Gronk's back. Revis (and Browner from Seattle) They WILL be better, just like the Jets. And the "can I fuck your wife?" Bill Belichick and Robert "is the Mrs. cold yet?..I've got 20-somethin's to fuck" Kraft-proselytized "Patriot Way" mantra will always rule the day with the ESPN/NFLN crowd. It's all good, it's only DAY ONE …. again, it's all good. Hope to read about the team growing and growing and growing….. : ) The Patriots? Seriously, I could care less about them right about now just like they shouldn't care about the Jets but should be more concerned with getting their own house in order for '14..…..far as I'm concerned, suit up green & white and let's see what you got for 2014!
You're only furthering my point. This is all we hear from Patty cake fans & the media. Brady,Gronk & Revis.All 3 of those "top" guys have major question marks at this stage. Brady is eventually gonna start to deteriorate..no matter what the media tries to feed us.He's still a great QB but is he still capable of carrying a team on his back? Gronkowski has played 14 games in the last 2 years...he's damaged goods. The career span of TE's in that scheme is not long.Teams have figured out how to get him off the field.Hit him low & hard..his body type can't handle it.Everyone talks about how Revis played in the wrong scheme last season. People just assume cause he's with Bellichick now that things are gonna change. Well guess what? BB typically plays alot of off man & short area zone. Certainly Revis can handle that but he is at his best in press. Something BB doesn't do alot of. A football team is more than 3 players. Our front 7 is vastly superior, at this stage I'd prefer our OL, RB corps & yes even our WR corps. We're arguably bigger, faster & stronger overall. They maybe alittle more top heavy..and yes have Brady..but in terms of overall athleticism & team speed..I'm taking the Jets over the Pats all day long.
Ill say it right now, this is the best Patriots roster since 2007. Not unbeatable but the defense will probably be the best we have seen in years.
The thing is, we are assuming Gronk won't be healthy and we don't know what changes BB will make in regards to Revis and the defense. Browner and Revis both play press coverage so it should be interesting to see. We have the better front 7, run game and even our WRs you could argue are better. They still have Brady and Belichick and they execute plays better than anyone in the league today. And we will have Geno Smith is unproven. I think we caught up and depending on how certain players play - we could become the better overall team. Jets have to execute week in and week out - that has yet to be seen.
Im excited about this year though, because unlike last year where Patriots-Broncos felt like a foregone conclusion from day one, I know there are multiple teams in the AFC that have the ability to disrupt this match up from occurring again. I believe the Colts can take out both teams, I believe the Jets could beat either one, Chargers, and I think right now the Steelers are about to get back into the thick of things again. It is shaping up to be a really good year for the AFC, unlike the previous years. (where we had Tebow in divisional weekend, Schaub in divisional weekend, and then Luck playing like a scrub last season)
I dont think we need Geno to be outstanding either, if he is serviceable the Jets will be in the playoffs. If his numbers are around (18 TD, 12 INT) we will be a 10-11 win team. He was awful last season and we managed to win 8 games, on top of that the Jets had least amount of fumble recoveries in the history of the NFL. So if Geno plays average, and the fumble recoveries go up a little, we will be better. Might I add to that the Jets improved the roster, so combine those three things and we should be one of the better teams in the AFC.
Well that's because if it ever came right down to it in a tie break for the division, the Patriots would be most likely be the ones. The Dolphins and the Bills always find a way to fade out at the end of the season. It's a very important match up.
If he plays in a similar fashion to 2nd year Sanchez we should be a 10-11 win team. This is the year the comparisons are put to test. Mark showed improvement his 2nd year - Geno has to make a similar jump. I'm looking for Geno to be better than Mark his 2nd year completely.
Stephen A. Smith on a one week suspension after his comments on Ray Rice. Not to get into his comments or my disgusted position on how I feel about it but what I will say is this is the first time I've watched First Take in nearly 2 years, I forgot how much I enjoy SAS not being present on this show.
It's going to depend on the o-line I think. Sanchez was able to do what he did the first two seasons because the o-line was very strong in 2009 and still quite good in 2010. As soon as real holes began to develop on the line Sanchez's ability to execute, which was always iffy, went away. If you assume that Geno has more talent than Sanchez, and I think that's a fair assumption *given what we know about Sanchez at this point*, then the question is whether he gets the force multiplier that good o-line play represents or not. I'm still very much in the question of whether Geno is going to be the guy or not. If he manages to create consistency and halves the turnovers he has a real shot. The consistency is going to require a clean pocket fairly often. The turnovers are all on him.
Imo Smith's defenders overrate the problems with the OL last year. We all acknowledge that a rookie Qb can benefit from a clean pocket in developing, and we all saw Smith getting pressured. But many rookie Qb's have done better with less capable OL's. It's not as if the Jet OL was awful last year, or even below average. PFF's breakdown on Smith in any event showed he had very few pass attempt plays where he dropped back into the pocket. On one hand that meant he obviously did not have to take the time to drop back in order to make his decision. But it also meant opposing pass rushers more or less knew it was not going to be a running play, and could go after him. The results were much more on him than on the OL in that respect. We need to see him be better dropping back and using the pocket. Having said that, of course Winters was awful, but he did look somewhat better as the season winded down. But overall, the OL was simply not as bad as Smith's defenders would have us believe.
I didn't say the o-line was bad last year. I said it would have to be good this year. If the o-line is at the same level it was at last year then the chances that Geno develops into a good QB go way down. The chances that Michael Vick gets hurt when he comes in go way up. Average doesn't cut it in the NFL, not unless you have a very good QB compensating for average. Most teams that have a mediocre offensive line, and the Jets were mediocre in that department last year, wind up struggling for consistency. Now and then a team with a mediocre line has a QB that can function well anyway, like the Steelers with Roethlisberger, and then they just hope the guy doesn't get hurt because he is hit too often.
Ftr I do not consider you a hard core Smith Fan. You defend him more than I do, but I know you have your skepticism about him, so I was not referring to you. Sorry if I implied I was. For the OL, it is another area where the Jets seem to be counting on players who either struggled last year or are rookies to really step up. And alot of them to do so. So, for the OL, in addition to counting on Colon, and for Giacomini to be at least not a downgrade, and for Ferguson and Mangold to be at least as good as last year, it seems to come down to counting on Winters when it comes to hoping for a big upgrade. (Despite the nice words about Aboushi, he's even more a point of speculation right now since he's not played a single down in an NFL regular season game.) Doing the math, it seems like a lot to count on, that Winters's improvement would be so significant as to make the whole OL materially better, which seems to be what you are saying will be necessary to help Smith. You may be right. Probably are. But that ends up sounding like a case more for pessimism than optimism. Perhaps Winters will surprise and become a solid player.
It's amazing how quickly they can rebuild the Gronk. That said, I don't think the Gronk makes it through an entire season. The Gronk is breakable. We can destroy it.
The offensive line won't be as good as 2009 - 2010. At the end of the day, I want to see if Geno improves his decision making. He did so the last 4 games of last year. He needs to build on that - to me, the offensive line at the end of the day maybe in question, but that doesn't stop Geno Smith from attempting bad passes down in and down out. The things he can control on the field (reading the defense, getting the ball out of his hands) we need to see improvement. I do believe Geno has more talent then Mark Sanchez. He's got the stronger arm, he can scramble. Mark understood the film and preparation, but the light never clicked on consistently when he stepped on the field. Geno makes better decisions, the turnovers go down - I don't think the offensive line plays a HUGE role in that.
Granted the Jet's D line is better than the Pat's. I'd take the NE Lb's and Db's. Only Mangold is better on the oline. The Brick is not the Brick he once was, I'd take Solder over him. Who's better on the Jets than Vollmer and Mankins? Nobody. QB, please. RB , if Ridley can hold on to the ball, I give the Jets the edge. TE: Gronk, Hooman and this new Kid Jones (6'8") all day over the Jets TE trio. Sudfield will be out of the league very soon. Pats were short on TE's and still cut his ass. WR's, Decker is all you have. I think the Pats are going to have 3 wr's with over 800 yds and Gronk with about 1200. We'll see how the season unfolds, but I see NE at 12-4 and the Jets battling to be over .500. That first 10 game stretch is going to kill you guys IMO. 4-6 at best. They would need to go 5-1 over the final 6 to finish over .500. I don't think you have the horses. If you do go 10-6, Rex for COTY.
In regards to linebackers, I have to disagree, but I believe you think they are better because of the upside of Jamie Collins and you are hoping Hightower breaks out. To further comment: I was a huge fan of Hightower coming out of the draft because of his versatility, but he's been underwhelming since he's come into the league. He had an awful year last year. He was worse in coverage then DeMario Davis. Collins is still unproven. Has upside but that's about it. Mayo is very consistent but other then that he's no star at LB. I would have to say that Harris, Davis, Coples, and Pace are a better linebacker team at this juncture. This is subject to change if Collins and Hightower have really good seasons. Offensive line - I give that to the Patriots. Running back - Absolutely not. Patriots running game isn't in the same class as the Jets. Tight End - you guys have the best TE in the league so whatever. Wide Recievers - You guys have a bunch of low tier WRs - Decker and Kerley you could argue are better than anyone on your WRs depth chart. Regards to the bold part - people think that an elite QB can just come in and beat the Jets, I disagree. Watch Brady against the Jets in both games, Watch Drew Brees against the Jets last season. The schedule according to fans is always tough, but the Jets will be in each of these games. I got the Jets at 9-7 / 10-6. Patriots at 11-5. You are hoping these unproven players of yours break out - that cannot be the case you cannot depend on that to happen.
