New York Jets Fact Or False: Post Draft Edition

For our first edition of New York Jets Fact or False here at Turn On The Jets, we observe some of the most prominent story lines that have been emerging since the end of the 2012 draft. For most teams, the period between the end of the draft and the beginning of mini camp is typically a quiet time. However, the Jets are not most teams. There are still several unanswered questions heading into the season ranging from the Jets’ Right Tackle situation to the name of Tim Tebow’s dog. With Gang Green, there is surely never a dull moment. For our inaugural NYJ Fact or False, we address the six most pressing issues heading into June for the New York Jets.

1.) The Jets will add a Right Tackle in Free Agency. False.

Everyone has seemingly been waiting for the Jets to pull the trigger and acquire a tackle to replace the not-so-dynamic duo of Wayne Hunter and Vladimir Ducasse. However, New York’s lack of activity in free agency and during the draft at the position, has our earlier notion suggesting that Mike Tannenbaum and co. still have faith in either one of these two, looking more factual by the day. The Jets passed on the opportunity to sign Eric Winston, Demetress Bell, and every other free agent tackle this offseason. They also neglected the position in the draft, having selected Guard Robert T. Griffin as their only offensive lineman this year. Take all of these facts, and combine them with new offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo’s recent praise of Wayne Hunter, and it seems fairly obvious that the Jets will start some combination of Hunter and Ducasse at Right Tackle next season. They could always add a veteran at some point during training camp, but that is unlikely given the fact that the team recently guaranteed Hunter’s salary for 2012.

2.) At least 3 rookies will contribute significantly this season. Fact. Quinton Coples and Stephen Hill will contribute from week 1, if not in a starting role, then in a heavy amount of packages, before stepping in as starters at some point during the season. Rex has already declared this, and rightfully so. These two need to be on the field for a significant amount of time for the Jets to improve from their 8-8 record last season. Beyond the first two of the Jets’ eight selections in this years draft, there are two names that come to mind when thinking of who can contribute this season.

DeMario Davis should be an absolute monster on special teams. His tenacity and great speed, combined with his known ability to make big hits, should make him a favorite for Mike Westhoff. Davis will also likely play in several defensive packages, primarily on third downs in coverage or as a blitzer.

Also, expect Safety Josh Bush to develop into a solid contributor this year. His coverage skills are much better than Eric Smith’s, who will likely be the starter until Bush picks up the defense. Don’t be surprised to see Bush getting significant reps by midseason.

3.) The media’s portrayal of Tim Tebow as a super hero will die down. False.

Let’s face it, the mainstream media has a serious crush on Tim Tebow, as do the majority of football fans. There is certainly good reason for this. Tebow is a proven winner, an extremely hard worker, a great role model, and most importantly, he is a fantastic human being. The NFL’s most popular player will likely draw more attention this season than the man whose job he is trying to assume. Each week, be prepared to hear speculation of everything, from how many reps Tebow will get, to what he eats for his pregame meal. Also, get ready for media and fans alike to be calling for Tebow to take the helm the second Sanchez shows any sign of inconsistency. Until number 6 proves everyone wrong, he will most popularly be considered the villain, while Tebow will widely be viewed as the heroic savior.

4.) Tony Sparano will revive the Jets’ dominant run game. Fact. Word out of OTAs is already extremely complimentary of new Offensive Coordinator Tony Sparano. Sparano’s ideals seem to be identical to what Rex Ryan wants his offense to be. The Jets have a very talented group of running backs in Shonn Greene, who was able to rush for more than 1,000 yards last season despite playing for the philosophically confused Brian Schottenheimer, Joe McKnight, Tim Tebow, and promising rookie Terrance Ganaway. If the Right Tackle situation works out, the Jets will undoubtedly have an elite run offense once again.

5.) Darrelle Revis will hold out again. False. Although Revis is certainly worthy of being paid as the best defensive player in football, he knows this would be horrible timing for a hold out. As one of the unquestioned leaders of the Jets, Revis would be the ultimate hypocrite to hold out this year. First of all, he has two years remaining on his current contract. It is not the typical formality for a player to hold out with more than one year remaining on his current deal. Revis has already exercised this rare practice, and would be foolish to do so again.

More importantly though, is the picture a hold out would paint of Revis as one of those unquestioned leaders. How can the team’s best player bail on training camp, arguably the most important time for developing team chemistry, after the epic fallout of last season? It would be shocking to see Revis hold out this year, as it would put his character into serious question. The Jets need Revis more than ever in terms of both play and leadership, and he knows this. However, if no resolution is made in terms of an extension this season, it will be almost guaranteed that Revis does, in fact, hold out heading into 2013.

6.) Rex Ryan will tone down the bravado. Fact.

This is an evolution in Ryan that we are currently witnessing. Usually by this time every year, Rex has already predicted a Super Bowl victory. The brash head coach finally realizes that he can no longer put that type of pressure on his team. He saw what it caused last year, and he knows very well, that if he allows that type of melt down again, there is a good chance it will cost him his job. Expect Ryan to remain the jovial, confident coach that we have all come to know and love, but don’t expect many guarantees this year, if any.

New York Jets: How NOT To Develop A Young Quarterback

Turn On The Jets would like to welcome our newest assistant staff writer, Mike Donnelly on board. Mike was previously writing for You Don’t Know Football and freelancing for his own site on the New York Jets. Make sure you follow him on Twitter - 

When the New York Jets made the shocking trade for Tim Tebow earlier this offseason, people had many different takes and opinions on it. Beyond just the normal Jets-bashing and Tebow-trashing, some people loved the move because of Tebow’s running ability and some people hated it, mainly due to the effect it would have on Mark Sanchez both on and off the field. Sanchez is a fine young quarterback who has improved each year and had a lot of success — despite what his detractors say — so the Tebow trade was a curious one.

I did a little digging however, and found out there was a method to the madness. If it seemed like the Jets as an organization were going out of their way to push Sanchez to the side and stunt his development, it’s because they were, and this was just the latest in a series of questionable decisions. Apparently, in their never-ending quest for more publicity, the Jets decided to see how far they can push this thing and publish the first ever “How NOT to Develop Your Young Quarterback” handbook. Luckily, I was able to get my hands on a rough copy and will share some excerpts with you.

Chapter One – “What you want to do is hire a defensive Head Coach who has no interest in the offense whatsoever. The real trick, though, is you want to give the keys to the entire offense to an unqualified coordinator who has had no success in the NFL at all. In our case, that man was Brian Schottenheimer. Schotty had been here for three years already by the time we drafted Mark, and before that he was the quarterbacks coach in San Diego. It was during that time that Drew Brees had the worst years of his career before moving to New Orleans and carving out a Hall of Fame career under new coaches. We knew Schotty would do a pretty bad job, but we had to be absolutely sure we couldn’t let Sanchez improve at all. That’s why we also hired Matt Cavanaugh to come in and be the QB’s coach in 2009, and that was a major coup for us…”

Wow. If the goal was really to hire two incompetent coaches to coach the offense and Mark Sanchez specifically, they did a great job with these two. First, let’s start with Schottenheimer. By now everybody knows how bad of a job he did here and that his offense was too complicated and too ineffective. Chad Pennington even had a tough time grasping it. Brett Favre basically ignored it. Many current players complained about it. Let’s quickly take a look at some of Schotty’s failures:

• 95.7 and 107.2. Those are Brett Favre’s QB ratings the year before and after he worked with Schotty, respectively. His rating with Schotty? 81.0 to go along with his 22 interceptions.
• Chad Pennington’s QB rating with Schotty over 2 years: 83.3. The year he left? 97.4 and a 2nd place MVP finish. Hmm.
• 16 straight games, including 3 playoff contests, where he couldn’t come up with a game plan to score a 1st quarter touchdown
• 58 straight weeks without a 300 yard passer between 2006 and 2010
• Passing offense never finished higher than 16th in NFL

And it is not like Cavanaugh helped matters. Before coming to the Jets to mentor Sanchez, he was the offensive coordinator at Pittsburgh University where his claim to fame was being part of the brain trust that decided to start Tyler Palko at QB over future NFL 1st round pick Joe Flacco. Prior to that, he was the offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens during the era where their offensive ineptitude was the butt of many jokes. During his last three years on the job, the passing offense ranked 27th, 32nd,  and 31st. A perfect candidate to come in and help a young QB become a great passer! He was clearly everything the Jets were looking for in their handbook.

Chapter 4 – “Once you’ve established that the young QB won’t get any competent coaching, the next thing you want to do is take away anything he’s familiar with and not let him get into any kind of comfort zone. So what we did is change the receivers Mark would be throwing to every season. The thinking was, if he we let him get comfortable and grow with any receivers, his stats would improve, and that’s a no-no. In 2011 we even took it a step further and not only did we take away the two receivers he was most familiar with, we replaced them with two guys who couldn’t run anymore! It was great…”

The Jets did a great job adhering to this. In 2009, the first receiver Sanchez got comfortable with was Chansi Stuckey, so he was traded by week 5. They brought in Braylon Edwards, though, which was actually a great thing for Sanchez. Too great of a thing, apparently, because just a year and a half later he was gone. In 2010, Santonio Holmes was brought in, but due to his 4 game suspension, it took a while for him and Sanchez to get on the same page. With the trio of Edwards, Holmes, and Cotchery, Sanchez had an excellent, young corps of receivers to work with. So naturally the whole thing was blown up after the 2010 season that nearly ended in a Super Bowl. Edwards was let go, Cotchery was released, and they were replaced by the decrepit Derek Mason and fresh from prison Plaxico Burress. The Jets apparently didn’t ask Plaxico to work out for them or run a 40 yard dash before signing, probably because they didn’t have a sun dial available. So not only was Sanchez left without a deep threat, but he had to break in these new receivers during a lockout without coaches being present. No big deal.

Later in Chapter 4- “And just to be sure the quarterback won’t be comfortable at all, you might want to go ahead and weaken his offensive line a great deal. Nothing frazzles a QB more than being hit every play, so we decided to put Wayne Hunter at tackle and back him up with Vlad Ducasse. Doesn’t get much worse than that! Speaking of backups, make sure you have none, so if one of your starters like Nick Mangold does get injured, your QB will get buried…”

Well, this strategy definitely did work. Gotta give them credit.

Chapter 8 – “If you’ve come this far, it means you’ve done everything you physically can to your QB to make sure he fails. Now it’s time to work on the mental side and really ruin his confidence. It will be hard to top what we did, because a guy like Tim Tebow only comes along once in a lifetime, but if possible, you have to bring in an extremely popular player to back up your quarterback. That way, every time he throws an incomplete pass or messes up, the whole crowd  will be pushing for the backup to play, even if he can’t throw a forward pass! Plus the entire media will report on every little move he makes and make it nearly impossible for him to not crack under the pressure. This is an important step in the process here…”

Well, they were right about it being hard for future teams to one-up them when it comes to Tebow. In fact, I don’t think any starting QB that has had the success Sanchez has, has ever had to deal with something like Tim Tebow being brought in and getting on the field for up to 20 plays per game every Sunday. The Jets really broke new ground with this one. It was a nice touch added on also to have Matt Cavanaugh criticize Sanchez publicly while also talking about how wonderful Tim Tebow is. Smooth.

Look, I’m a big Mark Sanchez supporter and fan. I think he’s gotten a bum rap, and it’s totally undeserved. People seem to forget that he only just completed his 3rd season in the league, and is actually ahead of where many other star players were at the same point in their careers, just look at Drew Brees’ stats early in his career. Or even better, look at Eli Manning, who many Giants fans wanted to run out of town after 3 years.

There are lots of similarities between Sanchez and Eli that go beyond just the stats. After Eli’s third year, they fired the offensive coordinator who wasn’t using Eli to the best of his abilities and became way too predictable. Sound familiar? They replaced him with Kevin Gilbride, a former Head Coach who had success as an offensive coach prior to flopping as Head Coach. Again, sound familiar? I hope the Jets took some notes. The Giants let Eli work out his problems, progress, and late in Year 4, Eli started to “get it”. He cut out the silly mistakes, grasped the offense that suited his skills, and he led them to the Super Bowl. I’m not saying that’s what will happen this year with Mark Sanchez, but he deserves the opportunity to do so. Mark Sanchez has proven he can handle the big stage in the past, and I wouldn’t bet against him rising up and doing so again.

New York Jets: Low Expectations, Better Results?

The prognosticators aren’t going to be kind to the New York Jets in the coming months. Who wouldn’t want to kick Rex Ryan and his fat mouth when he is down? His team is coming off a 8-8 season playoff-less season and they had a controversial and potentially ineffective off-season. Beyond that. Ryan admittedly lost the locker room last season to petty in-fighting.

This year’s “it” pick in the AFC East will be the Buffalo Bills to challenge and potentially unseat the New England Patriots and grab a playoff spot or division title in the process. New York’s other, other team had a flashy off-season by bringing in Mario Williams and Mark Anderson to beef up the now supposed best front seven in football. They also kept the core pieces of their offense intact by resigning Stevie Johnson and extending Fred Jackson’s contract.

Of course, everybody is too busy criticizing Mark Sanchez to take the time to question Ryan Fitzpatrick. In case you haven’t noticed, Fitzpatrick was awful the second half of last season, has never won anything in his NFL career and is a substantially bigger question mark than Sanchez heading into this season.

Regardless of the Jets perceived hierarchy in the AFC East, there are valid questions about their roster which will lead most to pick them to go anywhere from 6-10 to 9-7. The looming quarterback controversy between Sanchez and Tebow, the shaky right tackle and safety situation, and lack of a proven big time running back will all be consistently referenced.

Fortunately, lower expectations may not be a bad thing for this team. As a matter of fact, if recent history proves anything…it is that when the Jets have low expectations, they exceed them and when they have high expectations, they struggle. Remember in 2004, 2006, and 2009 nobody expected the Jets to sniff the playoffs and they made it all three of those years and in 2007, 2008, and most recently last year when they were a popular pick as a contender and flamed out.

I firmly believe you will see a toned done Rex Ryan to the public this year, further removing the target from the Jets back. Nobody thinks the Jets have an elite defense anymore. Nobody thinks they have an elite offensive line. Everybody thinks Santonio Holmes forgot how to get open and that Mark Sanchez is seconds from the bench. David Harris is under still under the radar and most assume Quinton Coples will be a bust. We can only hope the Jets are reading their press clippings this season and saving every single one of them maybe then they can get back to surprising teams with a hit in the mouth.

New York Jets: A New Rex Ryan On The Way?

Last week New York Jets owner Woody Johnson made headlines by saying he would like to see his team on HBO’s Hard Knocks for a second time in three years. Today, head coach Rex Ryan made headlines by saying he doesn’t want his team featured on the show, apparently wanting to move away from the circus atmosphere surrounding the team last year that he helped perpetuate.

I am not sure how much of an impact Hard Knocks would have either way on the Jets season but this an admirable move by Ryan to stand up to ownership. Without question, Ryan’s pride took a major shot last year. A guy known as a players coach admittedly lost the pulse of his team, watched his locker room turn ugly and his team miss the playoffs for the first time of his career. The defense and running game he built his success on floundered last season.

Look for this to be the first of many moments this year where Rex pulls it back a little bit when it comes to the media. I am not saying he will change his personality entirely but look for a much more focused, slightly angrier approach from Ryan this season.

In the long run, last year could turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to Ryan’s coaching career. He learned a valuable lesson about needing to be a true head coach not just a glorified defensive coordinator, along with how his comments could paint a target on his team’s back. Ryan should be more hands on when it comes all elements of the team this season and likely won’t be grabbing as many headlines with his press conference statements. I am not saying his attention grabbing statements will disappear entirely, and they shouldn’t, he just needs to pick his spots.

Rex Ryan has a very good defensive mind and had the right idea when he took over the Jets to build an identity around that defense and a power running game. His primary focus this season will be getting back to that.

The Positives Of Tim Tebow On The New York Jets

I haven’t been shy about expressing the potential negatives of Tim Tebow joining the New York Jets. However, no trade is ever a black and white issue. There are positive and negatives to each personnel move and this is no exception. Can this work? Absolutely but without question, the Jets are walking a fine line here between media circus, quarterback controversy and complete locker room mess. Ignoring those possibilities let’s examine why this was a smart move -

It can never hurt to add good football players to your team. Tim Tebow is a good football player. I am not sure if he is a good quarterback but that is an argument for a different day. It can also never hurt to add good people in your locker room. Tebow isn’t a cure all for the Jets locker room issues but having a person with a high character around is never a bad thing.

Tebow’s addition will benefit the Jets running game. In his perfect world, Rex Ryan would run the ball 60 times every game, never turn the football over and allow his defense to do the heavy lifting. This move brings him closer to that dream. The problem with that dream is that Ryan’s defense is no longer elite and won’t be until he finds a free safety and pass rusher. You also do need to throw the football at times because it is simply too damn hard to get points moving 3.5 yards at a time.

Yet strictly in terms of the running game, Tebow will be a great weapon in short yardage situations and should provide more lanes for Shonn Greene or Joe McKnight when he is in the game. He also has the ability to hurt teams over the top if they stack the box on him since he does throw a good deep ball.

Finally, Tebow came here with every intention of taking Mark Sanchez’s job. This acquisition is putting as much pressure as possible on Sanchez to perform. Where else does the backup quarterback have a press conference to introduce him? Where else do people await his arrival while posing in his famous stance? Sanchez has generally (outside of last year) thrived in pressure situations. There is a chance, and a bigger one than most people are acknowledging, that this move will push Sanchez to being the very good quarterback he has the potential to be.

List Of Played Out Tim Tebow/New York Jets Jokes

It has been about 24 hours since Tim Tebow became a member of the New York Jets and the following jokes have already been played out by Twitter, Facebook and every other social media outlet available. Let’s retire them and get a little more creative, no?

- Tim Tebow better cover his ears when Rex Ryan talks! (Get it, because Rex Ryan curses a bunch and Tim Tebow doesn’t curse).

- Tim Tebow and Antonio Cromartie in the same locker room, neither support birth control but boy are they different! (Get it, because Tim Tebow is supposedly a virgin because of his religion and Antonio Cromartie has 9 kids from 8 women in 7 different states).

- Tim Tebow is a pious individual waiting to enjoy a life of monogamy, while Mark Sanchez bounces between Kate Upton (excuse to post this video), Meadow Soprano (sorry that’s always her name to me), and Hayden Panettiere (ok, that was Scotty McKnight)…(Get it, they are a regular odd couple).

- In general, any jokes about Tim Tebow being a good, religious dude and the Jets being a raucous group of vice loving maniacs.

- The circus analogies and puns.

- And of course, the jokes about the Jets having not one…but two quarterbacks who can’t complete a pass…Hey Buffalo, Miami, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Oakland, Kansas City, Houston, Indy, Jacksonville, Washington, Dallas, Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Atlanta, St. Louis, Seattle, San Francisco, and Arizona…we have not one, but two quarterback who have the same amount of playoff wins, if not more than your current quarterback…so

Tim Tebow Trade Becomes Official

The New York Jets trade for Tim Tebow became official tonight after a nearly 8 hour back and forth over how much his future guaranteed salary would be paid by the team. It was finalized at 2.5 million, an awfully high amount to pay a backup who is supposed to be a situational player especially when you are lacking a right tackle and free safety…but that is for another day.

It is being reported by Chris Mortensen that Tebow had a choice between the Jets and Jacksonville and chose to come to New York. This is obviously an admirable move, although the validity of the report is being questioned by some. If it is true, Tebow showed that he is a competitor and instead of taking the easy road in irrelevant Jacksonville, he wanted to come to the world’s largest media market to a team who is closer to being a contender.

That being said, I still feel the same way I did this afternoon about the trade. I don’t like it for the Jets as an organization but that doesn’t mean I won’t root for Tebow to perform when he is on the field. I respect him as a competitor and athlete, so welcome to New York…

Here are a few important nuggets from Tannenbaum’s conference call tonight -

- Tim Tebow is the number two quarterback. Both him and Sanchez have been made aware of that. Tebow will featured in certain packages (Wildcat) – Look for either Drew Stanton or Greg McElroy to be moved soon. This is also answers the depth chart question from before but doesn’t solve the problem of bouncing between two offenses.

- He insisted Jets didn’t misread contract, there was just ongoing disagreement with Denver about how compensation would work. – All semantics now. Bottom line is you are paying 2.5 million for another quarterback when you have other holes.

- The line of the off-season from the Jets organization will be “Every quarterback has a backup” – Different type of beast with Tebow in town.

Roundtable and more analysis coming tomorrow…

New York Jets Free Agency: Was Mike Tolbert On To Something?

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is not meant as a knee jerk reaction to the Jets being quiet in the first hours of free agency, it is just an interesting point brought up by one of our writers, Matt Fritz, to consider in the coming days – JC

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“They do sometimes have that whole media circus thing going on and I’m not the type of person that gets into the whole limelight thing and throwing players under the bus and stuff like that. I like letting my play do the talking.” – San Diego RB Mike Tolbert

I happen to think Tolbert’s comments about New York and the Jets are pretty much right on point. Maybe the Jets need more guys with his kind of mentality, guys who let their play do the talking rather than saying things without backing it up. Perhaps Rex should take a long look at what Tolbert said. The fact is, that’s coming from a player, not from a coach who believes by guaranteeing a Super Bowl win, that it will actually happen.

The sad thing is, I do believe a lot of free agents shy away from the Jets because it truly has been a media circus. Sure you’re going to get that in New York regardless, but it didn’t seem like the Giants had a problem overcoming that. Why? Because they have players who let their game do the talking.

We all know that Rex Ryan is the ultimate player’s coach, but I think you are starting to see players hesitate from coming to the Jets because there are too many outside distractions right now. What player would want to come to a locker room where guys are constantly being thrown under the bus? Moreover, who wants to join a team in which its captain was one of those players who threw his teammates under the bus?

I don’t think Mike Tolbert was saying anything we don’t already know. Unfortunately it’s guys who have that mentality that the Jets desperately need more of. Now that’s not to say there aren’t guys on the Jets roster right now who see things the same way, but there are too many of them that are about the limelight.

Now that the Jets are 0 for 3 in the Rex Ryan era at obtaining that Super Bowl, after guaranteeing and coming up short, what does that show to potential free agents? When the Jets don’t make or even win the Super Bowl, it’s that much more obvious to everybody, because of the guarantees and the talking that goes on off the field.

Mike Tannenbaum’s Career As New York Jets GM: Part 2, The Ryan Years

New York Jets General Manger Mike Tannenbaum deserves a large share of the credit for the New York Jets being a playoff team in 2006, 2009 and 2010. He also deserves a large share of the credit for the Jets missing the playoffs in 2007, 2008, and 2011. Since taking over as GM, the Jets have been a .500 or better team in 5 of 6 seasons but have only made the playoffs half of the time. Basically, you are getting a 8-8 to 10-6 team who could sneak into the playoffs depending on how strong the rest of the conference is. Mike Tannenbaum is going to field a competitive team but he hasn’t shown the ability to put together a roster good enough to be one of the NFL’s elite.

Zero division titles. Zero 12 win seasons yet three playoff berths and four playoff wins. Tannenbaum’s resume is an inconsistent one, as a closer look at this history reveals, a history that should provide some insight into what the Jets will do in the coming months:

READ PART 1: THE MANGINI YEARS

2009

Primary Additions

Draft Class – Mark Sanchez, Shonn Greene, Matt Slauson

Free Agency – Bart Scott, Jim Leonhard, Marques Douglas, Donald Strickland, Ben Hartsock, Howard Green

Trade – Lito Sheppard, Braylon Edwards

Primary Subtractions

Released – Laveranues Coles, Mike Nugent, Chris Baker, Bubba Franks, CJ Mosley, Eric Barton, David Bowens, David Barrett, Hank Poteat, Ty Law

Traded – Chansi Stuckey, Jason Trusnik, Kenyon Coleman, Brett Ratliff, Abram Elam

Mike Tannenbaum hired a new coach in Rex Ryan and spent the entire off-season rebuilding the roster to fit his new coach’s identity. He succeeded in giving him the necessary pieces to help create the league’s top defense in 2009 but made his biggest splash in the draft by trading up for quarterback Mark Sanchez and then supplementing it by trading up for Shonn Greene. If you look at the list of players the Jets parted ways with this off-season, it is encouraging especially when you consider how many of the players brought in contributed to two teams that made the AFC Championship Game. Ultimately this off-season really can’t be judged until we see what happens with Sanchez and to a much lesser extent, Greene in the coming years.

2010

Primary Additions

Draft Class – Kyle Wilson, Vladimir Ducasse, Joe McKnight, John Conner

Free Agency – Nick Folk, Brodney Pool, LaDainian Tomlinson, Lance Laury, Jason Taylor, Mark Brunell, Trevor Pryce

Trade – Antonio Cromartie, Santonio Holmes

Primary Subtractions

Released – Donald Strickland, Howard Green, Thomas Jones, Alan Faneca, Jay Feely, Lito Sheppard

Traded – Kerry Rhodes, Leon Washington

There were plenty of controversial moves this off-season, notably releasing Thomas Jones and Alan Faneca, along with trading Leon Washington. Fortunately for Tannenbaum, the team improved from 9-7 to 11-5 and returned to the AFC Championship Game for the second straight year. However, he did continue a damaging trend of walking away from the draft with four or less players. He also selected his second major bust by taking Vladimir Ducasse in the second round. Kyle Wilson has been average for a first round pick as well. If Santonio Holmes doesn’t get his head on straight, this off-season is going to look very ugly a few years from now.

2011

Primary Additions

Draft Class – Muhammad Wilkerson, Kenrick Ellis, Bilal Powell, Jeremy Kerley, Greg McElroy, Scotty McKnight

Free Agency – Donald Strickland, Plaxico Burress, Derrick Mason, Aaron Maybin

Trade – Caleb Schlauderaff

Primary Subtractions

Released – Damien Woody, Braylon Edwards, Jerricho Cotchery, Jason Taylor, Kris Jenkins, Shaun Ellis, Tony Richardson, Trevor Pryce, Brad Smith, Drew Coleman

Traded – Dwight Lowery, Derrick Mason

One of the Tannenbaum’s worst off-seasons, if not his worst. He went for names over needs by focusing the team’s effort on chasing Nnamdi Asomugha in free agency and came up empty. He then replaced Braylon Edwards, the only player Mark Sanchez ever had deep ball chemistry with, by signing Plaxico Burress. The Jets badly missed Cotchery and Ellis in the locker room and the depth Lowery provided at safety. The Mason signing was a disaster and he was traded in the middle of the season. The best move ended up being finding Aaron Maybin on the scrap heap and then giving him a second chance after initially cutting him. It is too soon to clearly evaluate the draft but Wilkerson looks like he will be a solid starter and Kerley has very good potential. I believe the Powell selection will turn out to be a major head scratcher.

Rex Ryan To Be More Active In Playcalling

TOJ would like to welcome our newest writer Matt Fritz, who currently attends Juniata College in Pennsylvania. We are particularly happy to employ individuals from Centennial Conference schools like myself and especially from schools who I scored a touchdown against (what are you mad about this shameless self promotion? Give me a break, I just suffered through a Giants/Patriots Super Bowl)

Okay enough about me…we are happy to have Matt on board. He can be followed on Twitter (@MTFritz5)

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During Super Bowl festivities, Jet coach Rex Ryan told reporters that he will be more invovled in the play-calling next year, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

This is music to my ears. This past season was the first time in Rex’s three years as Jet head coach where we really saw him take a back seat in the play-calling. Rex will now once again share duties with Defensive Coordinator Mike Pettine, as he did in his first two seasons when the Jet defense was arguably one of the best in the league.

I really like Mike Pettine, and I think he did a decent job at calling the defensive plays for the Jets this past year, but I do think the Jets are at their best defensively when Rex has the majority say in what is called. I have always thought that at times Rex has more of a coordinator’s mentality then a head coach’s, so I think this will only help the Jets defense next season. I thought the Jet defense overall this past year was slower than in year’s past, and I think they will ultimately address this issue in the upcoming draft. This didn’t work in Pettine’s favor throughout the course of the season, and when Jim Leonhard went down it just made matters worse. The Jet defense gave up 30 points or more in four games this year…very uncharacteristic for a Rex Ryan defense.

I would say if Schotty were still around, I would like to see Rex have more of a say as to what is called on offense as well, but with Sparano now coming on board as OC and having a philosophy more in line with Rex’s, I think he will allow Sparano a good amount of autonomy.