Maybe so, but here’s the thing- I’m fine with being wrong about Ryan. My issue was that he wasn’t productive enough to warrant a top five pick, and, given the potential downside involved in drafting a bust or a mediocre player at that spot, I’d go elsewhere. Ryan bucked the trend and played very, very well, but that doesn’t mean that the trend doesn’t exist or that the argument was an invalid one. It doesn’t bother me that we didn’t get Matt Ryan, and if given the chance to take my preferred course of action- drafting Flacco or Henne lower down in the draft- I’d be fine going that route again. (You also were insisting that Chad Pennington could no longer be a starting quarterback in the NFL last season to go along with your Ryan/Anderson musings, so you’re batting 1-for-3 at the moment. But your hit was a big one.)

In any event, the Lewin theory is designed specifically to keep you from making exactly the kind of mistake everyone seems to want to make on Freeman, a guy who by virtually every account carried a second or third round grade during the football season but whose stock is shooting up because he looks good throwing against air.

And I think you said it well, Freeman has several attributes like height, mobility and a cannon arm that many NFL starters don’t have, including (but not limited to) guys like Drew Brees and Kurt Warner. What he hasn’t shown much of are good instincts, accuracy or pocket awareness, all of which are arguably more important to succeeding in the league. The only quarterback in this draft who has the latter traits is Mark Sanchez, and he is the only quarterback who might be worth the 17th pick in the draft…even though he’s all of 6’2″. (And frankly, I’d be leery of taking him, too.)

If a #1,2,4 and next years #2 don’t equal moving up 14 spots than I say the Jets just sign 3 WR’s- you have to approach these drafts with some humility… something the Jets are not known for doing this time of year…

ps- Gholston… ? … we could’ve gotten flacco or a solid RB… I

Oh, and I’m not done flogging you with Matt Ryan. You weren’t just wrong, you blundered on a guy who arguably had the greatest rookie season in NFL history. That’s quite a miss. :-)

His average comp % is 61 for the 2 years he started and played every game, his first year he only started and played 5 games, so it’s unfair to say its 58%.

I also noticed how you didn’t mention his QB rating, which averaged 122 for the three years.

The bottom line is he’s a lot better then you give him credit for, and with his size, speed athletic ability and arm strenght we should take a shot at him with #17.

I’m not talking about what Flacco did last year, I’m comparing him to Freeman as a prospect. Flacco was not very good last year. Flacco was good *considering* that he was expected to take time to get his footwork ironed out and to adjust to the speed of the pro game. Under the circumstances, he performed pretty well. But that’s not the same thing as saying he played at, say, Matt Ryan’s level. It wasn’t even close.

Actually, he’s a career 58.6% passer, and he started in 33 games. Josh Freeman is exciting because you haven’t had a chance to see him in a pro uniform. His profile reads exactly like the player who he reminds me of- Patrick Ramsey (32 starts, 58% comps). Would you be racing out to spend the 17th pick overall on Patrick Ramsey?

If you watched Joe Flacco play at all this season, which I did going to school in MD, you would know that his completion % does not translate to what he actually did. He threw mostly 5 to 10 yard passes and his only job in Baltimore was to be a game manager. You are giving him way too much credit and every Ravens fan would agree.