Monthly Archives: January 2008
- Former Jet Darrol Ray loves him some soccer.
- Did anyone know that Ed Donatell was a special assistant to the Jets just to study the 3-4 a while back?
- Randy Lange looks at Jabar Gaffney and his family’s history in the NFL.
- Tom Rock finds that Vrabel keeping the fires stoked in himself via SpyGate.
- A second Nicholls player (Jacob Bender was the first) will be in the Texas vs. the Nation game.
- Now current players are getting wise to Gene Upshaw.
Just three years ago, Jonathan Vilma was coming into his own, and most fans would tell you that they relished the idea of him staying in a Jets uniform for many years to come. But a funny thing happened on the way to a new coach implementing his system and try as Vilma might, the press and fans started to voice concerns about his ability to play in the 3-4, which required him to take on Guards regularly. Now two full seasons in, a knee injury and a rookie tackling machine later, the situation looks different to many fans.
Harris? Vilma? Both? What will happen with Hobson? Can Bryan Thomas rebound? Will the Jets keep Eric Barton around for another season? How big a difference would a guy like Terrell Suggs or Vernon Gholston (DROOL!!!) make for this team?
So … this week it isn’t exactly an awesome one to be a Jets fan, but I saw this video on YouTube and thought it would be nice to watch. Although it’s great to see this interview with Curtis following his 2004 season, the toughest part to watch is the last 30 seconds when he talks about a SuperBowl and the Jets.
We’re sorry it never happened, but know that if anyone can cope without winning and see the larger picture, it’s going to be Curtis.
As Free Agency looms in just over a month, we here at TJB are going to start looking at some of the players that are likely to be available. With a large amount of money at their disposal, the Jets should figure to be players between early March and the 2008 Draft in late April. Please note, we are starting with players that the beat writers have “heard” that — no matter how remote the possibility — the Jets might be interested in . Today’s Free Agent, Baltimore Ravens LB Terrell Suggs.
Background
At 6-3 260 pounds and with speed enough to rush the passer, Suggs is the quintessential DE/OLB for a 3-4 and as such, Suggs plays at a number of positions across the field. Drafted in 2003 in the first round with the 10th pick by the Ravens, Terrell Suggs has already accumulated 45 sacks in just five years.
- Eric Allen notes that Leon’s MVP award was dedicated to Mike Westhoff.
- Tom Rock gets a quote from Samuel on his respect for Mangini.
- Whee!! Who’s excited about Sutton coming back?
- Bad news, Moss wants to stay in New England, which means he could be willing to take another pay cut.
- The Langer catches up with Kareem McKenzie who encourages the Jets to keep their chins up.
- The JC staff gets a little miffed regarding how Belichick uses the injury report … which is the same way the Jets do.
Yesterday during Media Day, the press tried to corner Rodney Harrison on the subject of performance enhancing drugs.
“Time heals all wounds,” he said Monday. “But at the same time, being forthright and being honest – those are the things that I’m probably most proud of. My message to young kids basically was, ‘Hey, you make a mistake, own up to it, accept your consequences and move forward.’ We, as people, have to do that. I mean, we all have skeletons in our closet. No one’s perfect here. The way you make amends is by becoming a better person.”
He is right, none of us are perfect, and yes, Rodney did admit to his mistakes … but mistakes that he made ongoing for over two years and that he only owned up to after being caught in an Albany area investigation on an Internet drug scam. Rodney backpedaled when this all came out and said that he did it to “accelerate the healing process.”
So sure, time heals all wounds, but HGH just accelerates the process.
The fine folks at Reebok have been kind enough to send us at TJB some sweet Reebok’s Zero Degrees gear, and after a quick look we want to give away one Conflict hoodie to a lucky reader.
Sorry for the delay, but with many entries and a bunch of you asking where you could buy this particular hoodie, we wanted to scour the net to try and find it before we made this post. Sadly, this piece of merch seems to be a hot item and is hard to find, even on the net.
So without further ado, the winner is Bobby Egloff!
Congrats to Bobby, and thank you to everyone who participated. For those still looking for Look for more items to be similarly raffled off in the coming months, leading up to free agency, the Draft and on to training camp.
True it might not address the Offensive or Defensive Line, but according to Rich Cimini and his blog, the Jets could make a serious run at soon to be free agent Asante Samuel. Cimini writes:
I did hear a piece of juicy info regarding Pats CB Asante Samuel, who will become a free agent after the season. From what I heard, the Jets are planning to make a serious run at the talented corner. As you probably know, the Patriots can’t use the franchise tag on Samuel, per an agreement with the team before he signed a one-year deal. That means he will hit the open market – unless the Pats can re-sign him to a long-term deal before March. Can you imagine a Samuel-Darrelle Revis cornerback tandem for the Jets?
This wouldn’t be the first time the Jets have made a move at the corner (allegedly), but his hold out and subsequent agreement with the Patriots that he can’t be franchised again have forced the Patriots hand … either re-sign Samuel before March or let him hit the market. Asante didn’t equal his number of interceptions from 2006 (10) in 2007 (6), but he proved in 2007 that he is a consistently darn good player.
If I have any sense of things, I imagine that Asante Samuel will be looking for Nate Clements money … $80 million with $22 million guaranteed across 10 years. What remains to be seen if he will get it, especially with a 2008 Draft class that has been noted as solid at corner into the second round. The Jets will clearly have many irons in the fire this offseason, and we can hope that some good ones work out for Gang Green. The Jets have the cap room to sign him and I know Tannenbaum won’t let a deal slide across his desk that would debilitate any other plans, but I am somewhat concerned on how much space this season would be tied into this one player. It will be interesting how this plays out, and I’m glad that the Jets are trying to get themselves into play …even if to just raise the price for the Patriots.
As Mark Bungaard from across the sea had asked me questions about the Jets on his site, so too I thought it would be appropriate to do the same with him. For those of you who don’t know, Mark is from Denmark, is a huge Jets fan, and writes the only (that I am aware of) blog about the Jets in Danish.
TJB: Has Mangini’s second year with the team shaken your confidence in him as coach of the Jets?
MB: It was definately a rough year for Mangini and his coaching staff and he probably lost the right to be called The Mangenius… I’ve really liked that nickname anyway. Most of us didn’t believe that this team would be as succesfull this year as they were last year – we hoped they would be and that there were a slight chance that we could compete for a wild card… that it would go as wrong as it did nobody expected. What we need to understand though is that he (and most of his coaching staff) is still a young and inexperienced and that the team played a bit above its head last year. It is also important to realize the importance of continuity – it takes time to build a team to fit your system and we all know that we are still a couple of years away from that… But what if we give Mangini a handful of years and it turns out that he is not the guy? Haven’t we wasted our time then? – Perhaps but we have seen how Al Davis runs the show in Oakland, firing coaches left and right and that is definately NOT how you build a succesful franchise. I still believe that Mangini can be a great coach for the Jets and as long as he doesn’t loose the locker room I firmly believe that it would be a mistake to fire him.
From the files of thing I never knew the Jets were responsible … apparently, we messed up Stu Scott’s eye. From an interview a few years back …
Q. Back in the spring, you sustained a severe eye injury while filming a story about football minicamps with the Jets. Tell us what happened.
Over the weekend, our friend MDS wrote a very interesting perspective on how the teams in the SuperBowl got there … meaning what the Front Offices of both the Giants and Patriots did to make it happen. We thought it might be interesting to riff off MDS’ work and do the same sort of analysis on the Jets. We know the numbers don’t add up to 53, but with injuries, and a lot of shuffling at the end of the season, the picture is not totally clear.
Thanks to pound4pound for pointing this out,
Trades (4)
The Jets have had more trades than both the teams in MDS’ article. Sean Ryan was traded for a late draft pick, but the other three were more high profile. Justin McCareins was traded for in 2004 for the Jets’ second round draft pick (#42). Just to give you a sense of some of who was drafted within the next ten picks were Travis LaBoy (Titans #42), Julius Jones (Dallas #43), Bob Sanders (#44), and Tank Johnson (#47). The McCareins trade produced the best value in year one of the deal where McCareins hauled in 56 catches and 4TDs for 770 yards. Since then, it’s all been downhill. The following year, the Jets traded for a guy they had previously had on the team, Laveranues Coles for a guy they had used a first round pick on in Santana Moss. The results of the trade were mixed statistically, but his value as a leader on the team can’t be underestimated. During last offseason, the Jets traded with the Chicago Bears for Thomas Jones, trading second round picks in a move that, as net was a third round pick.
Time worked against me today, but I will be working on compiling what happened at the Senior Bowl into individual posts by position group. In the meantime, here’s some links to stories from the event.
- Andre Caldwell and Erik Ainge made the difference for the South.
- Chad Henne helped himself out for the Draft.
- Sedrick Ellis was the belle of the ball in Mobile.
- USC teammate OL Sam Baker might now be a bit of a wallflower.
- Colt Brennan is becoming a punchline.
- Heath Benedict might not have played four years at a top program, but he turned heads in Mobile.
- Did the SEC reign supreme?
- Was Flacco flat?
- Kiper thinks Vandy’s OL Chris Williams helped himself out a lot.
Feel free to use this thread to discuss the Senior Bowl, any thoughts you might have had if you’ve been keeping up with it.
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