Lito to Play on Sunday?
After very limited time in the first half of the season, it seems that the oft-injured Lito Sheppard will be suiting up this weekend for the Jets secondary.
Cornerback Lito Sheppard missed the Jets last game with a re-injured quad, but that week off, along with the bye week has served him well, and he expects to return for the New York-Jacksonville game. “I’m back,” Sheppard said. “I’m 100 percent back.”
That’s good for Lito and the Jets secondary, but with a $10 million bonus waiting for him next offseason, I can guarantee that he won’t be next season at that price tag. When he’s played he’s been decent, but the team has survived without him and there’s just no room for the team to pay a guy that much money to someone who’s not been able to maintain a consistent level of health (and thus production).
It’s about Bloody time, If Lito can play and stay healthy for the rest of the season that may help his case, well it won’t hurt it at least. Dwight Lowery has proven he’s not a Rookie any more and he can play across from Revis.
I guess that I’m going to beat this dead horse, but with a bona fide pass rusher to make the blitz more effective, the Jets could start any of their CBs across from Revis and they’d play roughly the same. QBs in trouble usually force things to their go-to guys and that would mean double-digit INTs for Revis and lots of loneliness for the other CB.
Hopefully the Jets will keep Lito out of the lineup just enough so they get to forfeit the lowest possible draft pick to Phili
As long as Sheppard doesn’t play 85% of the plays on defense (which he has no chance of doing) then the Jets don’t have to give up a 2nd rounder to the Iggles. That pick then becomes a 5th.
And his extension doesn’t kick in unless we pay his $10mil bonus, which we won’t do. Instead, if we even want him, we’ll do the Vilma/Saints type thing.
Why did we offer him such a bonus in the first place? Is any CB besides a TREMENDOUS one deserving of that type of money? I’m sure no one went into this pickup saying that Lito would perform like Reivs or Asomaugh(?).
We didnt offer it, it was a part of the contract he already had.
The last time he was on the field was that awful play against the Bills where Lee Evans just burned him for a TD. By all means, another fresh body is good, but too many times this season it seemed he was giving the reciever an 8 yard cushion on a 3rd and 7 and then getting blown up by the wideout after the catch had been made. I hope Ryan keeps him on a short leash.
Well, the extension we gave him kicks in after the season, and includes that $10 bonus. If I had to guess they did it to make him happy so he would be a good soldier, and never planned on actually giving him that deal, instead doing the Vilma/Saints cut/resign.
I believe that Lito’s injury has really kept us from maximizing his abilities, which is as a playmaker. If Lito could stay healthy and play a full 16 games opposite Revis I truly believe that he could take advantage of all of the balls thrown his way by getting a ton of picks and probably bringing one back for a TD. Unfortunately, he hasnt been able to stay healthy and the TD given up against Evans is more of an indication of his weakness than his actual ability.
Let’s not forget we won at Houston and against NE — two high powered passing attacks — with Lito 100%, and then since he got hurt have lost four games and beaten two bad teams.
I welcome him back.
Greg,
you gotta bear in mind that those two high powered passing attacks were each playing without their #2’s, Kevin Walter and Wes Welker respectively. I’m not sure Lito had too much to do with shutting down those teams.
Either way, he (probably) can’t hurt the team.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
its more like we claimed him off waviers.lol. hope he is productive, we need it, with our rest of the sched, NE,IND,Cinn ATL
I also assume that Strickland is healthy. With Rhodes, Leonhard, Smith, Revis, Lito, Lowery and Strickland, a pass defense that has held opposing QBs to a 68.5 QBR just got a lot better. And, while Walter and Welker were out, I will note that against the Texans Ellis and Pace were out and Pace was still out for the Pats (and Strickland left the Pats game early with an injured ankle). With the entire secondary healthy and Pace to spice up the pass rush, the Jets D is undoubtedly better against the pass and, as long as Rex can make magic with Pouha and DeVito replacing Jenks, the defense could actually be better over the next 8 games.
he is a bum dont even no why we wasted are time with him,BUM!
the jets are going to have a great second half you know why my boss wants to open the call center sunday from 11/7 thanx for dvr hes also a dolfhin fan so while im trying to bother people on sunday the jets will play like the patriots
The guy makes plays and at this point is a better CB than Lowery is. He is one of the rare CB who actually can catch the ball when its near his hands…
If he is healthy our defense is even better
Who’s Lito?
Tanny is going to have to do a lot of wheeling and dealing during the off-season because doesn’t Braylon Edwards have a similiar deal too?
50-50 he makes it through the game without another injury.
This is exacly why he was demoted in Philly, they could not rely on him due to his inability to stay healthy, entirely predictable.
Bad move by Mr. T, he gambled on this one and lost, albeit not much but a lost pick is a lost pick.
The only thing I am hoping for is Lito comes back and helps the D shut people down in a huge second half run and we still dont have to give up too much for him because he hasnt played in 85% of the games let alone Defensive snaps…
They have to ease him back into the swing of things, he was rusty in the Buffalo game blowing the coverage on the pass to Evans and getting the Ill Cont. flag on his pick; in his defense though, he picked it clean, the contact was incidental as he was playing the ball..
BTW the ref on that play was Walt Anderson, the same guy who called the hold vs the GMen last Sunday, Im no conspiracy theorist but this guy loves going out of his way to keep games close, he only throws flags at critical game changing moments
“…doesn’t Braylon Edwards have a similiar deal too?”
Not really. If there’s no cap, they can retain Braylon as a RFA with a $5m tender. Either way, they’ll look to agree on a long term deal, provided he continues to fit in well. Lito’s contract will simply be re-done so if he stays it won’t cost the Jets another pick.