Monthly Archives: May 2008
I was fishing around the web for some interesting viewpoints on the Jets free agent acquisitions, and I cam across an interesting piece via Mike Florio of the Sporting News, and of course the well known Pro Football Talk.com. What Florio had to say about the Jets had me thinking some people really don’t know anything.
Though the Patriots’ approach in ’07 had an overriding sense of precision, the Jets’ offseason moves came off as reckless — almost desperate.
Ha, ha…ha. I can’t quite believe this. I mean, as a first time Jets writer over the last couple of months here at TJB and SB Nation, I’ve gotten a lot of criticism for not really knowing a whole lot. Since then, I think I’ve relatively rebounded. Now, based on my knowledge of the New York Jets, I see no way that signing the free agents this offseason was a desperate plea. This team was simply doing what any other team who has one four games the previous season would do the following offseason: get better.
By the way, did I mention this was a list of teams that didn’t make the playoffs last year that he believes will not make the playoffs again this season? Anyway, that’s really beside the point. The point here is, the Jets were not desperate in signing these players. In fact, they were hungry for some playmakers and some skill position players on defense. I refuse to believe this was an act of desperation. It just doesn’t make any sense.
Florio nailed the rest of the article, though, as he went on to describe the problems that some of the players have had with the front office. Most notably, Pete Kendall last year, Coles and Baker this year. It’s true. But I have one objection here. How much is Chris Baker really worth? Is he a top seven or eight tight end in the NFL? I don’t think so. Now, maybe breaks the top ten but Mike Tannenbaum has a couple of reasons to justify why he’s not pleasing Baker’s money demands. The team now has two tight ends may be able to fill the role of Baker, in Keller and Franks. Also, Baker just isn’t worth it in my opinion, and apparently Tannenbaum’s as well. Baker will report this coming Friday and we won’t be talking about this issue anymore.
But, desperate? Come on Florio, desperate?
A source has been telling beat reporters that the team has has hired former Director of Pro Personnel from the Eagles, Scott Cohen, into a new role with the Jets. The new role that the team has created for Cohen is that of Assistant General Manager … no word yet as to whether the position is actually Assistant (to the) General Manager.
Although all the information isn’t out yet, we do know that Cohen will be helping Tannenbaum with “day to day operations of the team.” From looking at his bio on the Eagles site (you have to use the Google cached version as they’ve already taken down Cohen’s bio) you can get a sense of what his skill set is, and how he’ll be used by the Jets.
Scott Cohen works closely with general manager Tom Heckert in assessing players on NFL rosters for potential free agents and trades, players available during the season, as well as players in other pro leagues (Arena League and CFL). He also provides advance scouting reports for most NFC opponents in addition to managing the pro scouting department and handling player tryouts.
With his background in college scouting, Cohen has been involved each year in evaluating players for the draft as well as being involved in draft day trades, projecting other team’s needs and selections. He has also negotiated contracts for undrafted and future free agents.
Cohen, 39, has spent the past seven seasons as Philadelphia’s director of pro personnel, and worked for Jacksonville and Washington before that. In terms of whether this would cause ruffled feathers from others already in the organization like Terry Bradway or Joey Clickscales, the source has told reporters that Bradway & Clinkscales are already in the process of getting new contracts and titles with the team.
This is a good addition as the Eagles are a well-run organization so the fact that Cohen works so closely with Heckert is solid. Also, hearing that Clinkscales is getting a new contract is good news.
I always am afraid that should someone like Clinkscales leave, that the organization might be in trouble, so adding another staffer to take some of the duties off of Tannenbaum, as well as distribute more knowledge in the organization is a wise thing to do should that scenario play out. Allowing Tannenbaum more time to work on the strategy of things with Mangini is important, and adding Cohen will allow ‘the new guy’ to take over more of those day to day operations.
Here’s a quick recap of the other AFC East questions …
Over at Buffalo Rumblings:
I talk about the QB situation in New York.
Can Laurence Maroney carry the load?
The Phinsider talks about John Beck v. Chad Henne.
Over at The Phinsider:
Brian G. discusses the most overrated and underrated Bills players, from a national media perspective.
Over at Pats Pulpit:
The Raiders Kirk Morrison talks with NFL Network about the Jets and how improved the team could be this year.
Thanks to Matt in Virginia for the heads up …
I’m sure the contract didn’t hurt, but it seems that it was the little details that made Calvin Pace want to play in New York. It seems that it was Downward Dog and that the stomach and are the ways to the Calvin’s heart.
Hutch has the story in the Star-Ledger.
Pace said it wasn’t the money — or the helicopter ride from Long Island to the team’s new training complex in Florham Park during his recruiting visit — that made him chose the Jets over the Dolphins.”It’s the little things,” said Pace, who spent his first five seasons in Arizona. “You don’t need valet service. You just want people to show you it’s all about trying to win. (The Jets) laid things out as far as yoga classes, the Pilates, training staff. Those are things I’ve never seen before in the NFL.
“Things like lunch and breakfast before you work out. I’ve never had that. (In Arizona), you had to eat before you came and it was your job to eat when you left.”
The Bidwells didn’t provide little extras to their players like meals and extra conditioning options? Shocker!!
David Harris, who almost threw up on his chopper trip with Pace, might not be so happy to hear that wasn’t exactly the thing that sealed the deal. If he had known, I’m sure Harris would have rather baked Pace some brownies.
This week Dan Martin wrote in the Post that Thomas Jones might be in trouble with the new running backs.
But Jones is now part of a crowded backfield that became even more cluttered this week with the signing of former Raven Musa Smith, who, along with the returning Leon Washington Leon Washington and newcomer Jesse Chatman, could all vie for carries.
Umm … are you kidding me? If “vie for carries” means “replace Jones if he’s injured or needs a break after a long run” then yes, they will vie for carries. Most teams only activate three running backs in a given game, and the Jets have their hands full with other positions like Wide Receiver so do we really think that the Thomas Jones has much to worry about with the addition of a player like Musa Smith? Smith is a Fullback or Goal Line back in this offense, at best, he’s a Moe Williams style touchdown vulture.
Yesterday, Bryan Thomas spoke to the press candidy about his self-assessment of his 2007 season, saying that he slacked off substantially after getting his big contract.
“It’s not hard to realize my numbers were off. My practice habits weren’t good last year and those things carried over to Sunday. Maybe I got too complacent. In this league, you can’t do that. You have to stay on your toes all the time. And now you have competition in here, so you know you can’t do it. You have to go out and work hard every day. If not, I’ll have my (butt) on the sidelines watching and I don’t want that to happen. That hurt me, seeing that my numbers were down. I don’t want (people to say), ‘Okay, you did good one year.’ I don’t want to be analyzed as that. It’s a matter of pride. I can’t let my numbers be like that again. We have too many good players on this defense to let one guy be the weak link.”
It’s his own admission, and I do think that it affected his play in 2007. I still think that part of Thomas’ failures in 2007 were OCs learning to scheme against the Jets, and neutralizing Victor Hobson on the other side causing Thomas to consistently face more doubles.
Reality check time, Mr. Thomas. Maybe signing him to such a lucrative long-term deal was a mistake, but with Calvin Pace and Vernon Gholston now waiting in the wings, the Jets aren’t wasting any time trying to fill such a crucial role in the 3-4. If Thomas isn’t ready to do what it takes to win, the team is more than willing to find someone else who will.
Not much today …
- McManus writes an article on BubbRubb. If you’re wondering how the team will use him, here’s a hint, look for him in a certain colored designated area.
- Pete Prisco looks at Trent Edwards, Buffalo QB.
- Mike Sando drops an AFC East injury update.
The guys over at SBNation have asked me to participate in a series of running posts that they do, Around the AFC East. Each Friday, you’ll get a series of questions asked from each team’s blogger to another. If you are unfamiliar with SBNation’s AFC East sites, The Phinsider, Pats Pulpit and Buffalo Rumblings are all excellent intel for anyone who follows the AFC East Division.
TJB: Joey Porter didn’t exactly have a typical year for himself in 2007. Do you see this changing now that the team will likely switch to a 3-4?
Phinsider: This is something a lot of Dolphin fans have been talking about, especially because of the amount of money (and guaranteed money in particular) that this organization gave Joey Porter last offseason. Here’s the thing about Joey, though. First, like you point out, the Dolphins weren’t running the type of defense Joey usually thrives in. Yes, they planned on doing so. But injuries and a lack of depth caused the team to have to play much more 4-3 than they ever wanted to. And that certainly hurt Porter’s productivity.
But the thing people also seem to forget about Porter is that he had to undergo arthroscopic knee surgery back on August 7 of last year. And at 30 years of age, it takes some time to come back from an injury like that. However, Porter, being the competitor he is, rushed to get back on the field. And he ended up only missing 3 weeks of camp.
The result? Anyone watching the Dolphins week in and week out could see that Porter was clearly slowed by his knee. However, he seemed to get back to being the old Joey Porter the 2nd half of the season following the bye week. In those final 8 games after the bye, Porter had 39 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 2 interceptions, and 3 passes defended. If you average those figures out to a full season, you would have Porter’s 2nd highest total in tackles (78) and 3rd highest total in sacks (9).
Considering he’s now healthy and will be playing in a style of defense (Paul Pasqualoni’s 3-4) that he’s more comfortable in, I fully expect a very solid season from Porter (60-70 tackles, 8-10 sacks). (more…)
This post was written by Mack Rosenberg with Brian Bassett contributing to it …
Yesterday, the Fifth Down published an article in which they talked with ESPN writer K.C. Joyner who uses statistics to analyze the game, and he does so in his upcoming book, “Scientific Football ’08.” Joyner, a.ka. the Football Scientist, has his own website- thefootballscientist.com. Joyner first addressed the issue of Jets tight end Chris Baker (who isn’t any happier after receiving that friendly text from Eric Mangini). Here’s what Joyner had to say:
“A better receiving tight end than he’s given credit for.”
Well duh, but this is something we at TJB have been giving Baker credit for since 2004. Looking at his DPAR as a pass-catcher (value adjusted over a backup-level TE) on Football Outsiders he’s ranked in the top 20 in the past four seasons (2007 — 11th, 2006 –12th, 2005 –12th, 2004 — 20th) respectively, not bad for a guy who is supposed to be a blocking Tight End.
Joyner determined that out of the 60 passes thrown to Baker last season, Chris was set up as a wide receiver for 43 of them, with 7.5 yards per attempt in that stance, tied for 13th in the NFL with Jeremy Shockey. The Colts threw 62 of those passes to Dallas Clark, while 27 went to Ben Watson of the Patriots, and 3 came the way of Bubba Franks in Green Bay, now Baker’s backup.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Joyner was asked by Greg Bishop of the Fifth Down to assess the drafting of Dustin Keller, tight end out of Purdue, with that second first round pick. Joyner said the Jets were “solving a problem that doesn’t seem to be there.” Some may agree with this assessment, thinking Baker acted out like he did because there was no problem with the Jets tight end unit. And that’s the real question here: did the Jets have a good reason to draft a tight end in the first round?
Apples and oranges. It’s akin to playing Victor Hobson as a DE/OLB … you can do it, but it ain’t going to be pretty.
The problem is, Joyner is looking through a lens of a static offense looking to do the same thing they did in 2008 that they did in 2007. Doesn’t the fact that Baker was making most of his catches in 0 TE / motion formations throw up some red flags about personnel matching the scheme they were trying to play?
So, wouldn’t putting a much faster, much more athletic player into the role Baker filling last year make sense as an upgrade? No one here is arguing that Baker isn’t a great two-way player, or that he can make catches detached from the offensive line, he can. But what he isn’t is a speedy threat that can cause serious matchups against a linebacker and/or defensive back away from the formation play after play.
Actually adding Keller makes the offense and passing game that much more potent. Allow Baker to play the role he is suited to, the two-way Tight End, and allow Keller to assume the role as the flex player, lining up in the backfield, flanking, in-line, whatever. Both will benefit from the other and the defense will be thrown into fits stuggling to keep up with another legitimate pass-catching threats opening up the field even more for the Wide Receivers deep, which then allows for more breathing space for the power running game we’re likely to see this year with Bill Callahan now in town.
Stats are important, but rather than just looking at the stats, if Joyner looked more closely at piecing together the roster, the changing scheme of the Offensive Coordinator and and the key clue of the team cutting H-Back Stacy Tutt immediately after drafting Keller, it’s clear that it’s a role the Jets been trying to fill — though unsuccessfully — for over two years.
The Jets aren’t fixing a problem that wasn’t there, they are fixing a problem that they’ve covered up as best they could for two years. Adding Keller isn’t a zero sum game for Baker, it’s setting up a whole offense that could stand to make great strides in 2008.
Here’s an interesting clip from Mangini’s press conference yesterday on Jenkins and settling in the 3-4 …
… on second year WR Chansi Stuckey and his progress since last year …
He’s moving pretty good. He’s had a long time to let things heal. What I liked about Chansi last year is he was very involved the whole time he was not involved. He was diligent in his preparation. He was diligent in trying to stay part of what was happening with the offense. We spent a lot of time making sure that happened as well. Sometimes you have a guy that goes on IR, especially a young guy, they can get lost. They start the next year and they’re no better than they were when they got there.
It’s very important for us in those situations to make sure that that next camp they’re not rookies again. They’ve had the benefit of a year of learning and it’s less thinking, more reacting, more understanding what they have to do. That’s a big plus.
This has been a fun off-season as Jets fan, with the team’s free agent spending spree and high draft slot, there’s been a lot to talk about over the past few months. But now, as the team gets ready to finish a quiet second week of OTAs, I think it’s a good time to think about some of the less-obvious issues facing the team with a little over two months remaining until training camp opens.
10. What about Bob? Despite being painted as a potential scapegoat at the end of last season, and allegedly flirting with Raiders defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, Bob Sutton is still in charge of the Jets defense, and all its shiny new toys (Jenkins, Pace, Gholston). I guess the good news is that the bye is Week 5, so it’s that much sooner Mangini can step in and shake things up like he’s done the past two seasons, getting the defense on track. Baby step to Week 4, baby step to Week 4 . . . .
