I would not call him fantastic, even as a DC. But he is a good DC. In 2021 we had #32 rated scoring defense by a fairly wide margin. He did have a lot of scrubs then or younger guys, so I wouldn't blame him too much for it, but we can say with 100% certainty he didn't overperform the talent he had. In 2022 we had #4 rated defense, which was his best performance, but there is a little bit of a catch there. We were bottom 4 in takeaways. Still, it is fair to say it was a top 10 unit in NFL. However, if you look at the talent we had, we also had top 10 talent. So, I am not really sure if he outcoached the talent we had, but it was a good performance on defensive side. In 2023 we had #12 defense and #10 in takeaways. Not unlike a year before this was perhaps a top 10 unit again. And again, there was some top end talent on the team. Last year defense regressed even with him in the 1st 5 games, but the wheels fell off after he left. We finished #20 overall. Had he stayed, could we have finished #10 again? Just looking back at the SF game, and without JJ, Huff, and JFM, I think we would have struggled to do so. Saleh to me is someone who can develop young D players. He keeps the defense simple, vanilla, which allows him to play up to the level of the talent he has but not really exceed it. And you could see the same pattern in SF as well. He had bottom 5 defense in 2018. Got injections of talent in 2019 and he had #8 defense in 2019. When Bosa got hurt in 2020, he slid to #17. He is a good defensive coach who can put out a good defense if he has good players. But I would stop short of calling him a fantastic one. Actually looking back at last year, with Glenn finishing #7 in defense and #8 in takeaways given all the injuries is probably more impressive than any season Saleh has ever had in his career.
Some coaches need great players, some coaches create great players. Saleh hasn’t created a single great player I can recall.
Fields had a nice icy answer for the NY media they asked him how he'd feel if the Jets select a QB in the draft. He said "I dont like rhetorical questions. I'll teach, but I don't like rhetorical questions." he's fitting in good
Which is why you don't draft a QB. Not now. I would really hate for us to waste one of our top 4 picks on a QB. Too many other needs to help Fields win instead of drafting an extremely low probability shot at his replacement.
Let's face it, the top two QB's in this draft more than likely will be career backups, if that. Neither stand out in any significant way. It's also never a good sign when most folks are whipping up sentences like, "if this were any other draft, Sanders and Ward would be low first round/2nd/3rd round QB's."
Ward may be legit. But it is a moot point, he will go #1 overall. The best QB we could have gotten this year was Fields by a very wide margin. And we got him! I think this was a big move by AG/Mooge, and I now want to draft help for him, not another low probability rookie QB in a weak QB draft.
Yeah…given the relatively weak QB class this year, I agree that Fields was probably the best option…and I’m not much of a Fields guy even. So I too would rather use our picks to fill needs (OT, WR, TE, DT, DE) and give Fields a third shot at making it, and then if he doesn’t do well (to me that’s more than a 50/50 shot that he doesn’t do well), we can go for the QB next year. But I have to say…there have been WAY too many examples of supposedly “great” QB classes pre draft that have not panned out. So it’s possible that one or two of these QBs turn out to be ok…who knows?
Everything is possible. You could take some scrub in the 6th round and he could become a GOAT. I mean it happened before. But it is extremely unlikely, whether a QB class is overall good or not. I just think right now we took our shot on Fields, we give him a chance and we draft to help him and the team in other needs. If that doesn't work we will take out low probability QB shots next year.
I know how much of a crap shoot the QB position seems to be and I think that goes double for the Jets who have historically bad results with their own drafted QB's. However, if I'm on a QB bandwagon, it's certainly going to be in a class where, at the very least, most in the league are talking about how good the position is vs. how mediocre, like this year. I want consensus if at all possible. Having said all that, the Jets always seem to do better with a veteran QB. ALWAYS. That bodes well for Fields, if he can cut down on the mistakes and improve on reading defenses, as he could have a future in the league, above being a backup. Odds are, on team 3, he won't but nothing is 100% in this world and, if I'm going to have a bit of hope for the 2025 season, it's going to be with a guy we "know," to a greater/lesser degree, vs. a couple of kids that even most talking heads have as serious unknowns.
I think Fields has greater odds to succeed than a rookie we will be in position to take next year and certainly this year. But if he does not succeed, we will have no choice but to take a shot at a rookie. Right now though we do have a chance. And the smart money is to improve the team elsewhere and see it out with Fields.
Agreed! Sometimes I think folks forget that. Yeah, Fields may not end up being the answer but anyone we bring in this year will benefit any QB we have to draft next and beyond. AG and company definitely played this offseason the best they could given the circumstances. I have a lot more faith in a new regime working with a known quantity, at QB, than an unknown. That's for sure.
I’m just happy my fav team has a likable QB to root for for once instead of that Green Bay packer dickhead or that mamas boy from Utah.
Just thinking back…you can count on one hand the number of QBs the Jets have drafted that turned out to be good/great…Namath, O’Brien (and even then, we passed on Marino), Pennington, is that it? Maybe you can count Richard Todd in there though not quite as good as those guys. It’s a pathetic history really. I also think it’s funny that we’ve now seen 2 former Jet QBs go on to success elsewhere in Geno and Darnold, though both took quite a long time to actually play well, so that to me shows that coaching and environment are crucial to the success of a drafted QB. With us, both of those guys were not very good, surrounded by poor offensive talent and poor coaching. So yah, feels like for us at least, going with a veteran is more likely to succeed. Problem is, you really need to draft and develop your own if you want sustained success…
Friends with a ton of Bears fans. They did not like rooting for Fields. Good dude, but if he can't hit the broad side of a barn I won't like him all that much.
You know, there once was a time where drafted QB's actually "rode the pine" for the better part of 2 or 3 years (sometimes longer) before even getting a SHOT to start. Hell, Rodgers was on the bench for what, 2 or 3 years himself, before getting the starting nod. Steve Young, a lot longer. Although he did start in the USFL. However, while I agree with the Geno Smith assessment, Darnold is actually about right on time. He's in year 6-ish and, if you take off the few years he was on the Jets, getting probably ZERO decent coaching, he's hitting just about the right time. Carolina is just as much of a mess as the Jets but 2 years under decent coaching and look at him. I'm willing to bet had he had someone like Shanahan or O'Connel, right after the draft, you'd probably be seeing him be productive 3 years sooner than he is now. Just an opinion but the facts kind of play themselves out.
