Given a night to think about the first three rounds I definitely see some positives in them. First, the Jets have clearly established the team identity now. The Jets are good on defense. That's what they're going to win with moving forward in the Ryan era. They made two picks out of the three that were not crying needs but that solidified the defense in a big way moving forward. Declaring the team's identity is a good thing and it is a sign that the Jets are thinking about what elite teams do. Second, they got great value on the first two picks in the draft for where they were slotted. Coples and Hill are both great prospects that slid some because of the schemes they were used in by UNC and GT. Davis may or may not be great value. Some analysts had him as a 6-7, others had him better than that. It's all going to depend on how the Jets use him and how he responds to the opportunity to be in the middle of a great defense. If he responds well it's going to be a great defense. There were some negatives too. The Jets again did not exercise a 4th or 5th round pick in the draft. Depth is an issue and I'm not sold at all on Tim Tebow as a backup QB (too much risk of QB controversy) or as a starter (he's just not that good.) So the Jets are once again facing the real risk of having an injury related wipe-out on the offensive side next year. That would be the 2005 scenario. They face the real risk of having a skills related wipeout on offense next year. That would be the 2007 scenario. They face almost no risk that the defense will wipeout though and they've declared that as the most important unit on the team. That's the rock the Jets have tied themselves to when the storms come. The question for the Jets next season is whether or not they can come to grips with the team identity or not. The Jets are not going to be a high-powered offense next year. They just don't have the talent for that. So if the offense sputters under Sparano early on (and it's about 75% that happens) the Jets can take two different approaches to the problem. They can do a big shake-up and try to get things moving, which will likely fail because the talent is just not there. Or they can accept the fact that the offensive line has gaps and the QB is not all-world and the WR's all have issues of one sort or another and the backs just aren't a great group. They can work at doing what they have planned to do better and make provisions for future replacements at positions of real need on the offensive side. The biggest problem in 2011 for the Jets was that the FO and coaching staff could not come to grips with the fact that their vision for the team was not matched by the talent to make that plan succeed. Mark Sanchez dropped back 68 times against the Giants in the 2nd to last game of the season. By that time it was abundantly clear to anybody who was watching the Jets last year that the talent was not there, anywhere on the offensive side, to make that work. If the Jets had gone G&P last year at the mid-season mark they're probably back in the AFC championship game again. They just couldn't come to grips with that.
This is true but if Sanchez goes off this season don't think for a second that he wouldn't become the identity. Great defense and good offense would be lovely.
I still think we have a good core. The difference between the 2011 Jets and 2010 Jets was just a few plays here and there. Plays that come to mind was Cromartie fumbling in Oakland, Sanchez calling a TO before the half against the Patriots, then of course Cruz's TD. If we can get back to Ground and Pound and not make all those stupid mistakes, we will be in the playoffs. The 3 teams we will be fighting for the Wildcard will be the Bengals, Titans, and Chargers. No reason why we dont make the playoffs.
I really like the upgrades made to the Defense, I have serious reservations to our ability to run the ground and pound this year. To be effective on offense, I honestly believe they are going to have to open the play book up for Sanchez and let him throw it. Quick slants to Hill, Keller and Holmes hopefully will open up deeper pass routes. Ground and pound this year? I do not see that happening as of now.
Draft is still going on...But, our first few moves seem solid. I like the Stephen Hill pick the most, the guy looks incredible and very surprising he fell out the 1st round. Sanchez has good tools around him, we just have to hope the Coples pick pans out.
That's definitely what the personnel suggests. However the Jets averaged 3.8 yards a carry last season. What have they done since then to fix that? 3.8 yards a carry isn't going to create Ground and Pound, it's going to create Ground Meat.
The biggest problem last year was they gave Sanchez approval to change the play at the line of scrimmage and after that he thought he was Peyton Manning.
I'm in favor of eliminating the term "Ground and Pound" for eternity. While I am in favor of a strong running game, and building an offense around that philosophy, I hate the fucking cute nicknames. Let's ban it. Sick of saying it, more in favor of doing it. We shouldn't be giving ourselves nicknames. Reminds me of "Shock and Awe" from the Gulf War. Don't need it. Wreaks of overconfidence. Actions speak louder than words.
It was subpar no doubt about it. I think some of that was due to the first 6+ weeks of the season where we were a zone blocking team. I remember reading at the first NE game, we scrapped a lot of our o-line schemes and went back to what worked for us the previous 2 seasons. I don't have the numbers off hand but I'm sure the running YPC had to be close to 4.5 for the rest of the season. Coincidentally this is where Greene picked up the slack and finished with 1,000+ yds. I'm curious what this team plans to do with our #2 back. I feel like it hasn't been mentioned at all. I'm all for giving McKnight a shot, but I haven't heard any media member or Jets FO guy endorse him.
I more or less agree. Last year's Jets had just about everything possible go wrong, and they still won 8 games -- obviously not what we want, but the bottom isn't completely falling out on a team with studs like Revis, Harris, Mangold, and Ferguson. I'm skeptical that any of our picks so far will have a huge immediate impact, but all help to repair our depth and all have star potential. And I'm glad that we went BPA instead of reaching for a safety or a tackle just because Smith/Hunter suck balls -- wait for a cap casualty to fill those holes. There's still lots of work to do, but I'm happy with the way the first 3 rounds went.
Agreed. That was my feeling about last year's team as well. 7+ turnovers on ST, over half our points we gave up were from our offense turning the ball over, turmoil in the locker room, etc. yet we managed to win 8 games. Couple of those stats I threw out there simply aren't sustainable given a small sample size of 16 games. For that reason alone I think we'll improve.
They took a two time Naitonal Champion, and Heisman Trophy winner, Playoff winning QB with running ability, with their fourth round pick. If they line him up as an HBack, with the addition of hill, the defense is going to look more open than a gookers thighs on New Years Eve.
Ground and pound? Doesnt that require a descent OL? Also, with Greene's style of running, he'll be out halfway through the season if we think he's gonna carry the load by him self! What do we do when Greene goes down?
Potentially, but remember turmoil and turnovers are not some random event that even itselves out across teams in the end. It is a grave mistake to think that was unlucky and not a reflection on the teams staff.
Unless tanny starts trading our next year's picks this is pretty much the end of the draft. Doubtful we'll get anything useful out of our 6th and 7th round picks.
Tanny has done OK finding guys in the 6th and 7th. Drew Coleman, Chansi Stuckey, Slauson and McElroy. I'll bet he can find at least one contributor today with all these picks, especially if he takes a K or a P.
