Adalius Thomas is great in coverage... I know that for a fact. Actually, Adam Schein and Solomon Wilcots were talking about how he is a complete player and is good in coverage as well.
I like that were going after him. But then again I dont know if I want to cut Barton. We should definately draft a DE in the 1st because you can always find a very good runningback in the 2nd round.
I really don't understand why certain individuals are assuming we cut Barton or any other linebacker for that matter if we sign A. Thomas. It's called depth!! In a 3-4, you can never have enough good linebackers. Is this such a hard concept to follow?? If we do cut Barton it will be because of salary, not because he has no place in this defense. And btw, I hope we keep Barton he's a solid player I see no reason to let him go.
All of the cap reports I saw had the jets at 24 mil and higher, and that was before the Barlow and Teague cuts, which is a reported additional 3 mil. I've also seen reports that put the Jets at 28 mil under before those cuts. I've never read 20 mil anywhere.... but I don't claim to be a capologist. Just going on what I've seen reported. I'd be interested to see any link that puts the Jets as low as 20 mil. Here is a site that had the Jets at 28.5.... http://www.askthecommish.com/salarycap/numbers.asp I've seen it reported at 24 to 28 mil prior to the Teague/Barlow cuts, which again were reported to be another 3 mil of cap space.
IMO getting adalius thomas alone will make our pass defense top ten. Last year we had trouble getting pressure on the qb. We adjusted mid-season but we had to send linebackers and safeties just to get pressure. Pressure pless our good safeties means their are going to be very little big plays against the jets next season. All we need now is a corner and our defense will be very good.
He played safety (a lot) for the Ravens and cornerback as well (shutting Chad Johnson down). That says a lot about his cover skills i believe. THE GUY WEIGHS 270 POUNDS! Thats ridiculous. Thomas would be Manginis favorite toy i would guess. He could line him up at Safety and then let Kerry Rhodes blitz or play LB (close to the LOS) and stuff like that. That would be awesome.
So you're saying BT and AT can't play the run? I could understand maybe not knowing much about AT, but BT has been great against the run even before he had developed into a good pass rusher.... I think the combo would be tremendous and would push our LBs into the upper tier in the league (assuming we get a NT, and Vilma can make some plays)
I myself just saw Schefter talking about this on NFL Network. I found it interesting that the Jets were the only team he mentioned for Thomas, and was so sure of us being big time players for him.
With the way free agency seems to be going, increased use of the Franchise Tag and an escalating cap, teams seem to be locking their Free Agents even more...thus the Free Agent pool is getting weaker and weaker. So when a premier OLB falls onto the market that can do everything, and the Jets happen to have 20 Million + in Cap Money, they better at least take a run at him. Tangini continues to impress.
Who cares how many years he wants. Nothing in the NFL is guaranteed, this man could take our defense to the next level. We're not building a team to try and make a run 5 years from now, we are making a run starting next season and AT just came off his best season of his career. And boy was it good.
I did not factor in the 3M for the guys cut. All reports of the 28M do NOT factor in the 8M in incentives Pennington earned BACK.. Clayton reported 20 as did PFT.com.
PROOF on the cap stuff. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2762784 This doesn't include the 3.1...
as good as AT is, this seems to be a similar situation to improving the running game. we know that no matter what RB we have, there's no place to run the ball because of our deficient run-blocking OL. with our deficient DL (we don't even know who our NT is, who our DE is, where Robertson fits in), AT won't generate the same type of pressure he did with Baltimore. i think he'll still be effective, just not as much because our DL and overall D isn't as good as Baltimore's. combine that with his age, and i'll understand if Mangini and Tannenbaum don't sign him. having said that, i wouldn't be disappointed if we did get him; as long as they're cautious with the contract. i just don't want another Mo Lewis/Marvin Jones scenario. cheers
I love how everyone is acting like Adalius Thomas is one of the best players in the league. Yes he would help but not at the price he will probably command IMO. The reality is that he is a 30 year OLB that has had ONLY 2 good seasons in the NFL. I'd much rather draft an OLB. We need to improve at that spot, but there are 2 positions of more importance on defense RDE and RCB. I don't want to overpay for him.
He is one of the best defensive players in the league. CB is not a bigger need than the pass rush, they go hand in hand, improving the pass rush will automaticly improve the secondary. Besides if we sign Thomas he is immediatly the best CB on the roster.:wink:
