Link: What to Watch For
Bob Glauber takes a look at some topics to watch as the Jets head down the home stretch towards the offseason. Glauber hits the nail on the head, and here’s one of the many topics he addresses, Braylon Edwards.
When the Jets traded for the Browns receiver, they opted not to address his contract, which expires at the end of the season. It will be an important evaluation period, and the feeling here is that they should attempt an extension at an affordable price. Edwards is a terrific talent, but he is not at the level of Randy Moss or Larry Fitzgerald. In other words, don’t break the bank, and keep the franchise designation in reserve.
From what I’ve seen so far this season, I think Glauber’s assessment is dead on. The team can control him because of his restricted status and they’d be right to do what it takes to keep him and see how he gels with Sanchez, but to pay him $11 million per year to drop four yard passes while wide open …. mmm passs.
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Basset, is the “right to control” restricted players effected by the labor impass? If so, how and which players will it effect?
Leon, Braylon, who else? The other draft picks in Leon’s class, I presume?
Think Brick is signed longer, but Mangold, The Smiths, Drew Coleman?
WOJF,
Basically, under the CBA players become unrestricted free agents after four full years of service. If a new CBA isn’t reached, language in the CBA states that in the final year (which is uncapped) that time period changes from four seasons to six. So Leon’s draft class is going to be the one affected the most because most of those rookie contracts are expiring this season (unless given an extension a la Greg Jennings).
if rhodes doesnt bounceback watch jets trade him to San diego for Shawn Merriman because SD badly needs a decent safety
save the franchise tag for someone like leon. Then slap the transition tag on Braylon, at the least you get something like a 2nd round pick, more than what the Jets gave up for him, good business
I think that Sanchez should start against Carolina but, if he starts to implode — let Ainge have a shot. We might as well see what we have, in Ainge, as a back-up. I see no difference between Rhodes and Sanchez. If you show that you can’t do your job, and you are bringing the team down, you have to sit down. Get your game together in practice and prove to the coach that you deserve another shot.
I see Sanchez forcing the ball into coverage, lacking accuracy, and having a hard time throwing the ball away. He can work on all of these things in practice, Ryan is learning that he can’t sit back and watch the season fade away. He has to act. Rex made the move with Rhodes and he tells us he will be in Sanchez’ ear but, if Sanchez falters Rex has to have the cajones to sit him down.
Harvlis
I hear you but…you sit Rhodes because you know what he can do and he is not doing it. You don’t sit Sanchez as they are still finding out what he can do. There is a list of QB’s who started out much worst than Sanchez and went on to have great careers. He needs to play it out. This is the only way we will know what he has. I think the guy can throw the ball and will be OK but who knows. Time will tell.
Hangar,
Exactly. People can’t compare benching Rhodes to benching Sanchez. One is a veteran, with a track record of play making, and he is not living up to his billing. The other is a rookie QB with inconsistency all around the team and is trying to find his footing. Two entirely different situations, one needed to keep his confidence in order to not risk being permanently impacted by a rookie campaign (at the hardest position to learn in sports), the other needing to remain confident but get back to what it was that earned him that confidence (hard work, film study).
Hangar,
The rookies that you speak of spent plenty of time on the bench. Many of them didn’t play their first year.
If Rex would have sat Sanchez, at certain times during this season, we might have a different record. We have a team that is capable of making the playoffs. The rest of the team shouldn’t be punished while Sanchez gets experience. There is nothing beneficial for Sanchez, if he ends up throwing four INT’s and single-handedly loses a game for us. Think of him as a pitcher who doesn’t have it some days. You take him out and limit the damage for both the team and the pitcher’s psyche. There is plenty to learn on the sidelines. It also can’t hurt to see what his backups are capable of. If we were in the midst of a playoff run and Sanchez went down, wouldn’t it be beneficial for his replacement have a little regular season experience.
For all the Sanchez haters out there
If you are watching the Lions game Stafford is completing a bunch of short quick passes in the flat or out of the backfield, something Schotty never does for the kid
Oh and by the way, Stafford just threw a BRUTAL pick.
Harvlis
As much as I agree with you, your boy Schotty has to take some of the heat too. He would make calls and leave the kid out to dry with NO chance for sucess.
You were 10000000% right. Every QB under this guy from Chad to Brett throws a BUTTLOAD of INTs. Brees was Cam Camerons guy, Schotty was just the QB coach. Schotty has to go or he is going to kill this kids development.
Harvlis
Some good points but this team would have not made it through the first round. Bench him and put in who? KC????? We would be sitting in the same spot as we are today or at most 6-4. I’d rather let the kid play it out. If he is what they believe he is, than I can live with some pain.
Eddie…Schotty will not be there next year.
Olaf, I could watch that trade every day
Hangar,
I want Sanchez to succeed as much as you. I just think that he can still learn and grow, if he watches from the sideline sometimes. I do not want to see Clemens. He has shown nothing in practice or in pre-season games to make me think he will be any better. Ainge, on the other hand, deserves some game time. He could possibly be a better QB than Sanchez ever will. He is bigger, which allows him to see the field better, and he has a great arm, that lets him make all the throws. We should have seen him already but, we have a rookie coach who is putting all of his faith in Schottenheimer. Mistake.
I agree with all of you on Schottenheimer. He is probably not putting Sanchez in the best position to succeed. His play-calling is inconsistent and he does not utilize talent properly. I have said before, we won’t go anywhere, until Shotzy is gone.
Harvlis
Good point…time to take off for dinner…All, enjoy the bird!!!!
HERE IS SOMETHING FROM KERRY RHODES FROM A 22 YEAR OLD FINANCE MAJOR IN COLLEGE.
DEAR KERRY,
YOU MAKE 10 MILLION THIS YEAR…..AND PLUS LETS TACK ON A COUPLE MILLION IN ENDORSEMENTS AND SUCH…..
NOW I DONT KNOW IF YOU CAN DO MATH…BUT I WOULD SAY A GOOD AMOUNT OF PEOPLE DONT MAKE THAT MUCH MONEY IN THERE LIFETIME…BUT YOU HOWEVER MAKE IT ONE YEAR….
NOW IF YOU ARE SO WORRIED ABOUT YOUR FUTURE…GET A FINANCIAL ADVISOR WHO I AM SURE CAN FIGURE OUT A WAY YOU CAN LIVE ON WHAT EVER YOU MAKE IN YOUR FOOTBALL CAREER AND LIVE VERY NICELY….
YOU CAN ALSO BUY A FINANCE 101 BOOK OFF FOR ME FOR ABOUT 50 BUCKS AND IT WILL TEACH THAT YOU IF YOU DO A THING CALLED SAVE…INTEREST ALONE ON ALL THE MONEY YOU MAKE IN THIS CRAPPY MARKET WILL MAKE YOU ENOUGH MONEY WHERE YOU CAN LIVE WORK FREE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE…
I DONT WANT TO HEAR THAT YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT YOUR CAREER AFTER FOOTBALL….EVERYONE CRUCIFIES THE CEOS OF BANK AND THE BIG WALL STREET PEOPLE FOR BEING GREEDY…AND OH WE SHOULD LIMIT THERE PAY AND SUCH…BUT THESE PEOPLE PROBABLY PUT IN ABOUT 80 HOURS A WEEK….AND KERRY YOU GET TO PLAY FOOTBALL..
AS ONE OF THE BIGGEST SUPPORTERS OF YOU THROUGH OUT YOUR CAREER YOU OFFICIALLY LOST ME AND YOU MAKE ME SICK…YOU ARE EVERYTHING THAT IS WRONG WITH PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES THESE DAYS WHEN IT COMES TO MONEY…
BOOHOO THEY WON’T GIVE ME THAT EXTRA MILLION…..GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR A** AND LIVE WITH IT…
AND FOR GOD SAKES GO HIT SOMEONE
SORRY FOR THE RANT…JUST THE WHOLE MONEY THING REALLY PISSED ME OFF
AND GO JETS!
I thought Glauber’s article hit the nail on the head as far what we need most – young talent on the d-line, CB help, and a veteran QB that Sanchez can learn from. That last point may be the most important. Sanchez isn’t going to learn much from Clemens as far as on-the-field strategy. He needs someone who can calm him down when he makes a mistake, and stay on him in practice / training camp next year.
I also think we desperately need better pass rushers. Thomas and Pace are just average, and this defense needs a guy like Suggs (or a younger Adalius Thomas) to wreak havoc on the QB.
Overall, we’re in good shape for next year, assuming we get 2-3 pieces on defense and Leon comes back healthy.
Braylon is clearly not worthy of franchise WR money but hate to lose the draft picks for naught. Same with Lito who I doubt will be back. Since TJ and Jenkins, I think we’ve not gotten great returns on trading draft picks for players. We need to focus on filling holes w/ UFA and having some quality and quantiy drafts. I am not oppossed to the Revis/Harris and Sanchez/Green drafts if we had more depth all over this team.
Regarding Sanchez – stick with him regardless for the remainder of the season. If he were to regress further, maybe get Ainge or O’Connell reps. IMO playing Clemens is a waste as he is #3 QB at best. Need to seriously consider bringing in a veteren QB that can help Sanchez but is of little threat to keep him on the bench for any extended period of time.
Callahan should be promoted to OC this season
Stafford has more picks than Sanchez in less games.
For all the hype of Flacco and Ryan,their teams are 5-5. Sanchez is a rookie and is 4-6. Any bets the Jets are better than 5-5 next year after 10 games??
I LIKE TO WRITE IN ALL CAPS!
HANGAR
I really hope so brotha. From our lips to Gods ears right !
As Edie DiGio and others indicated above, watching the Lions-Packers game makes it clear they do a better job maximizing the rookie QBs potential for success than SHOTTY ever seems to do, with numerous slants and screens mixed into the play-calling [of course, the kid has thrown 3 picks, but that's besides the point].
I simply don’t understand why Schotty doesn’t include more of these quick short-to-medium pass plays, as well as a healthy dose of play-action [particularly since Sanchez throws very well off the run, out of the pocket] to help our rookie QB succeed and minimize the potential for stupid mistakes…
I mean, if a bunch of armchair QBs on a blog are making these points, how does the OC not see it? Or is he so stubborn/arrogant as to push his own agenda/gameplan regardless of QB [which is exactly what it seems he's doing]? This is likely why [as others have pointed out] prior good QBs [Favre, Pennington] perform mediocre for the Jets overall, then go to another system and succeed/thrive.
Rex has barely taken more responsibility for the Offense, and already he’s implemented a system of “codes” with Sanchez to help minimize potential mistakes in certain in-game situations…..why hasn’t Schotty implemented anything similar to this point? Why hasn’t he made ANY adjustments to the game-planning? [at least that's how it seems].
It’s very frustrating to observe, as a fan, the squandering of opportunities due to poor game-planning and game-calling. We need an OC that plays up to his players’ strengths, not forcing them to adjust to his absurd system, particularly with a Rookie QB in tow….
For this and other reasons, they just have to REMOVE this OC….
[as Stafford throws yet another pick]
EDIT:
when i typed:
“Rex has barely taken more responsibility for the Offense”
It would have been better worded as:
“Rex is barely a week into having more oversight over the Offense…”
I hate losing the idiots always come out of the woodwork.
Rex-Schotty was a shotgun marraige forced by T, it was never going to work.
Schotty has his own agenda, a head coaching job SOMEWHERE ELSE, which is completely at odds with developing a young QB for this franchise.
History lesson:
Rex “begged” Schotty to stay, no doubt at the behest of T, and promised him full control of the offensive playcalling. This was BEFORE they drafted the rookie QB.
Schotty figures why not, I’ll stay for a year and show the world how great and innovative I can be, not like I have many options right now.
Jets draft Sanchez, which should result in a scaled down playbook from any logical organization.
But Rex is painted into a corner and has no choice but to let Schott run HIS offense and hope that Sanchez can handle it, which was predestined to fail.
Now the ****e has hit the fan so Rex is stepping in in an attempt to take control. This will backfire too, as long as Schotty is calling the plays he will do it his way.
Jets should fire the little Schotthead now, but of course Mr. T loves the guy and does not want to embarrass him, so Sanchez will have his growth stunted by an unclear chain of command. Its more important for T to be loyal to his friend Schott than develop the QB, stupid.
Never simple or logical in Jetland.
WOJF
I think you nailed it right on the head with regards to the forced marriage of Rex and Schotty.
Tannenbaum better smarten up and bring someone in here who can develop this kid. Schotty is not the answer. The only hope I am lingering to is that Tanny did fire Mangini, who he was supposed to be buddies with.
I think it s clear to all of us as Jet fans that Schotty’s maddening play calls and complicated offense is not what this team needs. We need a coordinator that wants to run the ball first and the passing game is built off of playaction. Just like Bill Parcells use to do. That is the offense that works in the windy Meadowlands.
The kid has been putrid at times, but Schotty hasnt done this kid ANY favors.
I think it’s obvious that Schott is bad at what he does. I was watching the Lions today and I was in awe of how they runtheir offense. Kevin Smith (not as good as TJ behind a not-as-good O-line) was getting lots of work, whether it be through the air or on the ground. They had Stafford throw short passes: slants, screens, pop screens, etc. to get him in a rhythm. Yes, he did not have a good game, but the offensive coordinator gave him every chance to work himself into a rhythm. If Sanchez had a gameplan like the Lions, we’d have 7 wins. It is mystifying to me what this guy is doing when he is running this offense. No clear plan, no way of getting Sanchez in a rhythm, no way of getting easy completions to get the defense to back off. Just stunning.
I say Bring Braylon back as well.
We all are New Yorkers here we know as soon as we start losing we have knee jerk reactions, we set expectations too high, and we are always looking for a scapegoat to our problems.
Like I have said over and over again I still like what I see from Sanchez.
His MAIN ISSUE is he looks for the big play tooo much. Thats not what we need in a ball control offense. but he throws on the run good, can be very accurate, throws a very good and accurate deep ball, and shows leadership.
As soon as he realizes this isn’t the NCAA everyone will love Sanchize again.
Brendan u r right on it man.
Drawing up a few misdirectons or alot of window dressing motion is not enough. Sometimes you have to call plays early to set up some of your other plays later. Its like Schotty just closes his eyes and picks them of his sheet at random.
The Jets have to do something about this, because Sanchez might be damaged goods by the time they get the right guy in here to mentor him.
Schotty has had 2 Pro Bowl caliber QBs and made them absolutely mediocre. He has had his chances. Its time to go in a different direction before its too late with the young, inexperienced, but super physically gifted and hard working QB of our future.
Happy THanksgiving Jet fans!!!
J E T S JETS JETS JETS
Sorry about the “spamming” but every time I post something new comes to me.
Kerry is my favorite player but I love The Jets and he doesn’t seem like a Rex Ryan player to me. So the best move for The Jets would be to move Kerry and a Pick for a good pass rushing D-linemen.
(Would Peppers be a OLB or a DE in a 3-4?)
OR moving Kerry for a pick and signing Richard Seymour and drafting Taylor Mays. Mays seems like a Rex guy to me a tough Safety who can hit the daylights out of you but is smart enough to pick when to do it and is just as good as Kerry in coverage.
OK NOW IM DONE.
Schottenheimer calls plenty of short passes. Every time you see Sanchez drop back, stare, pump, look somewhere else, then take off running, guess what? It was a short pass and the guy wasn’t open or Sanchez was afraid to pull the trigger. Sanchez has thrown pick-sixes on bubble screens. Frankly, the fact that the Jets are running as well as they have despite the complete lack of respect they generate in their passing game is testament to the good job Schottenheimer is doing. When a quarterback turns the ball over four times a game (along with multiple near turnovers), there simply isn’t anything to be done about it. You can bench the quarterback, but in this case, it would be a pointless move. Sanchez needs to reps for us to be competitive next year more than we need to sit him so we can chase after a meaningless 9-7. The Patriots are in the division. We won’t go anywhere until Sanchez gets enough experience under his belt to step up to Brady.
Anyway, the real issues with this team are on defense. No slot defender, no second corner, no legitimate backup for Jenkins and no top pass rusher. The offense at this point is conceptually sound–they could use a slot receiver, but with Keller in the fold, it’s not pressing. They need some youth on the OL and a legitimate blocking tight end, but the offense simply needs practice and execution and for Sanchez to catch up to the speed of the game. (And, despite his struggles, I think he will.) The defense needs some personnel overhaul.
I’m excited to see wut e smith can do this week
“(Would Peppers be a OLB or a DE in a 3-4?)”
In the offseason, he campaigned to join a 3-4 team as an OLB. He’d be the biggest OLB in the league, but the Jets have used Shaun Ellis in that role temporarily before, so it’s not unheard of.
In Rex’s scheme they could probably use him in a variety of ways.
Even with the uncapped year, it might be difficult to afford him though.
Interesting take on Schottenheimer from Seanmac above. It does seem like Schotty can’t win, sometimes. If Sanchez throws picks it’s “Why doesn’t he run the ball all the time?” and if they run the ball two times in a row and don’t get the first down it’s “Throw the ball down the field!” He’s nowhere near perfect, but somehow you have to acknowledge that maybe the offensive struggles that have existed since he arrived are partly due to a lack of talent, especially from the receivers.
I believe Schotty’s system can work but the proper QB, an intelligent accurate veteran like Pennington.
But it is a disaster with a gunlsinger or ANY rookie, he fails to adjust the system to the talent around him.
Its not necessarily the plays he calls, its when he calls them, he has no instinct for the situation.
Like Brendan, I thought Detroit did a great job yesterday putting thier rookie in a position to succeed. They failed because they were playing a better team, not because the plan sucked which has been the case far too much during the last 15 games (and longer).
Yeah, he calls short passes, usually on third and long and telegraphed by the personel on the field (Leon), not on first down.
Sanchez has alluded to his inability to get comfortable, you do thay by having a bunch of easy to complete passes on the FIRST drive, let the kid find a rhythm and some confidence.
The first call against JAX should be in stupid football calls hall of fame. Right next to it should be the Brad Smith appearance in the mildcat on third and two when the offense was finally in rhythm and moving the ball.
His recievers have always been solid if not spectacular, in fact near tops in football in holding onto the ball which is very important, (except of course during poor Kellen Clemens tryout when he was stuck with Brad Smith and McCarreins).
No excuses, the stats speak for themselves as does the win/loss record.
Of course there are excuses– calling an offense with a quarterback who came into the year with only 16 college starts is pretty much the definition of an excuse. Sanchez has a lot of tools, but he’s totally out of sorts right now. That first play of the Jacksonville game is a good example of the kind of scapegoating that goes on around Schotty. He called a play that resulted in a receiver being wide open forty yards down the field–all Sanchez had to do was execute the throw. Instead, he badly underthrows the receiver and gets picked, and he spends the rest of the day throwing at receivers’ feet in order to avoid another interception.
Sanchez needs to execute, that’s all.
But Sean, when has Schotty ever shown the ability to run a good offense? His best season based on your FO stats would have been 2006 where he posted a DVOA of 6.2 which ranked 12th in the NFL. In the rest of the time he ranked 23rd, 18th, and 23rd. That isnt good. The QB numbers for Favre and Pennington are garbage compared to what they put up outside the system. I understand saying he is dealt a bad hand with Sanchez this year, but looking at him as a whole he is an average or slightly below average coordinator that IMO, gets terrible performances out of his QBs.
Id agree about the defensive personnel, but this is the best they have done in the last 5 years and it is not even close. The offense is just chugging along like they usually do.
Bent what would it take for us to do a Rhodes-Peppers trade cap wise?
I thought the 2006 season was a pretty impressive showing considering how bad the personnel was. In 2007 there was no chance of doing anything because of the quarterback injuries and the awful offensive line. In 2008, Schotty was given a quarterback in the third week of August who had spent the last 18 years in a different offensive system and who frankly didn’t want to be there. This year he got one of the most inexperienced rookie quarterbacks to come out of college in a long time.
I’m not saying that Schottenheimer is Mike Martz. Honestly, I don’t think he calls as good a game as Paul Hackett did. Hackett did a great job of building off plays (sure, his base play was the fullback counter…but still) and setting up looks for later in the game. That said, I think it’s ludicrous to be calling for the head of the OC based on the fact that he is somehow supposed to call a game in the face of a rookie quarterback who is a turnover machine and who has been extremely streaky in terms of his production within games. The Jets ran for over 300 yards against the Bills and lost because their quarterback turned it over 5 times. I just can’t get that worked up about Schotty.
An inside source has just informed me that these two anonymous sources bashing Kerry Rhodes are Jim Leonhard and Bart Scott. Apparently, these two have been very vocal n the locker room as of late, singling out guys and letting the coach know exactly how they feel.
After the JAX miscommunication, Leonhard told Ryan that Rhodes was an underachiever, and wasn’t putting his work in. Scott echoed Leonhard’s words after Rhodes was run over all day in NE.
These guys, Scott and Leonhard, they are not Jets. They are here to win games, not make friends in the locker room. I am so glad Ryan brought these guys here. Leonhard and Scott will be sniffing out the dogs, and Ryan will be making sure they aren’t playing for him next year.
Seanmac,
That playcall in Jax may have gotten Cotchery open downfield, but it was called to the wrong side. You don’t have your rookie QB playfake to the right and roll our to his non-throwing side and then ask him to launch a 50 yard bomb across his body while he’s on the run. That’s where Schotty takes blame. Sanchez didn’t execute, but Schotty put him in a situation that made executing as hard as possible.
Kyle,
Are you just making that up?
I don’t know why not– Sanchez’s mobility is among his clear strengths, and he had plenty of time to set his feet and make the throw with a clear line of sight down the field. In week one, Sanchez makes the throw. But he hurried his throw, thinking there was more pressure than there really was, and as a result he underthrew it. In any event, seeing as the Jets always run that play to the right, you needed to fake right for the defense to actually buy it. The quarterback simply has to make the throw.
Speaking of left sides, if I’m not mistaken, all but two of Sanchez’s picks have come on throws to the left side of the field. It’s something he clearly has to work on. (And I don’t want to hear that the OC shouldn’t call plays to that side–you can’t expect to run an NFL offense while only threatening half the field.)
Of course the O-Coordinator shouldn’t stop calling plays to the left. Maybe he should call plays where your two receivers on the left side end their routes within hand-holding distance of each other so one guy can guard them both (Bodden’s pick 6 in the NE game). I’m not trying to push the blame completely off Sanchez, because he has made some horrid plays, but Schotty has made just as many, if not more, horrid play calls. There’s no rhythm to his play calling and sometimes his plays are just plain awful.
We should trade Kerry Rhodes to NE or the Bills just so we can run over him twice a year.
If we traded him to the Pats he would turn into the greatest safety in the NFL. Please, for the love of God, don’t trade him to the Pats.
“Bent what would it take for us to do a Rhodes-Peppers trade cap wise?”
It could happen – the Jets have a lot of flexibility, especially if there’s an uncapped year – just know that they have already invested a lot of money and Peppers will probably command something like $12m a year and would probably mean having to move some other impact players, which will create other holes.
One down season and all of you really want to trade Rhodes? Really? I’m willing to give him another chance and see if he can bounce back from this “demotion”. I still think he is a very good player with a ton of upside, i’m not giving up on him, yet.
Even if we did trade Rhodes, what would we realistically get for him?
Bent,
I would sacrafice a few holes to add Julius Peppers
I wouldn’t mind moving Rhodes, but I wouldn’t want another veteran player for him, I’d want draft picks. At some point, this team needs to reverse their trend of sending off picks for players and has to start accumulating a real reserve. We’re not going to be able to trade around in the draft the way we did this year ever again, simply because there is no way anyone but Mangini would have given us that kind of value. The team needs to trade away picks for future picks and trade players for picks, simply to put themselves in a position where they can start matching the Patriots in terms of draft and salary flexibility.
If we trade Rhodes our secondary will be thin. That cannot be fixed simply by adding draft picks, we need to add an impact player to the secondary regardless.
He has seemingly regressed, although this can be partially attributed to the new system, a bit like Vilma. However, unlike Vilma, he’s healthy.
Therefore, I think the return would be at least a second rounder, perhaps rising to a first if he meets certain conditions. That’s my sense. They may be more likely to trade for a 2011 pick though, if it’s likely to be a first rounder, because those picks may be a lot better value for money than 2010 picks if a rookie slotting system comes in.
But it’s too early to talk about trading him, I agree. He should get a chance to turn it around.
Im just surprised, and a little disgusted, at how quickly Jets fans are turning on this guy? He has been great for us, and although he is having a disapointing year, hes still one of the better safeties in the league. I can tell you right now, Bill Belichick thinks Kerry Rhodes is one of the best defensive players in the NFL, and anyone suggesting we should trade him to New England would definitely regret saying that if it ever actually happened.
Belichick blows a lot of smoke our way JR.
Kyle,
I know Belichick
Lack of depth is absolutely the sort of thing that could be fixed through draft picks. Both Buffalo and New England have recently restocked the secondary very successfully (especially Buffalo) in just that manner. I’m not sure that the team wants to spend a top 15 pick on a second corner (though they might), but they definitely need to add a guy capable of playing against the slot receiver and they’ve traded away their second round pick, which is typically where you might find good value.
Anyway, the reality is that Rhodes is not an impact player, not at the moment, and if they get better play out of cheaper options, that’s a reasonable way to go.
I just don’t see many options to re-stock the draft till. They could trade away this year’s first for future considerations, and while I’m normally not adverse to that, I think Sanchez’s second year is an important one and that the timing isn’t ideal to stockpile for two years down the road. (I’m very open to sliding down in the first, however.) The Jets have a paucity of trade-worthy players who they could do without. Rhodes is one of them, and because of his age, he’d bring back more than the others (Thomas Jones, maybe Bryan Thomas).
I’m not saying it’s a move the team has to make. But it’s worth investigating.
I agree with seanmac that any trade for Rhodes (would anyone want to take on his salary?) should be for picks. I don’t mind most of the trades and FA signings the last couple of years in an effort to jump start the weak talent level, but I definitely want to see the team focus on picks and depth going forward.
I think it would be the best case scenario for Rhodes to take the benching as a wake-up call and turn his career around here, but the early indications, if accurate, are not encouraging. If the comments about friends and “frauds,” is true, it would appear Rhodes is not jumping to take responsibility for his own shortcomings but rather focusing on those calling him out for them.
Seanmac,
I didnt mean that draft picks wouldnt help add depth, just that it is not a gaurantee that draft picks would net us a good starting safety to take Rhodes’ place.
I dont see how Bryan Thomas has any trade value, and I think the Jets should hold onto Thomas Jones.
JR,
Don’t get me wrong I like Rhodes and I believe he is still a very good player. He isn’t getting this system thats all and it just seems like he is going to get traded.
Yea TJ isn’t going no where. I want him to stay until he retires thats the kind of RB you have to respect.
Green Lantern,
Arent players supposed to take time to adjust to a new system? Doesnt it usually take a full season to get the system down?
Im not giving up yet.
JR,
Maybe I should give him some more time to. But his Miscues have cost us 2 games (Miami MNF and Jag)
I agree with JR that you need to at least give a season to learn a position. Certain defensive positions come with a lot more responsibilities than others and safety is one of those positions. By watching Rex’s system I can see that the system puts a lot of responsibility and pressure to make plays on the safety. We’ve seen with other players (Vernon Gholston, anyone?) what a player looks like when he isn’t 100% sure on his responsibility and is playing of reaction rather than instinct. I’m not giving up yet, but won’t object to them stocking up on picks or swapping Rhodes for Peppers.
I don’t want to give up on Rhodes yet, either. I just hope he’s not giving up. It would have been a lot more encouraging to hear him say something like, “I thought I was putting my best effort forth in terms of playing, practicing and studying, but I guess this tells me I may not have been. I’m going to reevaluate the way I do everything, rededicate myself to football and rise to the challenge.”
WOJF
Chad threw for nearly as many picks as TDs under Schotty in his first year under him. That untalented team did go 4-12 the year before but was decimated by injuries and were nearly identical to the team that went to the playoffs the year before that. Now Penningtons stats when he went to Miami is what I would call an offense “working”
seanmac
“Schottenheimer calls plenty of short passes. Every time you see Sanchez drop back, stare, pump, look somewhere else, then take off running, guess what? It was a short pass and the guy wasn’t open or Sanchez was afraid to pull the trigger.”
Unless the Jets give you game film none of us get, you cant be sure on that statement. He doesnt necessarily have to be pump faking to a shorter route, it could be a double move to the very same reciever he is looking at.
Also, running a short route is not the same as completing a pass to a short route. The point was that the Lions threw those passes where no one else was getting the ball except the guy out of the backfield, all the other recievers were running dummy routes. They were never getting the ball. Many times in Schottys passing game, as Brendan illustrated, recievers are often running routes way to close together, leading to any ball not thrown perfectly having a more than normal chance at being picked
Ive seen two talented veterans look mediocre under this guy and rookie being asked to do too much. If you read Harlan Lachmans post under the “Question 3…Schottenhiemer etc” post. He lays out all the stats.
One that is undeniable is that QBs under Schotty have the highest INT rate per pass att. Thats 4 different guys, one is going to the HOF, and they all were at the top or near the top in INT rate. Anyway you slice it, thats no good.
Ive reached the point of no return with Schotty, I am officially on the Harvlis bandwagon
seanmac
I do totally agree with you that any trade for Rhodes should be for picks. Great point with regards to depth through the draft is probably the quickest and best way to do it
Eddie,
You can get a fine basic feel for the depth of the pass routes by the length of the drop. No coordinator is calling double move routes with five step drops unless they’ve already set them up by calling for legitimate short to intermediate passing routes. Pass offenses just aren’t designed that way. So either Schottenheimer is running some exotic offense never before seen or Sanchez isn’t pulling the trigger on the short stuff. I would bet on the latter.
I’m not sure why so many people were enamored by the offensive game called by Detroit on Thursday. Stafford threw multiple brutal picks, the offense barely went anywhere, and for the year they’ve had a worse passing attack than we have (though the two have been very close). This despite the fact that the Lions have one of the best receivers in football and were going up against a team whose secondary was decimated by injury. Look at it this way–there was nothing in those safety outlet/dummy route calls that made Stafford any less susceptible to throwing the ball to the wrong-colored jersey later in the game. If a pass route is only going to net you minimal yardage and it isn’t having any payoff in terms of the QB’s play later in the game, then what exactly is the advantage of calling it?
seanmac,
I believe the Jets have one of the most talented receiving corps in the league, when healthy. Braylon, Cotchery, Brad Smith, Keller, and even Clowney all give us multiple options and none of those guys is one dimensional (with the exception of Clowney). I just have not seen Schotty setting up passing plays this season. I don’t see him trying to get Sanchez in a rhythm. I know the Jets run the highest percentage in the league (55% of the time last I checked) but it should be higher. When Sanchez is throwing 30 times in 4 games with games of 29 and 27 throws there as well, that’s 6 games that he threw way too many times. Sanchez averages 26.5 attempts per game, which is inexcusable.
I can’t agree with your assessment of the receiving corp–the Jets don’t have a single player with the quick twitch ability to make space on short throws, and Edwards was a highly overrated player even when he had his Pro Bowl season (almost all of his production came in 5 games against the league’s worst pass defenses). The Jets receivers aren’t terrible, and I like the way their skill sets mesh at this point, but I wouldn’t go overboard.
The only quarterbacks who average fewer throws per game are Trent Edwards, Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson, Shaun Hill and Jamarcus Russell. If you noticed a trend between artificially low QB attempts and dreadful offensive play, you’re on to something. Incidentally, in Detroit, where they are doing such a better job of building up their rookie’s confidence, Matthew Stafford throws the ball 39 times a game.
Those QB’s are all on atrocious teams, split time, and/or don’t have any semblance of a rushing attack. The Jets have one of the best rushing offenses in the league and should be relying on it even more heavily. Their blueprint for success before the season started was what the Steelers did with Big Ben and limit his throws to the 15-20 per game range.
As far as the receivers, agree to disagree. Braylon’s abilities make him a game changer even if he doesn’t get the ball (since his arrival the amount of 8 or 9 in-the-box defenses has diminished mightily) and Cotch is an excellent route runner. Either way, they’re a solid group and I am happy with where they’re at.
It’s not one of the best running attacks in the league, though it’s certainly above-average. But you can’t afford to run 60% of the time unless your defense and special teams are lights out, and generally speaking you’re going to need points to come out of those two units to offset the points that you are effectively giving away by taking a give-up approach to offense. Unfortunately, the Jets haven’t gotten anything out of either their defense or their special teams in the scoring department. If you’re committing yourself to an offense that can only score 14-17 points a game (which is what a 60% run ratio effectively is), you better get some points from somewhere else. With no Leon, it’s not going to happen in the return game, and the defense, which does a great job of limiting points and yardage, nevertheless does a lousy job of generating turnovers and scoring points itself. So you don’t have the other pieces in place that you need to be competitive with that approach.
seanmac,
This is a defense that didn’t give up a TD for something like 10 quarters to open the season. Rex came in talking about his plan, and we haven’t seen it from the offense. Rex is taking charge of that now, but he shouldn’t have had to do that if Schotty kept it simple, pounding the rock and let Sanchez gain confidence off of screens, slants and play action.
My issue with Schottenheimer’s play-calling is mostly about timing. He said, himself, in response to a question about Sanchez playing better late in games that he comes out a little anxious and plays too fast. I accept that the Jax throw to JC in single coverage was a good call in a vacuum, but if you know your young QB is jittery early, why take the risk of a shaky throw on an opening drive? I had the same reaction to the pick in NE on the opening drive. An out pattern that draws 3 DBs into a tight area might not be the best call for a QB that you’ve acknowledged isn’t very settled early in the game.
Brendan,
But that misses the point. A team needs to have a cohesive scheme so that all the pieces work together. The Colts are a perfect example–they know that their offense can control the game and put up points, and so they built a defense that is designed to stop the pass while not being vulnerable to big plays. The Colts know that most offenses can’t go toe-to-toe with Peyton Manning and out-execute him, and they know that their defense will spend the second half playing with a lead and will thus have to face a lot of pass attempts. That scheme has allowed the Colts to focus their draft strategy on providing the key pieces (WR, pass rushing DEs), and it makes sure that they have a team building philosophy that is coherent and cost effective.
If you are going to have an offense that runs the ball on 6 out of every 10 plays, you are voluntarily putting a ceiling on how much you can score. (In reality, it’s a suicidal approach to take over the long haul, but an understandable one when looking at a single season with a rookie quarterback.) In that situation, your offense simply isn’t going to generate many points, and they certainly aren’t going to put long scoring drives together. So for the team to score enough points to consistently win, they need to generate points from other areas, a.k.a. defense and special teams, and they need those two units to create short fields that will allow the offense to get more scoring chances. The Jets defense has been terrific at denying yards and points to opposing offenses, but that’s not enough for the kind of scheme you’re talking about–they also need to create short fields and/or to score themselves. They haven’t done so, and that’s despite their being a high-pressure defense that is supposed to generate turnovers.
seanmac,
I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said. I love the Colts as a team, and agree that because they know they’ll be ahead in most games, their defense has been geared to stop the pass.
As for the Jets, their strength is running the ball. They have the receivers to have a more explosive style offense, but because the guy running the show is a neophyte, they needed to insulate him from pressure situations. My biggest issue with Schott, if I had to narrow it down, is that he should be running on 2nd and 8 to get Sanchez to a 3rd and 5 or better. Granted, it’s not guaranteed that they will get those 3 or so yards, but by at least trying you’re more likely to keep Sanchez in more manageable 3rd downs.
In regards to the defense, I agree this is a system that is supposed to generate turnovers, and they’ve gotten better at it the past few weeks, but I’m willing to chalk the lack of turnovers in the first 1/2 to inexperience (and some bad luck). I guess I just wanted to see the gameplan every week to be run the ball, get Sanchez some easy routes and completions (let his receivers do the work for him) and then as the game goes on, the defense wears down, open up the playbook a little bit. Instead, Schotty is just throwing Sanchez to the wolves and letting him throw the full array of pass plays, when he should be letting Sanchez command the passing game piece by piece, instead of trying to become good at it all at once.
See, I tend to think that the run call on 2nd and 8-10 is one of the most obvious and therefore telegraphed in all of football at this point. I’m baffled that offensive coordinators haven’t started calling play action in those situations, because you can just about take it to the bank that a team will be running after a first down incompletion. For that play call to be successful, you need to provide a serious threat with your passing game. Looking at DVOA by down and play call, the top 2nd down run teams are all big-time passing teams like New Orleans, Indy, Green Bay and Dallas. The Jets are 10th in the league at first down and 5th in the league on third down rushing DVOA, but they drop to 20th in the league on second downs. That’s in large part because they are telegraphing the run for precisely the reasons you mentioned–to give Sanchez a short field for third down. The net result is that 2nd and 7 turns into 3rd and 8 and does no one any good.
Jones has a 4.0 ypc on 2nd down and his long runs from the Buffalo game both came on first down. I am much more confident handing the ball off on 2nd down rather than throwing it.
“Jones has a 4.0 ypc on 2nd down and his long runs from the Buffalo game both came on first down. I am much more confident handing the ball off on 2nd down rather than throwing it.”
F@ck’n a right Brendan
seanmac-
You make some great points. Im going to have to agree to disagree with you on some of them.
Im just frustrated that after 2 quality QBs the offense continually seems to go thru periods when they just “stall out” completely.
I dont see Schotty protecting Sanchez the way Flacco and Ryan were last season. Sanchez has already thrown just about as much as those two did last season.
As for right now, we are just going to have to see if Schotty makes some changes now that Rex is more involved or the results continue to stay the same. That will be the true test to see where it will lead the Jets off season plans.
Personally, I have had just about enough of Schotty, but he has 6 games left to prove me wrong…only time will tell
Sanchez cant throw screen passes everyone this year has been a pic 6 to a D-lineman. Its depressing
I think the primary problem with Schotty this season is that people expected more changes to his scheme due to a rookie QB and that never really happened. They do run the ball more than they have in the past (just going by memory I believe primarily on 2nd downs, but I dont have my laptop with me to confiorm that), but the 3rd and short calls have remained exactly the same as they were with Chad and Favre where the Jets pass a ton of times. Compared to the ratios Flacco and Ryan had last year its just way off the charts.
Im not one of those guys calling for Schottenheimer based on this year alone. I get that as a rookie the guy might just not have it. But I dont get how someone can look at Chad and Favre by any statistical measure and say this is a great offense. It clearly is not. I know Favre was hurt at the end, but he was not good before that. Passable? Sure. Good, absolutely not. The guy was a runner up for MVP in 2007 and going to be the runner up in 2009. Chad was runner up in 2008. Under Schottenheimer they threw a ton of interceptions. I hate the idea of having a young QB, who is going to be inaccurate just because he is a rookie, be made to look 100 tines worse by playing in an offense that for whatever reason sees all their QBs throw a tremendously high amount of interceptions. The pressure that is being put on Sanchez now because of the poor play is huge. If they ran a dumbed down offense that didnt allow him to have those 5 pick games this discussion would not be happening. To me the blame for that falls on the shoulders of the coach and the offensive coordinator.