How are we going to make decisions on the draft and FA if we can't judge players unless they were on a good team? If a team played a schedule of week defensive fronts how do we judge the OL players we take or the skill position players we take. Any JAG can look good behind a great line but special players show it no matter what kind of team they are on.
Now, I was talking about the NYJ players in that quote. But as far as the Free Agency candidates and the college draftees, the coaches all have a lot of tape on every one of these guys. They will take a look at each candidate's one-on-ones in every situation they were in last year. They will compare common situations, and also common competitors, and grade each candidate's performance in each instance against the position in other common situations and the position against common competitors. The grades will come up with the decisions for the CS. That's apparently the way they all do it in the NFL. Some are good at it, and some are not so good. But when you judge a team -- i.e., the NYJ -- you have to take into account how well the OL blocks and also how well the skill players take advantage of it. I think you will have to say that given the piss-poor blocking this year, Leon and Thomas are both keepers. I would also say the same thing about our WRs and our QBs. 1.3 seconds is not enough time to take advantage of all the WR's bag of tricks, only the short ones... I would always like to take that into account when you criticize the team, not just the individual.
The coaches rightly or wrongly see Leon as a part time change of pace back at best and Jones has never been more than an average NFL back. He certainly is servicable but he is not and has never been a game changer. Coles numbers are on the decline and were on the decline with Washington after his toe injury. Moss goes over to the same team and is an outright game breaking stud compared to Coles. I like Coles he's a good player but he is on the back 9 and has had his bell rung a few to many times to invest big bucks in.
Rec Yds Yds/Rec Long TDs Games Coles 2007 55 646 11.7 57 6 12 Jets Moss 2007 61 808 13.2 49 3 16 Redskins Coles 2006 91 1098 12.1 58 6 16 Jets Moss 2006 55 790 14.4 68 6 16 Redskins Coles 2005 73 845 11.6 43 5 16 Jets Moss 2005 84 1483 17.7 78 9 16 Redskins Coles 2004 90 950 10.6 45 1 16 Redskins Moss 2004 45 838 18.6 69 5 16 Jets So that's the actual comparison -- and neither team has won the SB during either one's tenure. I also notice that Coles has a few more touchdowns under his belt this last go-round, even though he played four fewer games than Moss.
I'm not arguing that Coles isn't as good as Moss just the idea that his YPC is because or our OL. You argued Coles was impacted by our OL but the fact is his best YPC was last year with the Jets. He has been a short cath possession reciever on both Washington and the Jets since 2004. Moss on both teams has been a big play WR. Coles played 3 less games than Moss last year but Moss was in and out all last year with injuries and probably played less total minutes than Coles last year. The other factor with Coles is he is not a guy who is just nicked up, he is a guy with multiple concussions. That is a death sentence in the NFL. The team made a huge mistake resigning Chrebet when he was a danger to himself on the field. No point in doing it again. Coles should have been unloaded last off season after Zach Thomas poped him and he had max value. Now we are in a position of over paying, having a holdout and not being able to get value for him. I would give him permission to work out a sign and trade deal, we can find out if there is any real interest and it takes his bitch about management off the table. I believe Coles when he says he only wants to play a year or two, I think he is being honest about that and the team should treat him accordingly.
Yards per catch is either caused by long passes or great successful efforts after the catch. Since the OL was lousy this year, then Coles' yards per catch are more than likely due to his extraordinary efforts after the catch. Naturally, the only long (for a TD) pass he was thrown came from our infamous "spaghetti arm", CP. I think the protocols for head injuries on the NYJ (as well as the rest of the NFL at large) have been changed radically in the last two years. It is no longer relevant to talk about Chrebet as a 'standard' for today's athelete. They're saying that the head injury due diligence is an order of magnitude higher now. They take and keep "before" and "after pictures of every player's head as a matter of course. So if Coles is in the imminent danger you say he is, the docs aren't going to let him near the field now. Just look at Vilma who refused to believe he was so seriously injured that he was shocked to be put on IR. Also, I don't underestimate the high esteem in which Coles is held by all his team mates. What happens to Coles is important to them. How the FO and CS treat Coles will make a difference to everybody on that team and how they proceed themselves in their own dealing with the FO and the CS.
The last time he had decent yards per catch was in 03 and even than his numbers were not great as far as YPC for a No.1. I know today medicine is so good that your arm is better after 30 and 2 shoulder surgeries and your brain doesn't get damaged from multiple concussions.
