I think blocker's right to a point on this one. There is no one I'd rather have for 6 million this season than good ol' LC. It's not like we couldn't afford him. http://www.nyjetscap.com/salary.html I say "to a point" though, because he was angling for a new contract and probably wouldn't have showed up to camp without one. So let Cincy overpay for him for years to come, half of which will be spent on his couch. In this case, we definitely made the right decision in getting rid of him, though we deserved a pick in return. Does anyone know if we'll get a compensatory pick for him?
While I don't like the idea of going into the season without a WR corps of solid starters, I watched a lot of Coles in 2008 stub his toe and limp for 3 games afterwards. There's a reason the Skins were so willing to trade him away when he refused surgery. He's got great hands, but when his foot is hurting, he is basically a slow, undersized possession receiver. Without the ability to separate from the defender, Coles is next to useless.
To some extent I agree. But I think his departure serves a better purpose in the long-run for this team. Coles wasn't impressing down the stretch and part of that falls on Favre as well. But the fact remained that he wasn't really getting separation from the DB's. Coles departure has made the young WR corps we have step up. Sanchez and Stuckey/Clowney will begin to develop a relationship because of this void left open, early in their careers. If it pays off, we lock them down for a long time. If they don't, we get a new WR next season. Had Coles gone down next season say...Week 4 with another concussion, we'd still be in the same scenario we're at now. So I'm all for this youth movement on offense.
To recap - this clown wanted Tannenbaum to get a QB for the 2008 season from where? There weren't too many viable answers out there beyond keeping Pennington and eventually landing Favre for what exactly? I thought it was a good deal by Tanny. He brought in some free agents but spent too much money? OK do you want to become Buffalo? Not sign anyone? The Gholston pick is still a work in progress and I will wait until I am certain whether he will become anything special. Coles had to go. Too much of the prescious money he is bitching about would have been earmarked for him had we retained his services. He was beginning to drop lots of passes and has a history of nagging injuries and concussions. This guy doesn't mention how Tannenbaum gets his rookies signed and into camp, gets us under the cap every season and makes aggressive deals. Not a very good article.
In two years we'll know whether or not Tannenbaum was just an extension of the Bradway regime. Right now there's evidence pointing in both directions. If the Jets have a strong season in 2009 or 2010 then it'll be pretty conclusive evidence that Tannenbaum has a clue. If they stumble around some like they did in both 2007 and 2008 then we'll have the next regime in after 2010. It would take a 5-11ish collapse this year for Tannenbaum to get fired in January. He'd survive a 6-10 or 7-9 due to the new head coach and rookie QB mulligan.
My point was not that it was wrong to get rid of Coles. It is that it is wrong to not replace him. On someone else's point, I don't think at all that if Clemens starts that means it is some kind of failure for Tanny to have gotten Sanchez. Plenty of great Qb's did not start right away. It's really a non-issue, assuming Sanchez works out in the medium term, of course.
I agree at the same time the middle ground result you point to is the very same mediocre situation we as Jet fans are so sickeningly used to. Is it enough to conclude Tanny is slightly better than Badway? I know as well as anyone here, but of course we more or less all know this, that a mediocre season is better than an awful one. It's nice from time to time to see the Jets win as compared to having them rarely do so. But we also know that acceptance of mediocre performance from the GM and CS can mean season after season of a team really going nowhere. I am not ready to give up on Tanny right now. But if the Jets go into this season having done nothing at receiver, and consequently face 8 and 9 in the box, score very fewe points, and lose more than they win, expect me to start complaining about him. Up until now I don't think Tanny has built up the kind of good will that would entitle him to a pass for that kind of season. Would that kind of season, like you say, get him fired? Probably not with Woody as the owner. But if that comes to pass and it were up to me, I'd start looking elsewhere for a new GM.
Woody can't fire Tannenbaum the year after he hires Rex Ryan. Not unless the season is bad enough that somebody needs to take the hit for it. In 2 years we'll know a lot of what we need to know about Ryan and it'll be reasonable, if the Jets are failing, to either clean house entirely or hire a new GM with the understanding that Ryan has a year to work with the guy and straighten things out. If Tannenbaum gets fired after 7-9 this year then the Jets will have a horribly split management system for next year and essentially be on a treadmill until that is resolved. Ryan needs Tannenbaum for two years to have the best chance of turning a mild reverse in 2009 into success in 2010.
I certainly did not mean to imply or suggest that a 7-9 record would or necessarily should end in Tanny's dismissal. But... What about if the Jets make no move at wideout, and the team O can't average 10ppg, en route to a 5-11 record? How about that? I am also not quite sure what it has to do with Ryan. I never understood Ryan to have had any input on who the GM is. I don't think he came to NY because of Tanny being here.
5-11 will almost certainly get Tannenbaum fired. It would be the second lousy record in the last three years and one accomplished despite breaking the bank in free agency. Woody signaled that failure and collapse will result in action with his firing of Mangini. When was the last time a team improved its record by 5 games and the head coach got fired?
I think it's reasonable to think that Tanny will be stripped of GM responsibilities - and wouldn't mind the idea of cleaning house just because I don't think Woody is capable of it - but I don't think they would actually 'clean house' in the sense that you are talking. Tanny would most likely be relegated back to being the Jets' contract lawyer and Cohen would probably be promoted from AGM to GM. The idea of Tannenbaum being an extension of the Bradway regime is close to me in the sense of Woody not wanting to throw caution to the wind in the front office and try to establish a new core. But I have only seen occasions of tragic Bradway-esque moves like going into the 2007 season with a skeleton O-line and the panic-drafting of Gholston. And only one of those happened while Bradway was still across the hall from Tanny. Tannenbaum is definitely far from being above speculation.
It was an uncalculated move. I did not school myself that much of last year's draft, but it seemed like every pre-draft analysis I heard or read about Gholston mentioned a lack of focus or drive, and I remember hearing the phrase 'bust potential' used a lot in reference to him. Having not really had much of an opinion on him or any other pass-rusher in the draft, I just wanted a pass-rusher. But if you see that much smoke in an area of the woods you are unfamiliar with and then you walk face-first into a blazing forest fire, who are you going to blame if you are the one that assumed is was a friendly camp fire? In retrospect, the Jets outsmarted themselves with this guy. Bradway would do that a lot, and it reeks of panic. The panic that the Jets sorely lacked a pass-rush and the NY team they shared a stadium with just upset the mighty Patriots*** with an overwhelming pass-rush. Can you say Dewayne Robertson? Not the same player in terms of how they performed in college, but the reasoning behind drafting them so high was virtually identical.
You might be right. Lets see if Rex and Pettine can get production out of this kid. Remember, Mario Williams was labeled a bust after his first year too. I'm not saying he'll be Mario Williams, but we've gotta give him a second year here.
Tho I agree mostly with your post, I don't know what other way the Jets could've played that Draft. We needed a pass-rush specialist, and Gholston was there. Sure we could've reached for Mayo, but with Harris' previous stellar season and Barton in place, it wouldn't had made much sense. Plus, it doesn't solve our lack of pass-rushing the QB. It's easy to say we should've traded down, but I'm not sure we had offers. If we did, then I'd be sitting there with you second-guessing the Gholston pick, but as things turned out, there really wasn't much of a choice. So I agree with WSW in failing to see where the panic comes in drafting Gholston. Seems like we took the BPA still on the board.
You're really reaching there if you're comparing Mario's 35 solo tackles, 4.5 sacks, and 3 passes defended to Ghoston's whopping 5 solo tackles, most of which were probably on ST. ...and who called him a bust?
That was pretty much my understanding of the pick at the time. He was projected to go in that area and we took the BPA who also fit a need.
We had signed Pace to a big contract but we were trying to overload with pass-rushers. Barton was way too slow in the middle of that defense. I'm not saying we should have drafted Mayo, because that would be hindsight. But drafting a guy at 6 with so many question marks is panic to me. Plenty of people were saying he would bust. I don't call that BPA, I call it scared of getting caught reaching for Bryan Thomas. Assuming he was BPA because of what big board pundits are mocking the draft and the reality of who many teams had rated as BPA are totally different to me. Most pundits has us taking Gholston because we had a huge NEED for a pass rush, it doesn't necessarily make the guy BPA. We assume he was BPA at the time, but athletic talent and college stats don't make a draft pick, it's the complete product. And the complete product was full of question marks.
I'm not saying he's a bust yet either, but shit man. The guy wasn't a disappointment in his rookie season - that would just inspire speculation that he is a bust. His rookie season was a freaking tragedy. He didn't exist. That's why a lot of people are going past speculation that he is a bust and just declaring it.
