Oh God, honestly have you been paying attention to anything? Tomlinson is not replacing Jones. Shonn Greene is replacing Jones as the starter. He is now the workhorse. Shonn Green is a better player at this stage than Thomas Jones. We saw that in the playoffs. Tomlinson essentially is taking over Greene's backup role. He is more versatile and gives us more options. Joe McKnight is a younger, cheaper version of Leon. He has no injury concerns and won't potentially miss the first 6 games of the season. Plus he is low cost. Maybe we are "less talented" at Safety, but we have a player who fits what Rex wants better. Rhodes was an asshole plain and simple. It's a case of addition by subtraction. And don't rule out adding someone like Sharper. On the OL we are less talented, why? Because we lost the guard who allowed the most sacks int he NFL last season and are plugging in guys who our coaching staff feels will do a better job? Jason Taylor has never stepped up? Who would you prefer to be rushing the qb, Vernon Gholston and Bryan Thomas? You are insane to think Taylor isn't a better option to rush the passer than those guys, even at his age. And I love how you are only focusing on the potentially negative things instead of realizing we have a much more explosive offense now and went from 1 good corner to 3 good corners. We got Jenkins back. We added a pass rusher who Rex truly believes will excel in his system. I understand how many Jets fans loved Leon, but in the grand scheme of things he was very replaceable and the moves the Jets made were for the best. Tannenbaum has earned our trust.
If the difference in YPC is 0.6, then Tomlinson will at least equal that behind an overall better OL and in an overall better Offense that now will spread opposing Defenses out with a lethal Passing threat. Speaking of intangibles, which player do you think younger guys are more willing to learn from: Tomlinson or TJ? Neither RB has won anything; cancel out that element. So, towards which RB are players more likely to gravitate: Hall-of-Famer-and-one-of-the-greatest-ever or good-character-guy-who-hits-the-gym-really-hard? Junc, I'm dizzy from all of this spinning. You're the guy who swears by Stats and when someone else uses them to dispute you, suddenly, you claim the Stats aren't credible. I can't say I'm the least bit surprised. For your argument's sake, IF these numbers are disputed, the fact that Faneca is EVEN IN THE CONVERSATION with these numbers - i.e. the worst pass-blocking G's in the NFL - should be a telltale sign that he's a major liability. If you can't recognize that, then..I don't know.. And laying the blame on Sanchez for Faneca's ineptitude is such a cop-out. Interestingly, Brick allowed very few Sacks while protecting the same rookie QB. Maybe Sanchez liked him better? Maybe Sanchez chose to be unsure of himself only for the Sacks Faneca allowed? I won't even dignify this with a further response.
On one hand, I feel like it would have been better if the Jets waited for one of the younger guys to beat him out to cut Faneca. On the other hand, I've heard that Alan Faneca (the weakest link) was the leader of the offensive line. In that respect, I think it might be a good thing that we cut him sooner rather than later. Isn't Nick Mangold a captain? Isn't he our best offensive lineman? He should be the leader of that line. In a way I think this is similar to Antonio Pearce for the Giants last season. He was the leader of their defense and once he went down the Giants had no one ready to step in as the leader of that defense even though it wasn't difficult to replace his production. Same case here, Faneca (apparently) offers more as a leader than a player. We needed to replace him before his play completely fell off.
My only concern with Faneca being cut is how it will affect our rushing attack. We all talk about how much better LT will do behind our offensive line, but will it still be an elite O-Line without Faneca? He was only a liability in the passing game.
I'm not a NFL cap expert by any means, but I can't help but think the cutting of Faneca was an attempt to eliminate any guaranteed money he had coming next year & the prorated portion of his signing bonus. We have a lot of guys to resign next year, and the cap or lack there of is a big unknown. In a typical capped season, cutting him now would accelerate all of the remaining guaranteed money & prorated signing bonus to the current year. It may not be solely Faneca's deteriorating ability or the $2mil in savings this year, and many critics may just be short-sited, rather than understand potential benefits to making cuts in an uncapped year.
Even if there is no cap next season, there is no reason to keep his money on the books next year. The Jets are going to need every available resource to keep the core players who are set to leave.
I love the potential of our D but they rarely stepped up in big spots and that is what a true #1 D does. We easily could have been 11-5, 12-4 if they can make some stops at the ends of games. In year 2 I expect we'll be a true #1 defense w/ the guys being in the system for a year and the changes we made. I undrestand he's not replacing 2009 Thomas Jones, he's replacing 2009 Shonn Greene. 2009 Shonn Greene averaged 5 YPC and 2010 TJ was going to have the same role 2010 LT will have. Greene is the workhorse- you know he'll be able to survive 16+ games? as a part timer he was hur often last year including when we needed him most in Indy. We stopped scoring when Greene left the game. Anyone who is not concerned about his durability is kidding themselves. Does anyone actually read the discussions? I never said getting rid of rhodes was a bad thing. Someone else brought up talent and how we are so much more talented, I just mentioned some areas where we got less talented. He didn't give up the most sacks in the NFL and now we are relying ona rookie from UMass to fill in for a 10+ year vet who has started 35 straight games alongside the other 4 OL. I'm ok w/ Taylor as a situational guy but facts are facts and this is a guy who doesn't have a single postseasons ack despite playing in about 6 postseason games. he was the leader of a D that choked every time threy faced a big game late in the year. he won't be a leader here but you guys are acting like we got lawrence taylor 1986 to rush the passer. I'm not focusing on anything, I was disappointed in the moves we made over the weekend that are still fresh in our minds. I believe we have more talent but we lost alot of good players who were also well respected and team leaders in the LR. I apologize if I don't think every move the Jets make is a good move, I have a mind of my own and I have enough knowledge to make judgements for myself. I expect LT to at least be close to 4.0 YPC. I think young Rbs could learn alot from either back. you don't think leon and Greene were listening when Thomas Jones spoke b/c he wasn't as good as LT was in his prime? What good is a leader if that player cannot play anymore? how did Ronnie Lott lead our D in the early-mid 90s? Ronnie was a much better leader than LT and our guys still tuned him out. I apply stats that are relevant. It's hard to use stats to gauge OL. You don't think a young, indecisive QB can affect whether a QB gets sacked? I'm not laying the blame on sanchez(and I didn't say the sacks allowed were only from guys Faneca was blocking- nice reach), I'd have to go back and check all the sacks but I know we had no problems in pass protection a year ago and I know we had a great run blocking OL. It was definitely about next year and the return of the cap.
