years from now Pace's replacement. fuck you Vernon Gholston.
I wouldn't go that far when we are potentially losing three players in the secondary. If we go defense in rounds one and two, I would rather have one of the first two be a CB(Wilson, Cox, McCuarty) or a Safety while the other one be a NT. So long as we can grab a nose then we can focus more of the DL remaining on the roster for a rotation at the two end positions and take some reps off of the older guys (Pouha, Ellis, Douglas if he resigns). This is why Iupati is my top pick for the Jets. Faneca and Woody bounced back from a horrendous season of pass blocking in 08/09 but I can easily see them going back the other way thanks to their age. Turner is a decent backup and could come in for a couple of games, Slauson is a question mark but I'll choose to have hope here, seeing hunter in the game for any other reason than being the #3, blocking tight end would probably cause me to go bald.
We don't have to lose anyone in the secondary. I don't think it would be wise for the FO to cut/trade any of them without having a replacement readily available considering the final 4 plan. Of course there has been plenty of speculation, but I'm hoping Tanny has learned his lesson from the Kendall situation. I don't know anything about college football or the draft, but I do know that the Jets haven't drafted a single 3-4 d-lineman since they switched back to the 3-4 in '06. We have drafted 2 first round o-lineman as well as 2 later round o-linemen. The d-line has been pretty neglected in the draft while the o-line has been helped tremendously. I think it's past time we address that d-line in the draft. I'm hoping for AT LEAST one early pick, if not 2.
I think the players I posted will play at a good level (or at least their current level) for another: B. Thomas - 3 years (until he is 33) not necessarily all on the Jets team and prob the last one as a back-up because he ain't all tht good to begin with. S. Pouha - 4/5 years (34-35) because of no wear and tear and because NT last so long. K. Jenkins - 2 years (32) because of wear and tear TJ - Last year, 32 is plenty enough for 200+ carries... he might still have a productive year at 33 for like 100 carries. M. Douglas & S. Ellis - This is their last year at their current level... they might play when they are 34 but only as rotational players (40% or less of the snaps) D. Woody - 2 years (34) A. Faneca - I think he is already showing signs of wearing down... prob a has another season at high level and after that he won't be worth his 8 mill a season contract so we either cut him or he heavily restructures. T-Rich - final season for sure.
We don't have to lose anyone but if we keep the same secondary, the receiver guarded by [not Revis] is going to be a major liability. We have enough DLine to make it through the season with only one replacement coming in so long as the Jets can maintain the rotation. The secondary, right now, is in much worse shape than the DLine. -Strickland has too many injury problems and he's useless in coverage beyond the 10 yard line. -Sheppard has worse injury problems than Strickland and he's been burned way too often. -Lowery is a decent nickel but he cannot play the ball in the air unless it is thrown directly at chest-level. -Drew Coleman is a terrible football player. -I seriously doubt that Kerry Rhodes still wants to be here at this point. I know the Jets are going to find someone who was cut to replace at least one of the guys not named Lowery but the Jets need to find some talent in the draft early for the secondary, especially if trading Rhodes can bring in an extra pick to be that replacement. As I said before, I still want one high DLine. NT seems to be the best bet since every DLine on the roster except for Jenkins has seen reps there. If we bring in someone like Terrence Cody or Boo Robinson, that should fix the DLine for one season, then we grab a DE in 2011(provided there is still a league). We do not have enough picks to concentrate on one part of the team so heavily so early.
You realize we had statistically the best secondary in the league by far last year? I agree there are injury concerns with both Sheppard and Strickland. This is football, and anyone can get injured. Those guys for the most part, did well for us when healthy. Now if you can show me a viable replacement for one of these guys who admittedly seem injury prone, I'd be glad to go ahead and replace them. There's no guarantee that someone we draft will be healthy or play at the level either of these guys did when they were healthy. Lowery is a fine nickel back, he just isn't a #2 corner. Of course Coleman sucks, he's the 5th string corner. Show me a team with a big upgrade over Coleman as there 5th string corner. As for Rhodes, I think all the BS surrounding him was tabloid crap. He'll be back for 1 more year to show Rex whether or not he's his type of player or not IMO. Maybe you're right. I just feel like the d-line has been and if we don't seriously addresses it this season will continue to be neglected in the draft. We've taken a number of d-backs over the last 4 drafts too. Still a big zero on the d-line.
You do realize that Sheppard was benched against Indy for the AFCC game, came in later when Strickland was injured and Lowery was ineffective, and got benched again, right? That argument can be made just as easily for every other player at every other position in the draft. It is THE basic question in the whole process. Neither Wilson, Cox, nor McCuorty had any more major injury problems in college than any DLine available at 29 and 61. In fact, some of the DE prospects who should be on the board in the second round are there due to injury concerns. You're exactly right about Coleman. The problem is that with Sheppard and Strickland on this team, Coleman winds up getting more time on the field than any 5th CB should because at least one of those two gets sidelined for 4-5 games/season. I have yet to see anything from him that proves he: 1. still wants to be here than any other team; and 2. is more valuable to this team than a draft pick in an extremely deep and talented draft. That is why I am still advocating the Jets taking a NT in the first or second. Jenkins is under way more pressure than any other starter on the DLine, he has only one backup on the team in Pouha(Howard Green is gone by the offseason), who is ideally a rotational DE when Jenkins is healthy. If we fix the secondary
Hopefully Tanny and the draft team will decide that hey, we got some old players lets dedicate this draft and next draft on replacing them for the future. Age wise I think priorities should be like this I mean these picks by early rounds (rounds 1 - 3) DL -> This Years Draft Secondary -> This Years Draft OL -> Next Years Draft Linebacker Spots -> Next Years Draft RB -> Next Years Draft Were not going to find a stud at the linebacker position in this draft IMO we have to wait until next year ... Players like Travis Lewis (Oklahoma) Von Miller (Texas A&M) Bruce Carter (UNC) will hopefully declare and are pretty good pass-rushers Regardless were going to need to keep a majority of our picks for the next 2 years, unless Braylon doesn't work out were going to need to trade some picks next year to get AJ Green, Malcolm Floyd or Julio Jones Next Years Draft has plenty of good players for the OL/Linebacker positions
