Erik Coleman.......I dont get it.

As a NYC area team, we have had a fair share of players that chose the night life over their NFL career. There is really no way to know what happened to this guy but he has been mediocre since his frist year ended. Good riddance at this point.

 

I don't understand it much either. Coleman is not, by any means, a great player, but he was a solid S and complimented Rhodes' style pretty well.

Coleman, contrary to how he played his rookie season, had developed into a bit of a conservative S, and stopped making as many big plays, but also was not beaten too often, and was a good 'last-line of defense' so to speak, as he rarely over-pursued or over-ran outside running plays......

With a player like that next to him, Rhodes was freed up to move closer to the line, make more plays in the running game, and blitz more often....

It's no mistake that Kerry's tackle numbers have fallen as Coleman's playing time has been reduced.

With Coleman as his full-time companion in the secondary in Rhodes' rookie year, he recorded 106 tackles.

With Coleman still getting most of the PT next to him in 2006, Rhodes recorded 99 tackles...

With Coleman in Mangini's doghouse, and Eric Smith or Abram Elam next to him in 2007, Rhodes recorded 68 tackles.

When you have a playmaker 'rover' type safety on your roster, it is important to compliment him with a fundamentally sound, conservative S, so as to free him up to move around and make plays...

Putting Abram Elam next to Rhodes at the S spot made it so Rhodes really had to think twice before approaching the LOS, and the CS had to think twice before sending him on a blitz. With an overaggressive undisciplined player as the other S, blitzing Rhodes would leave the secondary EXTREMELY vulnerable to the big play...

Smith was a little better as he was not nearly as much of a bone-head as Elam, but still was nothing special in coverage, at all.....

I don't know what Erik Coleman did, but unless we bring in a very good S to work with Rhodes, I'd hope Coleman would get a fair shot at earning his spot back next season...

 

I agree 100%.

Unless you have any evidence to confirm this, don't even bring up a player choosing the nightlife over football. You have no idea what he does in his spare time, so don't go passing judgment on him.

 

Very good post, Beamen.

Interesting!

 

Maybe the appendectomy ruined him. It took BigBen a year, but at least he bounced back.

 

Do you forget the multiple missed tackles, poor tackling angles and missed assignments?

I don't know what he did to become such an afterthought, but the guy did make a boatload of mistakes the last couple of seasons. He just hasn't played well.

 

He was getting beat alot and blowing coverages early in the year. Rhodes and Coleman are the same type of player, ballhawking but not great at stopping the run at the LOS. We need a hardhitting SS who can be at the LOS which Smith and Elam are better at which allows Kerry to play centerfield which he is best at. just my thoughts on it

 

Maybe he just sucked to begin with and other then a few picks as a rookie he hasn't done anything?

 

I dont think he sucked to begin with. He had 121 tackles in 05, and 101 in 06.

He may have blown a couple of plays, but early in the year everyone on the D sucked balls. Other guys made mistakes and still played. Elam made more stupid plays than anyone on the team. EC just never made it out of the doghouse this season. He might have done better if E. Smith didnt get hurt and they had a better rotation back there.

 

We shouldn't have a rotation at any position except RB. Good teams have stability everywhere.

 

There has been a lot of rotation on the D, with them bringing in different packages and looks depending on down and distance. They dont play the same 11 guys all game on the DL, and in the secondary.

 

I really have to disagree with some of the stuff in this thread.

1.) The notion that Elam was some wildy undisciplined player. That is a load of crap. When he first came in he made a couple of mistakes to be sure. However, since the bye week he was a stout player that rotated with E. Smith and surely cut his mistakes down to a minimum.

2.) To further point #1 and this notion that a conservative Coleman helped Kerry Rhodes, if that was the case how come the vast majority of his big plays came after the bye week or the emergence/insertion of Elam? That argument makes absolutely no sense at all.

What helped Rhodes was both the emergence of Harris and Elam. They both took good care of the tackling chores and actually freed K. Rhodes up to make the big plays. If you look, almost all of his defended passes and interceptions came week 7 on. As evidenced by Kerry's tackles decreasing but his big plays significantly increasing.

Rhodes was able to get back into his role of playmaker. He is especially good in coverage and ball hawking. The only reason he was able to get back into that role was the emergence of a stouter middle in regards to the Jets defense.

I understand that first impressions linger the longest but really the entire defense improved as the season progressed and Coleman really played zero part of that.

For those of you that dislike Elam and think I am nuts, it really does not matter. I think E. Smith is ultimately going to have the other safety position regardless in 2008. He is fine to as long as he does not get injured, which has been his Achilles heal.

 

Thats the problem i'm stating. Great Defenses have their 11 starters play 45-55 snaps every game and has very little rotation.

We have too much rotation with our system. No consistency.

 

The CS has been jerking guys in and out of the lineup all year like they were yo-yos. They clearly overdid it, imho, and it was part of them screwing around with the personnel, like switching BT to the other side even though he was coming off a successful year.

But seeing how this was how they did things, I stand by my point that EC would have possibly played better if he was able to sub in and out with a healthy E.Smith.

 

That is completely untrue. All great defenses have stars for sure. Yes they play the majority of snaps. However every great defense uses rotation at least some extent some more than others.

The Patriots for instance use it way more than you think. It is a hallmark of good DC's to rotate lineman/LB's to keep them fresh. It does not hurt to have good depth and the Jets D is certainly not there yet.

 

I understand depth and stamina, but its having the caliber of starter at a position so that the rotations are substantially less.

Revis, Harris, and Rhodes will not be subbed for as much as BT, CB,SS#2, and 3/5 of the O-Line.

I'm saying we "over-rotate" the personnel on Defense. Way more than anyone should. Granted the reasons why, which is why we need to acquire better players.

 

You and I obviously have differing opinion of when Kerry Rhodes is most effective... You seem to like him strictly playing center field, and I think he is more of an asset when he is free to roam, making plays in pass coverage, the running game, and getting after the QB here and there... You tend to gauge his effectiveness strictly on the plays he makes in pass coverage, while I prefer to look at his body of work against both the pass and the run, as well as when he is asked to blitz.... That's a difference of opinion though, and is not worth debating....

As for Elam, if you think he was even close to solid, you obviously didn't spend time watching him (which is very possible if you watch the games on TV, as the S's aren't always visible)...

I went to 5 of the home games this season, and Elam played a large portion of the snaps in 3 of them....

In watching Elam, I saw a player who takes TERRIBLE angles on ball carriers (specifically on outside runs) and subsequently opens huge cutback lanes for runners, almost defeating the purpose of being the 'safety-man,' whose traditional role is to be the last line of defense, whom nobody from the offense will get behind....

I saw a player who has VERY slow reaction time in the passing game, and, again takes terrible angles when breaking on a pass, often times seeming to be completely unaware as to the position of the receiver or his fellow defenders....

I saw a player who draws cheers from the crowd for finishing 5+ yard runs with crushing hits, despite the fact that he was often times a full second late or more in reading the play, and breaking towards the ball carrier...

I saw a player with poor instincts, who was way too anxious to play the run, resulting in him biting on more play-fakes than I can count...

I sure hope we either bring in a better player for the 2nd safety spot, or Smith and Coleman get to compete for the job....

If I see Elam on the field for anything other than special teams, I'm likely to be sick...

 

You are correct it is not worth debating. It is splitting hairs. He is great in coverage but was used way more aggressively by this staff after the bye week, without the conservative Coleman next to him. He was not asked to play run coverage at the line, they used Elam and Smith for that.

I am being completely honest when I say, I have no earthly idea how he was more effective early with Coleman largely by his side.

As for Elam, I guess we agree to disagree. After all there are some on this site that think Chad is an effective QB so I guess we can see what we want to see in a player. I do not think he is nearly as bad as you say and I think the results of the D say something different when he was in there, albeit he was not the root cause for it.


Edit: I do not want to inflate the player, he was no pro-bowler, far from it. He was an effective alternative to Coleman imo.