This off-season started with that heartbreaking loss in Indianapolis but since that devastating loss, it surely has been a fun ride.
I've been a long suffering Jets fan / season ticket holder, and I love the aggressive attitude this team has taken on. And yes, it still hurts that we blew a lead to the Colts and were so close to the Super Bowl for the 3rd time in my life. I still have problems getting over losing a 10 point lead to Denver in the AFC Championship Game. After losing to the Colts, I had problems sleeping that week and didn't really speak much to my wife or my kids; I was kind of quiet. It hurts to be so close for the first time in many of our lives; many of you like myself have been suffering since birth 40 years ago or less. But, I've learned in sports that painful defeats can teach the team a lesson on how much it sucks to lose so we can try and rectify the situation the following year. And based on the moves made this off-season and what the team has done; there was a ton of rectifying going on.
It was just short of two weeks after that tough loss when Rex Ryan flipping the bird to a Dolphin fan. I have no problem with this at all and thought it was justified. Jets fans have been giving the Dolphin fans the finger for years. This move by Rex, despite getting a fine, makes him one of us. We are frustrated Jets fans and to see our head coach give the finger to Dolphins fans, a team that we loathe, especially with all of the heartache Marino and Co. caused us back in the day, was great to see. Rex should just keep on giving the finger to fans of the other teams. People could interpret it as Rex giving the finger but to me, it’s Rex just saying that “we’re #1.”
Then, before you know it, we hear that our franchise QB (aka Sanchise) his having surgery. Wow…this came as a bit scary but once I read that he’d be back for training camp, it was definitely the right move. Based on some of the off-season workouts and the start of training camp, it looks like the knee is ready and will give our leader even more mobility than he had last year during his rookie campaign. I look for Sanchez to get even more plays from the play book and with a year of experience under his belt, be ready to utilize his new offensive weapons as he his attempts to take his QB skills to the next level this season and limit all of the interceptions. I believe between the knee being repaired, a second go-around of training camp, a year of experience with the same coaching staff, an experienced backup quarterback to learn from, and some new receivers, should benefit him greatly.
I love the fact that Rex had lap-band surgery this off-season. This should give a coach that already had a ton of energy even more energy to motivate the team. And speaking of weight loss, I love that Kris Jenkins won the team’s Biggest Loser competition this year so he should be a rock this year as he’s much leaner.
It was time for Free Agency and even though we were still in the Championship Game, we were still a flawed team. Since it's an uncapped year, we got hurt but Rule 8 since we went so far in the playoffs. This really annoyed me as we were only one game over average for the regular season even though we made it to the Championship Game. We still needed to improve the roster to improve the team so this came as bad timing for an uncapped year. Lucky for us that Trader Mike (Tannenbaum) worked around our restrictions and improved this team from potentially good to potentially great. The team will look even better playing on a new state of art stadium.
But as for player movement, you have to applaud the re-signing of Danny Woodhead. This kid may never be a pro bowler but he has that Chrebet mindset. You can't argue this guy's passion for the game and his work ethic. He's a guy you just want on your team and have to root for.
It was totally stupid that the team did not sign Jay Feely. This guy was rock solid on kickoffs, extra points, and field goals. It’s not easy in the NFL to get a reliable kicker. With the Jets being so close, and in an uncapped year, this didn’t make much sense to let Feely walk. As for his replacement, Nick Foley, hopefully do the job. Feely was rock solid for us last year and fixed the problem we had when Nugent went down with an injury the year prior. I know Folk has had his troubles but with Mike Westoff running the special teams, maybe he can fix Folk’s issues. As Jet fan, we can't cry over this loss because the loss of Feely gave us the ability to sign a free agent which we would not be able to do otherwise
I loved the trade for Antonio Cromartie. I could care less that this guy loves unprotected relations with women without any concern for the birds and the bees. Who cares that he's got 7 kids with 6 girls in 5 states or whatever the number is. If this guy uses protection on the field is as good as getting girls pregnant as he is in covering a wide receiver, then we got ourselves another stop cornerback to play opposite Revis Island. Now we just have to hope that the Jets sign Darrelle Revis. I think Cromartie will be great. He is in a contract year and needs money to support his children so the best way to get money is to perform on the field and get a new long term contract.
Kerry Rhodes left the dog house and hit the road. From what I’ve been reading, Kerry was a selfish player who cared more about himself and his Twitter account than he did about X’s and O’s. I think the signing of Brodney Pool will actually bolster the safety position as he is more in the mold of a Rex Ryan player than Kerry was.
The releasing of Thomas Jones may be tough to swallow as he's been our offensive leader for the past few years. I have to admit I was never a fan of the trade for him to begin with but it turned out to be a great trade. So, the Jets are hoping that Shonn Greene can carry the work load. He was amazing in the playoffs but he was coming off fresh legs from limited carries in the regular season. I’m also a bit weary of his fumbling issues. He’ll also be rushing behind an offensive line that lost a major piece of the puzzle last year. More on the offensive line shortly.
To back up Greene will be future hall of famer LaDanian Tomlinson. I can not believe that the Chargers let this guy go. If he had left a few years ago, it would have been on almost the same magnitude as LeBron leaving Cleveland . Since he’s a bit older in terms of a running back and did have an “off-year,” it’s not a fair comparison. LT is ready to show the critics and prove to the world that he's still got gas in his tank. And he’s hungry. This guy wants to win a Super Bowl before retiring and that's the attitude I love to hear which will also rub off on the other players. I actually thing that all these beat writers who keep on saying it was the wrong move will see in the fall that it was the right move and will change their tune. I feel LT could be the big surprise on our offense.
The biggest head scratcher of the off-season was the release of Alan Faneca. I thought in an uncapped year with this team gearing up to make a Super Bowl run that we should have kept this guy to teach Vladimir Ducasse, our 2nd pick, how to play on the OL. The salary would be justified to have Faneca serve as a mentor for a year to help with the youth to replace him and then probably Damien Woody for the following season. We just have to hope that either Ducasse or Slausen steps it up to fill in this open hole to protect the quarterback and continue to make holes for our rushing attack.
Then, you gotta applaud the Santonio Holmes trade. The Jets got one of the top receivers in the game for basically nothing. Yeah, he's got some issues throwing glasses at chicks in bars and issues of not turning his I-pod off on planes and is suspended the first 4 games of the year but this is was a no-brainer. Look all of a sudden how deep our receiving corps is: Braylon Edwards, Santonio Holmes, Jerricho Cotchery, Dustin Keller, and Brad Smith. This surely is going to help out Mr. Sanchez. And right before the start of training camp, the Jets signed Laverneous Coles for his third stint with the team to fill in for Holmes the first four weeks of the season. This will really just be an audition to see if the Jets retain him for the balance of the season.
In letting free agent, Jay Feely go, the Jets were able to get even better signing one of the biggest enemies in Jets History in the form of Jason Taylor from the Dolphins. This was reminiscent of when the Jets signed Bryan Cox who we all hated. However, that Cox guy turned out to be the heart and soul of our defense and at one point, was playing in the game with a broken leg. I think by the time week #3 rolls around and we see JT with about 4 sacks and a load of tackles, we'll all turn to love this guy. The biggest flaw in our defense last year was pass rush especially in the fourth quarter. Taylor wants to win and he came here to be one of those pieces that was missing in our run for glory last year.
I was a bit torn by the trading of Leon Washington who was one of my favorite players and a huge special teams weapon and target coming out of the backfield. However, this guy had a major injury and we drafted his replacement in Joe McKnight who hopefully stops throwing up on the field once the season gets underway. I do hope Leon makes it back and has a great year out in Seattle .
To help with the loss of Leon Washington on special teams and to protect the team in case of not being able to sign Darrelle Revis to a long term deal, you have got to love Rex & Co. drafting another CB in Kyle Wilson. You can't have enough shut-down cornerbacks in this league. Imagine this secondary with Revis on one side, Cromartie on the other side, Wilson in the nickel, and Poole playing safety. I'd say that would make it hard for Peyton Manning or Tom Brady to throw against.
The biggest distraction will be the Darrelle Revis contraction situation and his holdout from training camp. Darrelle was the top defensive player in the league last year as far as I’m concerned shutting down opponent’s top receivers each week. He still has two years left on his contract but really has outplayed the value of his current deal. He deserves more money but $16 million per year is a hard hit to swallow. I’m glad on not the GM on this issue. Let’s hope they come to an agreement soon as this would change our entire defense if he sits out the entire season. Let’s hope it doesn’t come down to that.
The Jets should have a great year. On paper they look like an all-star team. This offense will still run a ball controlled game but with Sanchez maturing, a nice receiving corps with Jerricho Cotchery and Dustin Keller still there going along with the new acquisitions, we should be airing it out a lot more than last year and put up a lot more points.
On defense, we were rated #1. The Jets did this with Kris Jenkins missing the entire season and with Calvin Pace missing the first four games of the year. In addition, they did this while learning a completely new defensive scheme. Look for Vernon Gholston, the Jets #1 pick of a few years ago, to get more action now that he’s been converted back to defensive end. Supposedly he is in great shape this year. With the addition of Cromartie and Taylor to a solid defense already led by David Harris and it is going to be very hard for teams to score.
The Jets have had so much heartbreak over the years. We’ve been close to the Super Bowl three times in my 40 years on this planet. I still cringe over the Mud Bowl. I’m still disgusted over blowing a 10 point lead to the Broncos and John Elway. We all know what happened last year. And the last time I thought the Jets were going to the Super Bowl, Vinny Testervede blew out his Achilles in the first game against the Patriots. Do I make another prediction like that and risk something devastating happening? The answer is YES. This team is confident. The coaching staff is confident. So, why shouldn’t that confidence and arrogance spread. Even though I hate the NY Yankees, they always believe they are going to win the World Series. I’m going to take that approach this year and predict that for my 40th Birthday, my sports dream comes true and the Jets lift the Lombardi trophy with this year’s AFC Championship Game being played on the home turf of the New Meadowlands Stadium. What better way to christen a new stadium than to capture the AFC title!
So, I'm ready for the season even though most of our games it seems are at NIGHT time. But, I guess that's the price to pay for being the HOT team in the league. Looking forward to see it all unfold on HBO's Hard Knocks!
Is baseball season over yet...when's kickoff???
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