The thing to remember about the Jets draft hits, and it's important, is that hitting a few great players doesn't mean anything at all if the team is not ultimately successful. Vinny Cerrato drafted Champ Bailey, Jon Jansen, Lavarr Arrington and Chris Samuels in a 2 year period. That's equivalent to drafting Nick Mangold, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Darrelle Revis and David Harris in a 2 year period. He got sunk because his drafts got weak after that and then they got small and then the Skins were bringing in free agents every year to fill the holes and win the off-season wars in the NFC East and the next thing you know the Skins outright sucked, despite drafting 4 excellent players including a future hall of famer at CB in 1999 and 2000. It's not a question of hitting a couple of drafts in a row and then you're set. You have to hit every draft for a decade with the occasional off draft here and there if you want to set up the kind of talent base that does great things on the field. If you do that then you can even start missing down the road and things will stay stable for awhile. The reason the Steelers are a great franchise is because they add a couple of good to great players almost every year through the draft. 1998 - Alan Faneca and Hines Ward 1999 - Joey Porter and Aaron Smith 2000 - Plaxico Burress, Clarke Haggans and Marvel Smith 2001 - Casey Hampton and Kendrell Bell 2002 - Kendall Simmons, Antwan Randal-El, Larry Foote, Brett Keisel 2003 - Troy Polamalu, Ike Taylor 2004 - Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Starks 2005 - Heath Miller, Bryant McFadden, Trai Essex, Chris Kemoeatu 2006 - Santonio Holmes, Willie Colon 2007 - Lawrence Timmons, LaMarr Woodley, William Gay 2008 - Rashard Mendenhall, Dennis Dixon 2009 - Mike Wallace, Ziggy Hood, Kennan Lewis, David Johnson 2010 - Maurkice Pouncey, Antonio Brown, Jason Worilds, Emmanuel Sanders 2011 - Marcus Gilbert Look at the first name on that list going back to 1998. The Steelers have rarely missed a year adding a star caliber player to their roster in over a decade. How do they do this? They use all their draft picks and they take the best player available on each pick unless they have a glaring need and a really good player is available at the position. The Jets look like rank amateurs by comparison. You know what their list looks like since 1998? 1998 - Jason Fabini 1999 - Randy Thomas 2000 - Shaun Ellis. John Abraham, Chad Pennington, Laveranues Coles, Anthony Becht 2001 - Santana Moss, Kareem McKenzie 2002 - Bryan Thomas, Chris Baker 2003 - 2004 - Jonathan Vilma, Jerrico Cotchery 2005 - Sione Pouha, Kerry Rhodes 2006 - Nick Mangold, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Brad Smith, Leon Washington 2007 - Darrelle Revis, Davis Harris 2008 - Dustin Keller, Dwight Lowery 2009 - Mark Sanchez, Shonn Greene, Matt Slauson 2010 - Kyle Wilson, Joe McKnight 2011 - Mo Wilkerson, Jeremy Kerley There's just no comparison between the quality of players the two teams have promoted through the draft, which is why the Steelers are a 10+ win team on average over the last decade and the Jets are an 8 win job. The years the Jets added a lot of talent were the years they had a lot of picks and used them. Without the 2000 draft the Jets would have blown chunks during the Edwards years. Without the 2006 draft the Mangini era would have been a wipeout and the Ryan era would have have started with a whimper instead of a yell.
The draft is ALWAYS going to be a crap shoot. That's why I don't take much stock at where a player is selected 'cause the next big thing may turn out to be the next big bust.
Well... in terms of the rd those guys were selected in I'd say only Greene, Slauson, Wilkerson and Kerley were good picks. Keller and Wilson belong in the NFL but we drafted them in rd 1 and, personally I had higher expectations (jury still out on both though). McKnight was OK... time will tell, same for Connor. They both get more credit than they deserve imo. That said all these Tanny critics are so idiotic. Ok so he made 2 mistakes... but how many good moves did he make for this franchise?
The Steelers hit their 1st round pick with regularity. That's what having great scouting and pro personnel departments does for you. They usually get another good player and a couple of role players elsewhere in the draft. That they hit the 1st round pick as often as they do given their draft positions is pretty amazing. They don't trade up to do it. In fact, they trade down and still get stars. They got two extra picks out of the Jets in 2000 and then took Casey Hampton.
The Steelers, Giants and Packers are teams that consistently target the truly best player available for their existing needs and rank at the top in terms of scouting and roster management. Unfortunately, they are the exception across the broad spectrum of the NFL. I wish Jets fans could realize that Tanny and crew are far behind these 3 teams in overall product. We're working with basically the same core group of Keystone Kops that we have been working with since Parcells left. They switch their jobs around every few years, and occasionally select some very good players, but on those occasions they tend to give up draft picks to select those players and their overall track record is spotty and inconsistent, and in no way deserve to be mentioned near the top in terms of front office success.
I don't think we're far behind Pittsburgh at all. People are quick to judge after one mediocre season, but we have the pieces in place to be great, with a few fixes here and there. We had the #1 D in 2009, and they didn't even make the playoffs that year. People think it's all about drafting skills, but there is a certain portion that is luck. Gholston looked like a great pick, but alas was a bust. All in all our drafts have been pretty good. BBerg is a great QB with great resilience, but it was clear the oline was at fault for a large portion of their struggles this year, and they play pretty good despite it, but in reality they aren't much better than us, as long as we can fix that offense. Sanchez wasn't the only QB playing hurt for a large portion of the year.
Gholston never looked like a great pick. He looked like the pick the Jets were going to have to make on the 6 when the real value in the draft was 5 players deep. The Patriots picked right behind us that season and I think that further paralyzed the Jets draft process because they were afraid to leave anything good on the table for the Pats. I support the Gholston pick, even though I hated the Jets being in a position where they had to take him. Other than trading down there were just no good alternatives for them and the entire NFL thought Gholston was a crap shoot. If we'd known that Mangini was going to be gone in a year then just about anybody else would have looked better on that pick, but he really needed to find his Willie McGinest/Steve Vrabel to play ROLB and put pressure on the QB and no other high first round pick prospect in that draft had the potential to do that.
Steelers (as well as the Ravens and Bengals) were products of their schedule. Half their schedule was against the absolute dregs of the league this year. (SEA, TEN, INDY, ARZ, STL, JAX, CLE twice). They have holes all over the place on that OL.
the bean-counter while the bean-counter sits on his hands, just like he sat on $11 million in cap space while the offensive line ruined the seasson, the patriots moved quickly to lock up josh mc daniels to return as the new oc immediately, even though bill o'brien hasn't left yet. unless tampa bay hires marty shott to be their new head coach, we may get brian shott back. but, the blame for the entire offense breakdown is not solely on the oc or the qb. the failure of the o-line belongs entirely on the bean-counter, since you all saw what we really had as soon as mangold was out injured. couple that with lack of a viable backup qb ( which got polihan FIRED in indy), and you can see the genesis of this season's disaster. don't even try to compare tanny's record against polihan or even the giant's reese. the only counterpart to us is the chargers owner bringing back a.j. smith another year. but, at least he's a football guy.
Mike Tannenbaum BEST GM in NYJ History HOFer just based on his drafts since 2006 ( a few years drafting at number 29 and 30 included) Ferguson, Mangold, Revis, Harris, Keller, Sanchez, Greene, Wilson, Wilkerson stellar job
Great post. You didn't overtly say it, but there's a direct correlation between Cerrato and Tanny. Tanny started out great and has tailed off. He may have made a bit of a comeback with last year's draft, but totally screwed the pooch with FA.
Steve, Second best. I'd say the GM who got Klecko, Gastineau, Abdul-Salaam, Walker and others was better. Besides. With the Jets' sorry ass history and the horrible draft picks (Roger Vick anyone?) they've made, that's not saying much at all.
