We didn't just upgrade one receiver. You may hate Vick, I'm not sure, but that is a tremendous upgrade over Geno at this stage in his career right now. If we add another guy like Chris Johnson, that another upgrade to Powell.
so basically what they're saying is, if the qb play is average rex has a good enough defense to compete. wow earth shattering stuff here.
Most Jets fans probably realize this sentiment but its good to see some stats behind it. For example, when Sanchez was at his best he was league average and the Jets were 11-5. If Geno can make that jump to league average maybe we get to 9, 10 or 11 wins this year. Definitely could happen and its an exciting time.
Funny to hear all these Buf and Mia trolls....you are completely missing the point of the article. Rex Ryan is a control, Bill bellicheck and Tom Brady have been controls for the past decade. Miami and buffalo do not have any controls. Although they might be good, there is an large distribution of outcomes due to this fact. --------------- The author is just pointing out that with just average qb play from Vick/geno, and rex Ryan doing what he has been doing for the past 10 years, we should be threatening for afc east title.
with Idziks plan obviously being to build through the draft, I wouldn't mind being bad again next season for another low draft position to round out the team. Unfortunately that would be the end of Rex I think. Really depends on how Geno plays
Who said they won't sign another FA? I get it we need more talent but the bulk of that will be through the draft, it's as simple as that. I do believe we will make another signing or two in FA but i doubt it will be anything too flashy.
I kinda implied it This bs is why I don't care for BSPN "expert" analysis. Last year we were 32nd, this year they're about to put Jets first in AFC East. Both bullshit, both designed to get clicks.
Thank you! My point is that at least last year people were looking at the finalized rosters, just before the preseason games. I could at least understand how "Mia and Buf are better" came to be. Even that prediction, based on complete roster info, didn't pan out (Miami's 8-8 is by definition not better than Jets same record). So with this in mind how can anyone declare anyone is better in April? There was no draft yet, the FA is not yet complete. I have no clue who will be better, but can we at least wait for a little bit before making definitive statements re comparative rosters strength?
Not a very good article. Right now before the draft the team is worse than last years team. Our two biggest weaknesses last year was the OL's poor pass protection and our poor secondary. Both the OL and the secondary has gotten worse. The 2013 team was worse than the 2012 in almost every area except QB and run defense. The increased and better QB play along with some luck allowed us to improve our record. Smith should be a better QB next year and we will not be playing as many strong defensive fronts next year that manhandled our OL last year. Both of those should be a big boon for us. The question to me is how we can fill in our holes during the draft and how much contribution we can expect from those players. My guess is is in rounds 1-3 we will very likely draft a WR, CB and TE. Along with additional OL, safety and LB help in rounds 4-7. WRs, CBs and TEs do not develop very fast so their contribution might be minimal. I do not see us being much better than last year. In the last 12 games Smith had 16 turnovers. 15 of those turnovers came when we were playing from behind and one while tied. 13 of those turnovers came when we were significantly behind (9+ points). The reason we were getting behind was not the turnovers but the defense. Our pass defense. Any QB playing significantly behind will turn the ball over especially a 1st or 2nd year QB. The 2nd area we need a large improvement on is the red zone. The offense did a decent job last year of moving the ball between the 20's and showed huge improvement on converting 3rd downs moving up to 13th best. But in the red zone we were awful at 27th in the league. Hopefully with more weapons, the threat of Smith running and a better play action option we can convert more of these drives into TDs. One thing that really helped the the OL at the end of the year was the increased running by Smith. Hopefully he can make teams pay more with his arm next year. Ultimately next years success is predicated on the development of Smith. He needs to get the ball out faster and make quicker reads. I love his toughness and willingness to extend plays and take hits but he cannot take the number or kind of hits he took last year. There is no way he will survive. Not to mention the hits effect his play. The hit he took against Buffalo (2nd game) effected him the rest of the game. The cumulative hits he took against Pittsburgh made him a different QB in the 4th quarter. In both of those cases the hits turned him into an indecisive QB throwing off his back foot. He cannot continue to take hits like that every game and grow into a good QB. Rather these hits will cause him to regress. Our OL will likely not be better which puts the emphasis on better play calling and on Smith making better reads, getting the ball out faster and resisting the temptation to force balls when nothing is there. He made tremendous improvements in a number of areas last year. Stepping up and moving in the pocket under a rush was a huge weakness for him the first 4 games. The last 12 games this was a big strength. The second area he made strong improvements in was ball security. He did a great job of protecting the ball after the Tennessee game. Although his small hands still worry me. The question is can he make improvement in the hardest area and that is the mental side of reading defenses quickly and getting the ball out. This is what separates QBs and where he needs to progress. One thing of note last year was Smith almost never threw the ball over the middle of the field. Very few slants, few seam passes, few crossing patterns and almost nothing over the middle. The last few games he threw over the middle a bit more. My guess is this was because he was very poor at reading defense and its easier to make reads outside the hash marks where he can rely more on his arm strength. The same even more so for deep passes. He has a whole off season to work on this. I am very curious to see where he is next year. I will give him the benefit of the doubt as a raw rookie but I am also not optimistic that we will see huge improvements. The good news is he his hard worker and seems to really want to improve. He has the desire to improve which is a lot better than what we have had in the past.
If we add Johnson and draft another receiver then Vick should probably start as we would have a legitimate offense for the first time since Jones left.
I'm thinking the Jets are better than they were last year already just via the subtractions from the roster and the more clear viewpoint that everybody will have moving into the draft this year. It's easier to plan things out when you have fewer veteran questions on the queue. Nobody knew what to make of Santonio Holmes last year. Was he going to play? Was he going to play well? He was a conundrum the Jets had to deal with all off-season and then into the season. They couldn't make plans that didn't include him because if he could play he was better than anybody else they had. However they also couldn't rely on him to be playing. This is not his fault btw, the injury he had was going to have a real recovery time and had real potential to cause him to step down in ability before it was resolved. The QB situation was a mess, because the incumbent was simultaneously on the way out and also maybe the best option. That's going to bollix up the works every time. The injury to Mark Sanchez was probably a blessing in disguise because it prevented a rotation of struggling QB's from defining the Jets season last year. We probably go 5-11 with 2 or 3 guys sharing the load at QB. Instead we learned enough about Geno that management went out and got a vet who could clearly play QB in the event the struggles persist. We also got Geno enough experience that he has a leg up on not struggling next season. Cro got hurt at a bad time, with a rookie CB having trouble adjusting to the NFL playing opposite him. That meant that for the season as a whole the Jets had two subpar CB's trying to play in a CB intensive defense. They also had no true FS back there to help out over the top. The Jets didn't need Darrelle Revis last year to avoid the issues they had, they just needed ONE competent CB, which would have allowed Rex to compensate for the issues on the other side. Instead they had Cro and Milliner on islands for the first half of the season and any time the Jets ran into a prime corps of receivers things broke down. The Jets beat New England and New Orleans because those teams were not receiver-centric last season. The problems on the line were predictable, because the Jets had young unproven guys trying to fill LG and both of them (Ducasse and Winters) were new to LG and one of them was new to the NFL. Winters improved as the season went on but it remains to be seen if he's going to be an acceptable LG or if the Jets will have to fill the slot. Ok, so in a nutshell here's the situation the 2014 Jets face in those areas: WR - The Jets have Eric Decker and David Nelson as veteran options instead of a recovering Santonio Holmes. +++ QB - The Jets have Michael Vick and 2nd year Geno Smith instead of Mark Sanchez and rookie Geno. +++ CB - The Jets need to find ONE competent CB out of a long list at the position headed by Milliner. + FS - The Jets still do not have a FS ready to go at this point. EVEN LG - The Jets have 2nd year Brian Winters and 3 other 2nd year guys behind him instead of Vlad Ducasse and a posse of rookies. + This team is better than the 2013 edition and we haven't even seen the draft yet. We should go 8-8 on merit this year but we're not capped the way we were last year by all the factors above. Quick, who was the Pittsburgh Steelers 2nd CB in their two Super Bowl runs? Bet you can't name them.
It makes you imagine what we would have if we had a guy like Manning or Brady. Jesus. Rex might have won multiple super bowls already.
There's absolutely no reason to assume NE won't cruise to another AFCE Title. They significantly upgraded their secondary in the offseason. They also made some other moves I can't recall off the top of my head. I'm hoping they have a shitty draft as they've made some bad picks in recent years but not sure you can bank on this. NE has won how many AFCE Titles since 2001? About 11 or 12? And they're coming off another AFCCG appearance. Anyone who says differently isn't dealing in the reality of the current state of the division. Brady's got 2 more good years and then he'll probably retire at 39 or 40. Until he's gone they're going to be the favorites unless one of the other teams really steps up which I doubt.
While I agree with you, don't forget 1 or 2 injuries (and I don't even mean Brady) can derail all of that. I consider the Jets less likely to win the AFC East but I think they are very real contenders for a wild card spot. If our rebuilding process results in an 8-8 season followed by a wild card berth, I consider that very good. I think the division winners will probably end up being NE, IND, DEN, but the North is really hard to foresee. PIT and BAL are usually competitive, but neither made the playoffs last year, and neither have made major improvements to their roster (yet). The Bengals lost both coordinators, so it's really tough to say how they are going to be this year. As far as the other wildcard spot, I'm leaning towards HOU. I wouldn't call these predictions but on the fly I don't think we are in bad shape.
I agree with that. Injuries can definitely happen and all it takes is one to Brady and they're done. I think the Jets can grab a WC this year. I'm happy about the Decker signing. I wish we grabbed Verner or one of the other FA CB's. The Jets season just like any team's season will ride on the play of the QB, Geno and/or Vick. If Geno shits the bed hopefully Vick can steady the ship.
