What happened I think can be deduced from the fact that the Jets did try, did make some efforts, to get a Cb in FA. I think they felt that they could do that and not bother having to redo Cromartie's contract. Even a Cro fan like me knew he would have been overpaid without a restructuring. But the Jets chose to let him go rather than restructure, and instead attempted to get DRC and made some other efforts to replace Cro. But they failed in FA, and then had to go to the backup, which was Patterson, since Cro had already left and been taken in by Arizona. The Jets may have had SOME concerns about his hip, but from all I've read there was nothing to show he had a career threatening or permanent injury. Obviously Arizona did not think that was his situation. The other stuff defenders of letting him go refer to is alleged problems with him on the team, but I think for the most part he was a positive influence.
While the secondary was pretty decent in the game against the Raiders, I wouldn't be judging them..or DRC yet. I and I think any Jet fan that was annoyed with them not improving the secondary was not pissed at them for not "overspending". We were just pissed that they spent nothing on the position. DRC could have been lit up 10 times last night and I would still take him over Walls any day of the week. The only way Idziks true gamble..and it was a huge gamble....pays off is if Milliner comes back and plays like he did the last 4 games of the season and Allen plays the position not great..but even above average. Still, you sit there with Wilson in a nickel or dime..which is a loss. Have to say this though, while it was tough to really gauge how well the db's played because of the qb/receiver we went up against..the guys tackled incredibly well and that's not anything to sneeze at. If you are going to rely on a pass rush to make an average d backfield good, teams will start with 3 step drops to beat that..and these guys...Allen especially can tackle. Really impressed with that lack of YAC they had. The screen passes to receivers omitting the td play was friggin outstanding. Put into the mix Pryor who is going to be a probowl guy in the next couple years...they have the foundation. The only fear is the deep ball and we will find out about that during the next month.
Regardless of whether it is thought that Walls made a bad play on the Jones touchdown his one saving grace is that he does not struggle on deep balls. He has the speed and more so the recovery speed to run with receivers on streaks. He's not very good on staying with receivers in and out of their breaks specifically over the middle or on comebacks but he doesn't struggle with running with receivers on full on streaks. His ball skills remain to be seen. Our biggest problem in the secondary is going to be covering deep routes over the middle, streaks on slot receivers and options routes with receivers so long as Rex is persistent on leaving linebacker in single coverage against slot receivers and runningback in his blitz packages. Our linebacking core is good but we don't have a Kuechly that can run with receivers at all. Having Antonio Allen on the outside rather than covering tightends and the slot hurts the middle of the defense while it helps the outside as far as we know.
Yes. Allen being the best player in the secondary to cover passes in the middle is the best reason to not leave him outside even if he is adequate or better outside.
OH crap JV...that play? He played that as well as 90% of the db's in the league could have. Did not mean that play at all. Also agree...the long ball will do this team in if anything does..because it will be a tough team to nickel and dime against.
I tried to find it but couldn't. Only mention I could find was in the ESPN Power Rankings. It said Carr was 13 of 18 for 120 yards and 2TD's when the Jets did not blitz. His numbers were apparently putrid when they blitzed, but they didn't give specific numbers.
We don't know who the best pass defender in the middle is at this point. It could very easily be Calvin Pryor. Dawan Landry is a very good tackler in the middle so we don't have much of a loss with Allen on the outside. I think the Jets should let Allen stay out there until Milliner is healthy. His upside in coverage is not huge but he's got a safety's instincts for how to play in space and if the Jets play some Cover 2 I expect him to get some picks as well as not miss many tackles.
The Jets were one of three teams that won last weekend and didn't rise in the rankings. The #1 and #2 teams were the others. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say lots of people who voted on those rankings didn't watch Jets-Raiders.
you would think a fan like you would know they could not restructure him: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on...rtie-expects-jets-to-release-him-in-offseason
What do you think about Milliner and Allen as the starting CB's Wilson as the nickel and Walls as the backup? Then when we play a team with real receiving TE weapon, we can bring Allen in on most plays to cover the TE, and play Walls as the outside CB. Green Bay doesn't have a legitimate TE so we wouldn't have to worry about it this week, but when we play San Diego and New England it seems like a valid strategy. Some teams like the Buffalo or Minnesota who have ok receiving TE's might draw coverage from Allen a bit but their bigger weapons are their second receivers, aka Robert Woods/Sammy Watkins and Greg Jennings/Cordarelle Patterson
I didn't see anything out of Walls this last game that would make me want to take him out of the game. If the Jets had two good starting CB's then yeah Walls is on the bench but they don't at the moment.
I apologize. I meant they should have attempted to negotiate a new deal with him after cutting him. He did say, after all, he wanted to stay. As far as was reported, the Jets merely cut him and made no attempt to cut a new deal with him. I apologize for inexact language.
I don't see either of them as more talented *at CB* than the other. Allen is a better tackler and plays better off his man and Walls is better in tighter coverage *against a WR*. I'm ok with both of them on the edges until Milliner is good to go. At that point you probably want Allen on the field but the question is where you want him, at CB or at safety?
Given the circumstances you refer to, I agree with this assessment, and would not be surprised to see it be what they do.
Well I think if you look at the top 5 secondary players, Walls is number 5. I think Landry is a better safety than Walls is a CB, so I'd rather keep Allen on the field than Walls. We will see over the next couple weeks but based on what I've seen so far it makes the most sense to me.
Not to encroach, but I think it's bigger than whether Allen or Walls is better at CB. The best part about the Rex Ryan defense is flexibility. I'm sure you are aware of this. But I think it would be best to force teams to prepare for Walls, whether he is limited or isn't, and use Allen as a safety that could be rotated to three different positions.
I absolutely agree, I've posted in other threads talking about the possibility of using Allen at safety to cover TE's against teams like New England or San Diego, and switching Walls back outside. And of course I don't mean play Allen at CB or safety exclusively in a game, but if a team's bigger receiving threat is it's TE then we can use Allen more there, or if it's bigger receiving threat is the #2 WR we can use Allen more there. It will depend on a lot, for instance our nickel package may consist of Milliner, Walls, Wilson, Pryor, and Allen if the teams are pass heavy on 3 WR looks, but we also have the option of dropping Walls and using Landry in the nickel if they are more likely to run or pass to the LoS. I also like the ability to use allen as a slot corner vs bigger slot receivers like Jordy Nelson and of course TE's split out to the slot.
